"It was brutal!" were Cody Webb's first words about the 2011 Hell's Gate extreme enduro. The factory Beta rider lined up for his first extreme off-road race and had a respectable performance on the all-new Beta 350 RR in Il Ciocco, Italy.
Although only two riders were credited with finishes at the race, Webb was running a strong third on the final loop when time was called. Also considering he had to fight his way through a time deficit, Webb is rather pleased with his performance at the 2011 Hell's Gate event.
"It was a great experience," Webb commented. "I had fun and I'm pretty happy with how it went, especially after things didn't go so well in Barcelona [at the IEWC]."
It was described by some as straight-up trials terrain, but still, some of the gnarliest off-road riders in the world were able to battle their way around the Hell's Peak course. Webb was joined by fellow American and seasoned extreme-enduro racer Kyle Redmond. The Beta-mounted duo both finished inside the top-ten during the morning qualifying sessions (in which riders complete four loops of the special test). From there, the top 30 riders line up for the long loop - the main event of Hell's Gate.
"Qualifying went okay," Redmond commented. "I finished in the top-ten in the special test; that loop was pretty gnarly. Then in the main race, I think I finished the first lap around tenth, but only riders who were within a half hour of the leader went on, so I was done."
Only six riders went on, and despite a nearly last-place start due to a time penalty of eight minutes, Webb was one of those riders. "[On the first qualifying loop] I went to the wrong check because I didn't know what I was doing," said the national trials champion, who admits he is still new to racing. "I showed up late to my check and got an eight-minute penalty."
Webb was left to start the main event in 29th out of 30 riders, whereas he would have qualified second behind Graham Jarvis without the penalty.
"The first quarter of the first lap I was going crazy trying to climb to the front as soon as possible," Webb said. "I wasted energy on that first lap and at the end I was already 12 minutes behind the leaders. I think if I hadn't had that deficit at the beginning, it would have been a lot easier to at least finish instead of timing out."
Just past the third check on the fourth and final lap, Webb was informed that he timed out (fallen over a half hour behind the race leader), but the American rider was still satisfied with his performance, as were the members of the factory Beta race team.
"All-in-all it was a good experience," Webb said. "I'm really happy with the 350 RR. We spent a lot of time on setup these last few weeks and we had the suspension really good! But my hat is definitely off to Graham Jarvis. He rode really well."
[Press Release and Photos Via American Beta]
