2025 King of the Motos Race Recap
Trystan Hart (FMF KTM Factory Racing) in action at the 2025 King of the Motos | © Jenny Keller Photography | @jennygkeller
The 2025 AMA US Hard Enduro Championship kicked off in the California desert this past weekend at King of the Motos. There were some big changes coming into the new season, and a last-minute story that called into question Trystan Hart’s ability to race after a gruesome looking injury to his clutch-side index finger that had required surgery just two weeks before the race. In the end, The Robot did some exceptionally Robot things and came away with the win and the red overall leader’s plate as he starts his campaign for a fifth-straight USHE overall title. Let’s get into it…
Key Points
FMF KTM Factory Racing’s Trystan Hart took the win at King of the Motos this past weekend, overcoming a gruesome finger injury and very limited time on bike after wrist surgery following the end of his Endurocross championship season.
Factory1 Sherco’s Will Riordan took P2 in a fantastic debut race for his new team, putting the stress of the end of his GasGas Factory Racing deal behind him.
Ryder LeBlond (Husqvarna Factory Racing) finished 3rd just behind Riordan in what was a self-admitted disappointing result for the third-year pro.
Cody Webb (Rocky Mountain Yamaha) missed the podium with a 4th place finish in his first race outing with his own team program but showed signs that he will be in the mix for podiums as he dials his bike in more for hard enduro duty.
Riley Bender (Factory1 Sherco) placed a very impressive 8th overall in his pro debut as he comes back from a bad shoulder injury in 2024.
Qualifier
Saturday’s qualifier doesn’t count for a lot at King of the Motos for the pros except for start line position pick at Sunday’s main race. But we were still intrigued to see how things would shake out as, at 1.5h hours long, it’s generally a good indicator for how things will go in the main. This year was no exception to that.
Will Riordan came off the start with a sub-optimal line after arriving to staging a little late. He was still able to come over the top of the technical start climb with the leaders before quickly establishing himself in the lead for good. Riordan looked very fast and flowy throughout the race and never appeared to be under any significant pressure once he got his initial gap. He handled navigation beautifully, eventually coming into the finish with a 3-minute lead over Hart and LeBlond. Webb came home in 4th two minutes back after bending his shifter and riding a large portion of the race in 2nd gear. Cooper Abbott (Factory1 Sherco) and James Flynn (IRC Beta) rounded out the top five.
Factory1 Sherco’s two young pro rookies Riley Bender and Braxton Hintze impressed in the race with a P8 finish for Hintze and a P10 for Bender.
Main Race
Australian Will Riordan led most of the race before finally relinquishing the lead to Hart on the final lap | © Jenny Keller Photography | @jennygkeller
Sunday’s race saw a new start hill as riders went up the first half of Idle Issues rather than last year’s Chocolate Thunder. Off the start a breakaway group of Riordan, LeBlond, Hart, and Flynn established themselves, but by the half-hour mark at Checkpoint 4 they had dropped Flynn and formed the pack that would take the three podium positions. By CP 4 Webb had also locked himself into 4th where he would stay just ahead of Flynn until finally dropping the IRC Beta rider at the midpoint of the race.
Hart leads LeBlond in pursuit of Will Riordan | © Jenny Keller Photography | @jennygkeller
Through the middle laps of the race we saw the three leaders swapping position until the 1:50 mark at CP 12, when Riordan established a small (approximately 10 seconds) gap that he would hold for the next half hour. Coming into the start of Lap 4 Riordan pitted for fuel while Hart pushed through, making the same fuel strategy move that Webb had used to establish his winning gap on the final lap of the 2024 race.
From there Hart poured it on. In his post-race interviews he spoke about how once he got that lead he started to use his mangled index finger, which allowed him more control of the bike and to increase his pace. Over the course of Lap 4 he pushed out a gap of 5:14 over Riordan and 6:07 over LeBlond. From there it was a quick jaunt up the technical Carl’s Diner climb before dropping back down Chocolate Thunder to take the win.
While Riordan had led LeBlond by just under minute coming into the final climb he nearly threw that lead away as he looped out his bike halfway up. This allow LeBlond to come within around 10 meters of Riordan, but the young Australian was able to recover and take advantage of LeBlond’s own issues on the climb to take P2 7:58 behind Hart and 4:08 ahead of LeBlond.
Cody Webb impressed in his first race with his new Rocky Mountain Yamaha program | © Jenny Keller Photography | @jennygkeller
Webb stayed in P4 for the race, eventually coming home 16:06 behind Hart. Flynn also managed to maintain his position to finish P5, with his IRC Beta teammate Branden Petrie following him for 6th ahead of Rieju USA’s Quinn Wentzel.
Riley Bender had a very impressive 8th place finish in his pro debut, with Daniel Lewis (Klim Beta USA) and Kauai Racing Development’s Kawelo Huddy taking the final spot in the top-10 ahead of teammate Kamakana Waiwaiole-Kahalepuna.
Riley Bender on his way to a P10 finish in his pro debut | © Jenny Keller Photography | @jennygkeller
Cooper Abbott (Factory1 Sherco) had returned to the US from his Supercross campaign in Europe and had started the weekend well with P5 in the qualifier. Unfortunately, though, his bike seized at the mid-point of the race after he had worked himself from 11th off the start to 6th.
Another young rider making his pro debut was Factory1 Sherco’s Braxton Hintze. Hintze had finished 8th in the qualifier ahead of teammate Bender in 10th, but he also suffered a mechanical failure just off of the start line and had to take the DNF.
Canada’s Branden Petrie had an excellent P6 finish in his first ride with his new IRC Beta team | © Jenny Keller Photography | @jennygkeller
Analysis | What We Learned
The Robot is still The Robot. In our race preview we had spoken about there being little doubt that Hart was coming back to start his USHE title defense by asserting dominance at KOM. This was before we were aware of his gruesome injury just 2 weeks before the race and just after he had been able to start riding following wrist surgery in November. According to The Robot he only got two days on the bike over his off-season. His mental strength is off the charts as he demonstrated all weekend with his “If I don’t mind, it doesn’t matter” attitude to racing with his mangled clutch finger.
As noted earlier, it was also interesting to see Hart turn Sherco’s race-winning fuel strategy from 2024 (with Webb) against them by skipping the final fuel stop on the way out for lap 4. According to Hart, he had been very concerned that, with the way Riordan was riding with the lead on lap 3, it was going to be the Australian’s day. By executing Sherco’s 2024 strategy and then fully using his injured finger on the last lap to build control and speed, he was able to seal the deal. Hart had come into the weekend hoping for top-10 finish given the issue with his finger and lack of on-bike time. He (no finger pun intended) crushed that.Riordan spoke post-race about what a challenging off-season he had dealt with after he had to end his Endurocross season early after racing Rounds 3 and 4 with broken fingers and having to find a new team after his GasGas Factory Racing deal ended after a single season (likely, we believe, due to the financial situation at the KTM Group and associated cost-cutting measures). This weekend was as good as we’ve seen Riordan to date. It will be interesting to see if he can keep it up and continue to pressure Hart and improve on his 3rd overall finish in last year’s USHE championship.
While LeBlond was clearly disappointed with his 3rd straight P3 finish at KOM, he’s still in great shape in terms of the overall. It just seems that King of the Motos just isn’t his race… yet. If you check out the USHE’s race recap on YouTube you’ll see him clearly in pain after the race and saying that he thinks he broke some ribs in a crash. We touched base with him this morning and he said that they’re sore, but he’s goo. Round 2 takes place in February in Hawaii on the island of Kauai. If what we saw from that race last year is any indicator, the muddy ‘Hawaiian Ice’ may suit an East-coaster like LeBlond.
In terms of Webb and his Yamaha, he seemed quietly pleased with the bike’s performance in its first race action. He spoke about having three adjustments in mind that he believes would have saved him at least a minute in Sunday’s main, including suspension which he said was just too harsh. For Hawaii he’ll be using a different bike that will, unlike his KOM bike, have electric start. His new self-run program has a lot of moving parts, and you can be sure that each time out will show improvements – especially as he builds race fitness coming off of a long injury-filled 2024 and the time investment required to get his new team up and running.
We mentioned Kawelo Huddy’s 10th place finish earlier, but it’s interesting to note that he came all the way back from as far back as P18 in the latter checkpoints of the first half of the race. The dry, dust and (most importantly) cold conditions do not suit the Hawaiian riders at all as they’re pretty much the exact opposite of what they train in back home. With Round 2 on their home turf, don’t be surprised to Huddy, Kana and Ryder Guest (who didn’t race KOM this year) pushing their way up towards or onto the podium. Definitely something we’ll be watching for in February.
But, in the end, the 2025 King of the Motos will be remembered for Trystan Hart’s incredible gutsy performance. He’s proved yet again, that he’s The Man when it comes to North American hard enduro, and showed that he’s going to be tough beat for an overall title.
IMAGES FROM JENNY KELLER PHOTOGRAPHY Canada’s Branden Petrie had an excellent P6 finish in his first ride with his new IRC Beta team | © Jenny Keller Photography | @jennygkeller
