“ I rode good Saturday , but I just couldn ’ t stay off the ground and ended up having three crashes ,” said Girroir . “ Josh was riding phenomenal . He aced it and did what he had to do . I was sixteen seconds down coming into Sunday and I went to sleep last night knowing that I had to come out swinging today . That ’ s exactly what I did . I had a little four-second cushion going into the last test , and Josh beat me by 3.7 . It was as close as racing gets .”
Michael put up a valiant fight all year , dealing with a shoulder injury for much of the season .
“ Unfortunately , at the last GNCC banged my other shoulder up ,” said Michael . “ Luckily , nothing was torn but I got an MRI and stuff and I ’ ve just got a bone bruise and some muscle bruising and some bleeding around the rotator cuff . The pain was pretty bad and I definitely struggled with it yesterday . Today I think everyone just kind of slowed down a little bit , or how I was riding the bike kind of played in favor today . I tried to keep it close until the end , and I did , but unfortunately there in the last cross test I had a crash that kind of flustered me a bit . Went into the last test and just had another error and pretty much knew that was it .”
Draper ’ s third overall marked his ninth podium finish of the year .
VOL . 7 ISSUE 7- JULY 2022 // PAGE 121