Michael , the defending series champ , was still feeling the effects of a shoulder separation suffered in mid-February , and was frustrated by missing out on Sunday ’ s win by such a small margin .
“ Obviously it ’ s still not 100 %,” Michael said of his shoulder , “ but I felt like I could be competitive this weekend . Yesterday I got smoked in the enduro test . It was super slick and technical and I just struggled . So , I knew today I needed to go out and definitely try to win the day . We went into that last test and I was up by almost a couple seconds . I had my best test all weekend , and just unfortunately in a simple righthander out in the field I just tucked the front . It was all me . I kind of looked back as I was picking my bike up and Josh was just coming out of the woods , so I knew I had a pretty good gap . I think it would have been close .”
Despite being a Pro 2 rider , Phoenix Racing Honda ’ s Cody Barnes has been pushing the Pro riders at the last few rounds . Despite hitting the dirt a few times the Illinois rider came away with third overall for the weekend and first in the Pro 2 class .
“ The weekend for me was a little bit challenging ,” said Barnes . “ I just kind of struggled with the cross test . I was riding good in the enduro , but was just making some really rookie mistakes crashing in the cross test .”
ON THE PEGS // PAGE 84