Story: Noel Flatters | Editor - Enduro.Media
Johnson Valley, Calfornia
January 23, 2023

The 2024 US Hard Enduro Series opened up this past weekend deep in the Southern California desert at King of the Motos. After a short off-season, it was good to the North American pro circuit swinging back into action at this classic Hard Enduro event.

The Bottom Line Up Front

• Cody Webb (FactoryOne Sherco) went 1-1 to lead the way over the two days of the event and re-establish himself as constant threat in Hard Enduro.

• Canadian defending series Champion Trystan Hard (Red Bull FMF KTM Factory Racing) was 2nd on the weekend, followed by young American talent Ryder LeBlond (Rockstar Energy Husqvarna Factory Racing).

• New GasGas USA Factory rider Will Riordan and Cooper Abbott (FactoryOne Sherco) rounded out the top five for the Pro men.

• Louise Forsley (FactoryOne Sherco) took the win for the Pro women, followed by Addy Albrecht (Yellowstone Motosports / Klim) and Mesa Lange (Klim / Cycra).

• The 2024 Shercos were all over the top of the standings in multiple classes this weekend. The Sherco teams were able to leverage slightly larger gas tanks and their SuperCarb technology to avoid pitting, giving them a crucial tactical advantage in what turned out to be very tight racing.

• The young guns made very strong statements at King of the Motos, with Kamakana Waiwaiole-Kahalepuna (Kauai Racing Development), Gauge Key (HTR GasGas), Riley Bender (Sherco USA) and others finishing up in the top 20 overall.

The story

With the start of the new season there were a few universal themes among the Pros at the start of the weekend, mainly along the lines of “I haven’t been riding much”, “My navigation skills are at about a 5/10 level”, and “I’m still getting used to the new bike.”

Trystan Hart spoke about having his longest time off the bike ever as a pro after a lengthy trip to New Zealand and Australia with his girlfriend.

RACE 1: Saturday Qualifier

The Saturday qualifying race was a two-lap affair on the Northern side of the Johnson Valley. Laps were approximately 13 and 12 miles long over the same loop, with the only main difference being that the start section up Turkey Claw was removed. Off the start it was the usual suspects hitting the top of Turkey Claw first, with Cody Webb leading the way ahead of Ryder LeBlond, Trystan Hart, Will Riordan and Colton Haaker. Early in the lap LeBlond managed to bury himself in a sand dune, seeing him drop from P2 all the way back to P10. Although he lost positions, he was able to chase back without having to worry about navigation as the race line was getting burned in by the lead riders ahead of him. By the end of lap 1 he was back with the leaders.

Coming through the pits in Hammer Town we got our first look at the racing advantages that Cody Webb had over the field. Webb had figured out a nifty trick to load multiple GPS tracks at once, which allowed him to avoid slowing down at the start of lap 2 to load the track for the lap. More importantly, Webb (along with severall other Sherco riders) was able to sail through the pit without stopping for fuel. These two factors allowed him to extend his lead over Hart and LeBlond with no energy expenditure. Barring a mishap, it was absolutely Webb’s race to lose from this point on. Spoiler Alert - there was no mishap.

After the race Webb commented that …. Trystan Hart was quick to point out that it was Webb’s navigation that won the race, and that he was going to be working on his GPS setup for Sunday’s main race.

Trystan: ”I felt not bad, a little rusty maybe just from not riding much. I was sub-par at the navigating. A bunch of us, I think me, Ryder (LeBlond), Will (Riordan), Cody (Webb), we all led on Lap 1 a little bit. But it (leading) was a disadvantage because the navigating was so tricky. So I settled into 2nd behind Cody for most of Lap 1 and we gapped everyone else, but they ended up catching us at the end of the lap.Cody has a little trick with his GPS where he isn’t downloading the second lap track, he has it pre-downloaded, so he got like a minute gap (through the pits) while the other 3 of us were downloading our tracks. That, ultimately, was the reason that he won that race. I’ll see if I can figure that trick out tonight, because tomorrow that’ll be crucial. If you don’t have every lap loaded that’s a minute each time, so 2 minutes that you’ll lose. We’re all pretty tight in speed so have to figure out the navigating.”

Race 2: Sunday Main

Sunday’s race saw competition move to the southern side of the Johnson Valley OHV, with the start finish located at the base of the legendary Chocolate Thunder climb. After some steady rain overnight the dirt conditions were mint, with pretty much optimal traction throughout the course. The Pro Men’s start turned out to be eventful, but in the end didn’t impact the outcome of the race. Coming off the line it was Cody Webb taking the holeshot and leading the way up and over Chocolate Thunder. Canadian Branden Petrie (Sherco Enduro Racing) was the only racer to take a high left line up the climb and it paid off as he emerged in P2 behind, and avoided a bottleneck that caught out several favourites including Trystan Hart, Ryder LeBlond and Will Riordan. LeBlond was the last Pro up the climb after the chaos of the bottleneck but, along with Hart and Riordan, was able to chase back to the front in fairly short order. Petrie’s great start unfortunately went to waste later in lap 1 when his throttle cable snapped, costing him a 45 minute stop while he worked on a field expedient repair. He was able to finish in a fairly remarkable P11 when it was all done and dusted.

Through lap 1 it was effectively a repeat of Saturday’s race, with a lead group consisting of Webb, Hart, LeBlond, and Riordan establishing themselves and swapping out the lead and navigation responsibility. The group came back into the start finish together and continued to hang together for most of the second lap. Colton Haaker finished lap 1 just about two minutes back of the lead group, followed by Cooper Abbott another 2 minutes later. Quinn Wentzel (Rieju USA), Kwaelo Huddy (Kauai Racing Development), James Flynn (IRC Moto), and Gauge Key rounded out the top 10 on the lap.

Lap 2 saw Will Riordan drop back out of the lead group by about two minutes in between checkpoints 4 and 5, leaving Webb, Hart and LeBlond in the lead group. The big moment of the race came at the end of lap 2 when Webb was able to get through the pits without stopping to fuel. This move allowed him to pull out a minute lead over Hart and LeBlond, and from that point it was effectively game over. Webb went up Chocolate Thunder for the final time shoulder checking to see if either Hart or LeBlond gambled on coming with him. From there Webb maintained a steady 1-2 minute gap over Hart, while Hart managed to pull out a similar 1 minute gap over LeBlond, which is how things remained to the finish.

Webb: “I got the holeshot yesterday and again here today, I dunno, the confidence was good I guess. I got a new suspension setting and the bike was feeling pretty dialled. I didn’t ride a ton this winter but I really focused on upping my fitness, and I think that was the biggest key to this race. (Not pitting for lap 3) was a risk we took. You know, we did 27 miles yesterday without pitting, and it was going to be about 27 again in the math, so just some strategy. We’re running a little bit bigger tank maybe, and plus we’re running the SmartCarb on top of that. I’m at the point (at the finish) where I have to switch on the reserve, so just enough!”

Hart: “That was a long one. We had a pretty solid battle for two full laps and then and then me and Ryder pitted on lap 2. Cody didn’t and had just enough, so congrats to Cody. It was a pretty long day going back and forth all day. We were really lucky that it rained last night because if it was dusty and we had to follow (ed. in such a tight lead group) it would’ve absolutely sucked.”

LeBlond: “I feel really good! Maybe too good, maybe left a little too much out there on the table in the beginning. There was one last hard section that I struggled with on the last lap, but honestly I’m not even tired right now, and should’ve pushed a little harder I think, but definitely on that last lap after I lost sight of (Webb and Hart) I was pushing as hard as I could. I did everything I could to catch back up to them, but for the most part I’m happy that I stuck with them for the first two and a half laps. Big improvement for me, but a lot of hard work for 3rd place.”