VOL. 51 ISSUE 30 JULY 29, 2014 P87
what I like to ride, and it ended up
benefitting me."
Baylor is still getting up to
speed after having surgery on his
wrist during the off-season.
"The wrist was definitely ten-
der there near the end of the
race, I was struggling with it,"
said Baylor. "But hopefully things
will keep getting better from here
on out."
At the start of the race, De-
Long was in the hunt for the over-
all win and even won test three.
However, his performance in the
last two tests cost him the brides-
maid honors.
Despite getting on the podium
with a third and taking over the
points lead, the factory Husqvar-
na rider was disappointed in his
finish.
"I had a mistake in test five and
I just couldn't find the flow again,"
said DeLong. "I just get too hard
on myself and then I get down on
myself. In the last test I tried to
get that time back, but I had dif-
ficulties reading the trail, this is
one of the tougher races when it
comes to reading the trail, so be-
ing out front (DeLong started on
row 21, which is the first row for
the pro-class riders), I did okay
Briefly...
Craig DeLong's ninth-place fin-
ish was good enough to give the
Husqvarna support rider the win in
the Rekluse AA-Expert class, beat-
ing out Tegan Robert Temple and
Sherco support rider Jeff Melik.
"The day went really well, actually,"
said Andrew DeLong of his day. "I
started off well, turning the fourth-
fastest time in the first test, but I
was pretty tight and had to sort that
out. After that, I settled into a steady
pace and managed to take the win."
DeLong now leads the Rekluse AA-
Expert standings by 29 points over
Drew Higgins.
Andrew
DeLong
finished third
but is the new
points leader.
in the beginning, but towards
the end of the day when there
were fewer riders, I had some
trouble."
Mike Lafferty was in a tight
battle with Baylor for third at
one point, but Baylor's amazing
ride in the final test allowed the
South Carolina rider to not only
put distance on Lafferty, but
also jumped ahead of DeLong
to take second. In the end, Laf-
ferty finish fourth 29 second be-
hind DeLong.
"I was going good all day,
and I was closing in on Stew-
ard, I was just two seconds off
of him going into the final test,
but I crashed on the first part
of it, and just couldn't get him,"
said Lafferty. "We made some
changes this week and I felt
like it paid off for me. I felt like I
had a better pace than I've had
lately. In the first test I got some
