rounds , FactoryONE Scorpa ’ s Alex Myers was in close battle for sixth place with Karl Davis Jr . Both riders both finished the day with 59 points and 16 cleans . Ultimately , Karl had fewer ones and was able to win the tiebreaker .
“ Simply put , today was a nightmare ,” said Alex . “ It ’ s just so hard to overcome what actually happened today . I felt good on the bike , and for 90 % of the sections I was happy with how I was riding . The bike at this elevation is running absolutely flawlessly but it just seemed like that other 10 % were costly . It was mostly really costly fives . I lost my chain in one section and a couple other sections I just was a couple inches off my line and it really cost me big today . It ' s just a disappointing result , but you know , I ’ ve got to give it up to my sponsors and everyone to provide me with just an absolute rocket ship of a bike . I couldn ' t be happier . My minder Lewie Bolopue really helped out ; he ' s giving it his all and so I ’ m a little bummed not to get the result that I was looking for . Tomorrow we ' re going to be pushing harder than ever .”
Niederer had some difficulty on his second loop , almost doubling his score from Loop 1 , and would drop back to eighth place . Despite finding his flow for the third loop , it wasn ’ t enough to compete with Karl and Alex Myers , and Niederer would have to settle for eighth with 67 points . TRS Kentucky ’ s Sam Fastle would finish out the Pro class line-up in ninth place , ending with 106 points on the day .
Vertigo ’ s Dalton Land had an outstanding start to his West Coast debut in the Expert class . After moving up from the Jr Expert Sportsman class in the 2019 season , Land has yet to earn lower than a third-place finish . Coming into Round 5 only 18 points away from taking the series lead away from Beta ’ s Drew Fortner , Land was able to hold his own , finishing with 42 points and tying with Beta ’ s Jay Gregorowicz . The Vertigo rider was able to take the tiebreaker , and his second win in the series , by having 16 cleans to Gregorowicz ’ s 14 .
“ Today started off really rough ,” said Land . “ I don ' t know what it was , but I came out I was just second-guessing everything I was doing . I had no confidence in anything I was doing ; I was underestimating everything , and it was just going downhill really fast . Then
VOL . 6 ISSUE 9 - SEPTEMBER 2021 // PAGE 113