WORS #1 Englewood Opener

First race report of the season, here we go! For one of the first times ever a WORS(Wisconsin Off-Road Series) race was held on a Saturday and the Pro/Cat 1 field raced at 1:00 before the sport category. This lead to huge amount of spectators and people stuck around all day making it a really fun event out at Englewood Grass Farm in Fall River.

Thanks to Danny Marchewka for all of these awesome photos! 

I arrived early, took some team pictures and then got registered. Then I had a little down time before getting my gear on and starting my warm up. It had been a few months but when I lined up it felt just like usual, adrenaline and excitement. Don did his famous count down and we hammered off the line. I tucked myself in behind Cole House up the short climb and through the headwind.

I entered the single track sixth wheel and after a few turns moved into fourth. Pete Karinen took the lead and kept the pedal down all the way through the prologue setting the six of us apart from the field. As we came through the finish shoot as I took a drink Ben Schmutte and Ben Senkerik passed me. I stuck onto Senkerik's wheel as we went up the short start climb and I realized we were about to enter a tricky rocky single track descent. I knew I had to be farther up in the group to follow Pete and Cole so I made an aggressive pass back into fourth place.

The two leaders rocked the descent and my small mistake cost me about eight seconds. Ben Schmutte and I were now dangling in 3rd and 4th with a solid gap on 5th and 6th. Ben and I worked together chasing hard for the next two laps keeping the gap below 15 seconds but eventually Pete and Cole started to drift away.

We kept the pace up but focused on and staying smooth and steady to avoid making mistakes and getting caught by anyone. Heading into the last lap I knew exactly where I was going to make my move to get away. As we reached the half way point in the lap I took over the lead before a descent full over berms. I raged into the big wooden berm pushing the limit. I stood up and accelerated out of every corner and nailed every technical section and corner as hard as I could slowly inching away from Ben.

I crossed the line in 3rd place, 14 seconds behind Ben and 90 seconds behind the leaders. It was my best finish in a Pro WORS race yet and knocked off my season goal of cracking the top three. The cherry on top was the monster pay outs that the Scott Nyland and the other promoters procured. I also have to give a huge shout out to Ben and Kristi Agnew of Englewood Grass Farm for being amazing sponsors and most importantly promoting this killer race!

I couldn't be happier with how my first race in the Linear Sport colors went! Big thanks to Trek, Bontrager, Wheel & Sprocket, Styled Aesthetic, Kettle Moraine Preservation and Restoration, and David Hobbs Honda, as well as Honey Stinger, Mike's Mix, Wolf Tooth Components and ESI Grips for helping make it all happen. It is going to be a great season!

This Thursday I head to Utah for a round of junior UCI racing so stayed tuned for results and updates on social media and a full race report on here next week. Thanks for reading!