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Brennan Wertz (Mosaic Cycles) and Flavia Oliveira Parks (Excel Sports activities) blasted throughout the lengthy gravel route of Huffmaster Hopper and received the professional divisions of the second spherical of Grasshopper Journey Sequence in northern California Saturday.
Wertz set a brand new file for the Huffmaster, driving 2:50 quicker than Tyler Williams did in 2021. For a second time Peter Stetina (Canyon) completed within the runner-up spot, this time out-sprinting Sean Bennett (Mike’s Bikes), who took the ultimate spot on the professional males’s podium. The duo trailed Wertz by 41 and 42 seconds, respectively.
Notable finishers within the prime 10 included Lance Haidet in fifth, defending champion Ian Lopez de San Roman in seventh and Lachlan Morton in eighth.
Parks received her first Huffmaster in three outings within the professional girls’s division, driving solo 8:09 forward of Jen Tave, who was second. Leslie Ethridge was 19:31 again for third.
With the victory Saturday and a second-place end at Low Hole, Parks moved into the professional girls’s division lead of the Grasshopper Sequence, with Tave and Ethridge finishing the highest three. Stetina took the general lead for professional males, with Wertz, who was fifth at Low hole, shifting into second. Bennett was now third general and San Roman fourth.
The way it unfolded
Quick, dry circumstances had been a welcome break on the 2024 Huffmaster Hopper gravel race from latest heavy rains and winds which have characterised the West Coast of the USA this winter. Final yr moist circumstances wreaked havoc by turning the race into ‘Mudmaster’, which Parks characterised as “traumatizing, and end occasions had been almost one hour slower than the latest outing.
The sunny begin from Maxwell led fields on the flatter terrain of the lengthy, 88.8-mile course, with the majority of the 4,842 toes (1476 metres) of elevation acquire and gravel approaching the second half of the counter-clockwise loop, which handed to the east of the Mendocino Nationwide Forest.
Wertz bought a small lead going into the primary foremost climb of the day however then needed to dangle on the wheels of Stetina and Bennett as soon as they crested the highest. They maintained a spot on the chasers from the feed zone with 20 miles to the end.
“That is certainly one of my favorite programs that we race all yr. I made a few tweaks to my bike. I put an enormous chainring on as a result of I knew the end was fairly quick and flat,” Wertz, who has completed fourth or higher in as many outings, stated a couple of 54-tooth set-up.
The ultimate trio labored collectively properly, Stetina getting a 10-second hole on a mud descent, then Bennett additionally distancing Wertz, however the 26-year-old from Santa Rosa made a late transfer on free gravel to earn a second win in three years.
“He had an ideal race. He had a clear run immediately, in all the proper methods,” Stetina recounted in regards to the race. “He bought a head begin on a climb and ripped off [the front] realizing we might come again to him on the steepest climb earlier than the primary feed. Cresting the highest, it was simply us three. I attempted to place stress on the downhill of Huffmaster, however large Brennan rolled again.”
Wertz made his big-chain transfer on the ‘cobblestones’ part of the course, an extended stretch of potholes unfold on gravel with 4 miles to go, and “snuck away” for the win.
“Each time we had a steep little curler, these guys had been placing me beneath stress. I knew with my measurement on these lighter sections with all of the [loose] gravel would play to my benefit. I put [the] 54-tooth chainring to work on that part,” he stated about utilizing a bigger chainring that allowed him to create the late-race separation from the previous WorldTour climbers.
“We labored like a well-oiled machine for a lot of the day. I used to be in a position to sneak away from them the final 6k. It was enjoyable driving with them.”
Parks took her first victory at Huffmaster, ending second in 2022 and fourth final yr.
“We had a small girls’s subject so all of us began with the professional males. It was a little bit of realizing the place to be on the proper place on the proper time,” Parks stated within the post-race interview. “It was about staying on prime of your hydration, your vitamin. It was heat, a bit of windy firstly.”
She stated she tried to race conservatively and never comply with quite a lot of the lads so as to not “blow up” early and bought the third group on the primary climb for a gradual tempo. After stopping to get contemporary bottles on the first of two feed zones, she was the one girl on the entrance of the race.
“Would this course have been higher fitted to a correct gravel bike or a street bike? I selected my street bike with greater slicks. The course had dried out and that was excellent,” stated Parks, who was second on the collection opener, and got here every week early to the world for a recon of the route. “I am proud of the choice. The course was superb immediately.”
Lake Sonoma MTB is the subsequent occasion, a standard 26-mile cross-country mountain bike course on April 27 east of Geyserville, California. As a consequence of excessive water at Lake Sonoma, organisers have altered the route, however the mileage and greater than 4,400 toes of elevation acquire stay related.
The finale of the off-road set of 4 is Could 11 at Ukiah-Mendo Epic, which additionally gives factors with the Gravel Earth Sequence. The Grasshopper occasion is certainly one of solely two US occasions on the worldwide 20-race assortment, the opposite Oregon Path Gravel stage race, June 26-30.
Outcomes prime 10
| Pos. | Rider Title (Nation) Staff | Consequence |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Flavia Oliveira Parks | 4:30:03 |
| 2 | Jen Tave | 0:08:09 |
| 3 | Leslie Ethridge | 0:19:31 |
| 4 | Chloe Mavvas | 0:24:01 |
| 5 | Helena Merk | |
| 6 | Avery Masri | 1:03:32 |
| Pos. | Rider Title (Nation) Staff | Consequence |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Brennan Wertz | 3:56:39 |
| 2 | Peter Stetina | 0:00:41 |
| 3 | Sean Bennett | 0:00:42 |
| 4 | Cassius Anderson | 0:06:41 |
| 5 | Lance Haidet | 0:06:42 |
| 6 | Ben Frederick | 0:06:43 |
| 7 | Ian Lopez de San Roman | 0:06:49 |
| 8 | Lachlan Morton | 0:06:52 |
| 9 | Skyler Taylor | 0:14:12 |
| 10 | Blake Macheras | 0:17:03 |
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