This year, Snowshoe was made even more challenging by the rain that fell off and on during the week. However, that did not stop the racing where around 70 women racers lined up to do battle against the elements and the mountain. Traci Pickens took home the win in the ATV WXC class on Saturday and Tayla Jones was back on top in the Bike WXC class on Sunday. 

On Saturday as the ATV morning race began, Megan Shepherd briefly held the WXC lead during the first lap. However, Pickens would manage to get around Shepherd after some trouble struck. Sadiee Gorrell also made the pass on Shepherd when she took a faster line through one of the mudholes. The pass did not stick for long though, as Gorell’s clutch began sticking, dropping her back to sixth. Kara Short rode a smooth first lap, passing Shepherd and Gorrell to take over second place, while Shepherd continued to maintain third place. 

Katelyn Osburn happened to take a bad line and found herself stuck on the first lap, she would finally work her way out and around Shepherd putting her into the third place position on lap two. The two of them continued to battle, swapping places at least six times during the race. Once Gorrell was able to get her clutch fixed, she and Jaida Phillips battled back and forth before Gorrell made the pass stick. After this, Gorrell quickly caught back up to the front of the pack ultimately passing Shepherd and Osburn.

Short was on fire during the next few laps, making up a two-minute deficit from Pickens and taking over the lead for the first time this season. She was able to hold off Pickens and Osburn for a lap, unfortunately she would be passed with one more lap left to go. Meanwhile, Gorrell and Phillips were badly stuck on the last lap. Phillips was pushed back to sixth, while Gorrell managed to stay ahead of fifth place finisher Shepherd, who was having her own troubles with lappers and bottlenecks. Only the top three riders completed the full six laps. After passing Short, Pickens was able to establish a comfortable one minute lead. Pickens said that she “really enjoyed the track this year” and shew as very grateful for the mud fleas and fellow racers who helped the WXC riders through the course. 

Osburn and Short were in a tight battle coming into the finish, but it would be Osburn who came in just ahead of her to take second place. Osburn stated “it was a really tough track for me … this is definitely a survival race, and I’m just glad I made it through. Short ran a pretty good race taking her first podium finish of the 2018 season, after coming in a close fourth place the previous three rounds.

Morgan Johnson was the winner of a packed Girls ATV class in the 8 a.m. youth race. She is now only four points away from class leader Andrea Rodgers, who finished second at round nine. Gabrielle Lemley rounded out the podium in third. In the Women’s ATV class, Hannah Hunter beat out Sydney Sams for the win, and Hailey France earned her first podium of the year by placing third.

On Sunday, Tayla Jones and Mackenzie Tricker dueled for the lead off the start in the bike WXC class. Those two riders, as well as an almost-healed Becca Sheets, Brooke Cosner and Rachel Gutish swapped positions back and forth several times throughout the first lap, with everyone taking the lead at least once. Unfortunately, Cosner hick a rock as she headed up one of the ski lift hills ultimately ending her day as she suffered from a hip injury. The remaining riders in the lead pack came through timing and scoring with only ten seconds separating Jones, who was in first, from Tricker, who was in fourth. The next pack of riders, Eden Netelkos, Shyann Phelps and Korie Steede were approximately three minutes down from the leaders.

Heading into the second loop, Tricker found herself falling further back from the top three, though never far enough for Netelkos, Phelps or Steede to challenge her. She rode the rest of the race without seeing any other riders in her class, finishing fourth. Tricker comes from a more moto-centric background and admitted “This was my first time at Snowshoe and I’m just stoked to finish in one piece.” In the second pack, Netelkos dropped back from fifth to seventh at some point on the west side of the mountain, before falling even further behind on the third loop. This left Phelps and Steede to duke it out for the final top-five spot. They swapped positions several times during the second and third lap, before Steede got stuck not once, but twice, allowing Phelps to take fifth place by over seven minutes. On the other hand, there was very little time between riders in the lead pack, who were engaged in a three-way battle for the lead.

Jones had control over first place until lap three, when the riders entered a tighter, technical section already filled with lappers. In the chaos, Gutish was able to slip past both Sheets and Jones to briefly take the lead, though Jones took it back soon after on one of the fire roads. Gutish and Sheets were still right on her tail, with only two seconds between all three of them heading into the fifth loop. Jones was able to extend her lead when Gutish tangled with a lapper, causing her to get stuck between several tree roots. Sheets also lost valuable time in this section as she was trying to get around Gutish. After that there were no more battles. Jones said, “Overall it was a good race, and I am happy to head into summer break with a win.” Second place finisher Becca Sheets told us, “It felt good to come back from my injury with a second place finish in these tough conditions.”

Prestin Raines and Jocelyn Barnes battled for the win in the Girls class once again, and again it would be Prestin Raines who was victorious. Kylie Le-Jenkins took third place in her first GNCC of the year. Annalisa Davis won her sixth race this season in the Women’s class, while Alli Phillips won in Women’s C and was the only women’s C rider to complete four laps.