Last weekend east met west at the infamous RevLimiter Extreme enduro in Texas, which played host to the second round of the Kenda AMA Extreme Off-Road West championship, and the opening round of the East.
After taking impressive wins at the Grinding Stone Hard Enduro last month, Cody Webb, Louise Forsley and FactroyOne Sherco were hoping to maintain their strong start to the season despite the challenging conditions in Texas.
In the men’s pro class, Cody set the benchmark in qualifying with teammate Pat Smage in 7th.
The opening moto saw Webb lead from start to finish over the course of the two-hour race, with a 3:08 advantage over Red Bull KTM’s Trystan Hart and Rockstar Husqvarna’s Colton Haaker, who was another 4:42 adrift. AMA Trials Champion Pat Smage had some great battles with Magna1 Husqvarna rider Jordan Ashburn during the race to finish 6th in his maiden moto.
Due to rising temperatures, moto two was altered to a one lap format from the original two, and again Cody Webb shot out to the front in the dry and dusty conditions and didn’t relinquish that lead at any stage. Webb seemed to master the rock gardens and steep ascents, almost as if he was on a Sunday cruise. He finished with a 1:50 adventage over Hart and 6:31 over Haaker in 3rd. Smage would finish 7th in moto two.
Moto three saw the top 30 riders of the weekend shoot it out on a shortened course. This course contained the majority of the weekend’s infamous obstacles. Named sections like Big Bertha, Mount Rushmore, Pucker Hill, Red Bull Rollercoaster and the newly added “The Hill” set some serious challenges for competitors. Instead of the usual 10 riders to a row, all 30 lined up bar to bar. This almost proved costly for Cody as a host of riders battled for the best lines entering the first rock. Cooper Abbott and Webb banged bars and almost went down, putting Webb 10th in the running order early on.
By the time the riders reached Mount Rushmore, Jordan Ashburn held a small lead on a quintet of riders which included Hart, Haaker, Leblond, Webb and Pat Smage. Cody moved to the front of the pack as the riders re-entered the quarry. From that point, he wouldn’t be passed in the 3-lap moto. At the exit of the quarry and just before the finish line, riders took on “The Hill.” This loose, seemingly impossible ultra-steep grade climb saw scores of fans in awe as rider after rider sent it up the hill. There were some cleans and some ghost rides, even from Cody ,who went on to win moto 3 by a margin of 1:42 over Hart, followed by Ryder Leblond. Pat Smage would finish P5 in the final moto.
The Pro women raced on Saturday morning during the amateur qualifier. FactoryONE Sherco’s Louise Forsley took the hole-shot and battled back and forth with KTM’s Shelby Turner and Beta’s Rachel Gutish. Unfortunately Louise got some fencing stuck in her rear brake rotor and sprocket as she attempted the water fall climb, which led to a lengthy delay as she had to stop to remove the object. She was more than 9 minutes down on Gutish as they re-entered the water fall on lap two, but would charge hard in the final half of the lap to finish to regain around 4 minutes and finish 3rd overall.
The tyres of choice for the ShercoUSA team this weekend included the Gauntlet soft compound front, which is an ideal choice of rocky, hard pack terrain. This was paired with the supersoft Knarly rear, for maximum traction on the wide range of obstacles.
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