August 2020 -- Vol 4 -- Issue 8 August 2020 | Page 182

On The Pegs 182
FactoryONE Sherco’s Cody Webb won the opening round of the Sherco AMA East
Extreme Series with an impressive victory at Tough Like RORR in
Tamaquah, Pennsylvania.
Hot and humid, as usual, the rough and rocky 15-mile course took its toll on
Rockstar Energy Husqvarna’s Colton Haakeer, who took the lead on the opening
lap of the final when Webb made a mistake and led until late in the lap when he
was over-come by heat exhaustion and was forced to pull out with a half-mile
remaining in the race.
“I couldn’t even think or see straght enough to fathom finishing,” Haaker posted
to his Instagram.
With Haaker out, local boy Ryder LeBlond picked up an impressive second on his
KTM.
“Yeah. I was a bit surprised,” said LeBlond. “I thought I was behind Cody and
Colton the whole race, but I guess Colton had problems on the last lap. I didn’t
get the best start because people had their bikes on and they were turning them
on and off. It was kind of messing me up. Then when I went to go, I felt like I was
pretty close to last. Somewhere halfway through the first lap I got to third and just
stayed there the rest of the race. “
Beta USA riders occupied the next two spots - third and fourth - with Ronnie
Commo grabbing the final podium position.
“I started on the second row because I had some issues on Saturday,” said Commo.
“I lost the rear tire and mousse off the bead. So I really had to come back from
a hole. The second race on Saturday I pushed as hard as I could. I ended up sixth.
That put me on the second row in the final and I was third in my group going into
the woods, and passed those guys pretty quick. Then tried to reel in the group as
quick as I could so I could try and just kind of hang with them. Then quickly realized
my pace that I could run comfortably was faster than Fahringer and Gersten.
I was like, okay, so I got to get around these guys. Then I just kind of settled in and
rode the rest of the day as smooth as I could knowing that I had to hit prison sex
after that. Once I ended the first lap I was like, pace yourself. There was one little
gnarly hillside, then it was kind of like a national enduro, a little harder on the way
back. So you could probably push yourself there if you needed to.”
Gerston followed up in fourth.
“The first lap, I had a decent start and I made just a couple stupid mistakes, just
classic rookie mistakes,” said Gerston. “I shouldn’t make those mistakes because
I’m not a rookie. I still was able to regroup and keep going pretty good. I actually
wasted a lot of energy on the first lap. I was taking bad lines. That just cost me a
lot of energy more than anything else. So then coming through the second lap I