But he was no match for Musquin either
as Musquin rolled right by, while Suzuki
privateer Josh Hansen likewise dispatched
Musquin's new teammate Broc Tickle in
the semis. Tickle had a series of bad over-
jumps in his final race against Hansen that
dropped him out of a chance of going to
the final against his new teammate.
"I had a lot of fun today, but it was hard
to race somebody and not over-jump
because we had so much speed we were
carrying," Tickle said. "So, for me, I got
a little ahead of myself and over-jumped
one, then over-jumped again, then over-
jumped again, so it just caused a chain
reaction, but I didn't hurt anything, so I'm
going to take this week off from riding and
head into boot camp fresh."
Tickle faced off against his friend
Chisholm in the bronze-medal race and
took third place with a 2-0 score, and then
Musquin had to face off against Hansen in
the final. Hansen one of the most techni-
cal racers around, and he was third at the
Straight Rhythm in 2016, even beating
Ryan Dungey in one semi-final race.
Musquin had to push noticeably harder
in the final, scrubbing the speed-checks
harder than he had all day, but he beat
Hansen just by clearing one more roller in
one section. It was most of the difference.
VOL. 54 ISSUE 42 OCTOBER 24, 2017 P71
RED BULL
OPEN CLASS
Musquin came into the Red Bull Straight
Rhythm hot off of winning a cool million
dollars at the Monster Energy Cup in Las
Vegas only a week earlier, and being
the defending champion of the Straight
Rhythm, he didn't just want to win, he
wanted to keep his perfect record intact.
Last year, Musquin won the event without
losing a single round, and he was hoping to
keep it the same in 2017.
He started out facing off-roader Colton
Haaker in the opening round, and made
quick work of him before facing off against
Kyle Chisholm. Chisholm had really solid
speed and put away Tyler Bowers in the
opening round with a 2-1 score.
Repeat
