that thing fades, you're not going
to make any of these hills. So,
that was a big factor—saving the
bike—so you can finish."
Closest to him was his team-
mate and fellow Hawaiian,
Kamakana "Kana" Waiwaiole-Ka-
halepuna. Kana battled side by
side with Huddy for much of the
race but had to return to the pits
to fix a clutch issue. He battled
more mechanicals as the brutally
steep and slippery terrain took
its toll after rejoining the race but
still managed to be the closest
to the leader at the finish line.
"Once I figured out Kawelo
had finished, I just worried about
myself and told myself to keep
going, keep grinding—we're go-
ing to finish this race no mat-
ter what," Kana said. "I feel so
blessed to get that bike across
the finish line. That thing had a
blown crank seal right from the
start, and that led to a smoked
clutch we had to repair. I was
pushing as hard as I could—liter-
ally pushing my bike to finish."
Third place went to South
African Matthew Green, riding for
Champion Brick on a rented bike,
four minutes behind second.
Green had Kana in his sights dur-
ing the later stage of the race but
just couldn't close the gap.
"It was quite a race, honestly
mental, like, one of the most
insane races I've done," Green
said. "The trails were so gnarly,
we had flood warnings this
morning. I enjoyed it; I was going
well [and] about two-three hours
in, I clicked into another gear and
really got going. I managed to
catch Trystan [Hart] and pulled
a bit of a gap from Cody [Webb]
VOLUME ISSUE FEBRUARY , P47
(Right) Kamakana
Waiwaiole-
Kahalepuna
had serious
bike issues but
managed to
finish in second
in a race that
most didn't even
cross the finish
line. (Below)
South Africa's
Matthew Green
was the third
and final finisher
to see the
checkered flag
before the cut-off
time.
