Stout, the FMF RPM Racing KTM
rider and runner-up for the fifth
time this season.
The race at the front was
actually determined within the
first couple of miles. Oliveira got
the holeshot and led the way
to the bomb, followed closely
by Roberts and Norman Racing
Husqvarna's Daemon Woolslayer,
while his teammate Axel Pear-
son led the chase pack just out
of their dust.
But leading a desert race isn't
easy. It's easy to miss an arrow
or ribbon if you're looking too far
ahead or not far enough.
Such was the case with
Oliveira, and Roberts benefited.
"We were kind of swapping lines,
crisscrossing on the first [sand]
wash there, and I got lucky that
my line was showing me that we
were going to turn right. I could
kind of see the arrows from
where I was at, and from where
he was at, he couldn't see them
coming across," Roberts shared.
"He blew straight [through the
turn] to continue in the wash and
I could see we were turning right.
That was maybe a quarter mile in
or something past the bomb.
"That was kind of the whole
race right there."
Oliveira hopped right back
onto the trail and quickly took up
position behind Roberts. Feel-
ing even better on his Red Bull/
Dunlop/Alpinestars 450 XC-F
after two days of testing with
the WP suspension earlier in the
week, he spent the rest of the
race basically glued to Roberts,
able to reel the Beta in when
hitting more technical, less dusty
sections but having to concede
ground on the faster, dustier
open sections.
"I've just got to be on my A
game and just be a little sharper,
pick the head up a little more
and not let those things happen,"
he said. "The learning [hare and
hound racing] was done last year.
You can't let those little things
slip! Learn from the mistakes
and don't do it again."
MX Trophies/395 Motors-
ports/Leatt FC 250-mounted
Thomaselli said, "I knew the
dust was going to be gnarly, but
I knew I was going to be good
here, so I just played it smart
and waited for [the couple guys
ahead of me] to make mistakes
VOLUME ISSUE SEPTEMBER , P49
Despite riding a 250,
Ryder Thomaselli
seems to excel on
the faster courses.
He not only won Pro
250 for the fourth
time this season,
he was third overall,
matching his result
from 150-mile point-
to-point round two.
