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Krasny captures CNES victory

Local enduro rider splitting time between national, world stages
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STRONG START Carter Krasny (centre) shown here celebrating his overall Canadian National Enduro Series win in Bromont, Que. last summer, won his first race of 2019 in Kamloops. Photo submitted

Carter Krasny isn't spending his 2019 season focusing on the Canadian National Enduro Series (CNES) under-21 crown, but that doesn't mean he's averse to reminding everyone he's still the defending champion until the campaign wraps.

Krasny dropped into the CNES event in Kamloops on June 2, edging Jacob Tooke by 6.5 seconds and Emmett Hancock by 8.9 seconds. He also ended up with the fourth-best overall time of the day.

"I was just riding clean and smooth and things went well," Krasny said.

Krasny trailed for the first half of the race, but his favourite stage, the fourth of six, is where he pulled into the lead and didn't look back, winning all three remaining sections.

Taking more than 11 minutes to complete, Krasny knew No. 4 was make-or-break going in.

"(The fourth stage) was steep technical at the top and then it went into some new trail and had a big pedally section in it. The rest of it was just brakeless, going really fast. That was the one I knew that the racing was tight, but that was the stage that was going to decide who was going to win the race," he said. "Because of how long it is, you can put more time into people on that one."

All in all, Krasny said the course was similar to 2018 apart from a couple of small, new sections popped in. Though dry and dusty conditions meant high speeds were on order, the deteriorating condition in the new sections gave Krasny pause.

"The new trails were a little difficult to race because we weren't allowed to practice them before because they wanted to keep them fresh so they wouldn't get blown out and destroyed. You had to have your eyes up and be looking far ahead to be going fast on a trail you don't know," he said. "All the pro riders went through before. When we walked the new sections, you'd see a corner and you'd (think), 'That looks like it will hold, you can hit it fast.'

"But the reality is you came into some of the corners and it was just blown out. You'd hit it and it would be rotor-deep dust. You'd get pretty loose on your bike."

Also in Kamloops, Marcus Goguen edged Wei Tien Ho to win the 15-and-under event.

Krasny began his season at the Enduro World Series (EWS) event in Madeira, Portugal in May, taking a 14th-place finish in the U21 division.

"That was the coolest trip I've ever been on. It was unreal riding there. The island's amazing," he said. "Even though I've done the Enduro World Series in Whistler, it's my home trails, so it doesn't really feel like it's a huge deal. When you travel so far to this remote island to go racing against the best in the world, it's really cool."

The biggest adjustment has been that riders, only get one lap of each stage to practice, whereas Canadian races are unlimited (provided those trails aren't closed).

"Wearing a GoPro helps, and rewatching your runs, but also, I feel like my memorization of trails is getting better as I'm racing more and more," he said.

Krasny now heads to next two EWS events in Italy and France, and he will race the CNES Panorama event and before wrapping his campaign with EWS races in Whistler, Northstar California Resort and Zermatt, Switzerland.