Stetina opens gravel season with victory at Grasshopper Adventure first stop

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Peter Stetina rode solo for the victory at the opening round of the 2023 Grasshopper Adventure Series, the Low Gap 44-miler in Ukiah, California, while Kate Courtney defended her title from a year ago, even with a navigation error halfway through the ride.

Stetina crossed the finish 2 minutes, 12 seconds ahead of Christopher Blevins, 2021 men's cross-country short track world champion, in a time of 2:20:36 across a challenging route with 5,665 feet of climbing. Torrential rain in past weeks had mainly dried but left mud in the corners of the mixed surface with gully-washed dirt and a lot of pavement transitions.

The chase for the final podium spot developed seven minutes later in a three-rider sprint between Ian Lopez de San Roman and L39ION of Los Angeles teammates Tyler Williams and Lance Haidet, Williams getting the one-second advantage for third place.

Last year’s winner Luke Lamperti, not in attendance this time out, won Low Gap on a road bike on a dry, dusty course, taking a three-rider downhill sprint ahead of Brennan Wertz and Alex Wild, while Stetina was a little over one minute back for fifth. This year Wertz finished 11th, almost nine minutes behind Stetina, and said the start was “nuclear.” 

He admitted that he had not dialled the perfect position on his new bike and pushed through some lower back pain on the ride.

The battle for the women came down to a group of California natives. Anna Yamauchi looked set to contest for the win in the women’s division but missed a turn and went off course. Last year’s winner and 2018 MTB World Champion Kate Courtney, who also missed the turn but reversed course to correct the error, rode in for another victory.

Niky Taylor finished second, another three-and-a-half minutes off the winning time set by Courtney, 2:49:07. Courtney said afterwards that it was a great way to get the “intensity” for the start of a new season out of the way. 

Maude Farrell, who was the runner-up last year, managed to outsprint Hannah Wood for third place on Saturday for a podium spot.

Yamauchi end with a DQ for her strong ride. The 22-year-old earned a pair of silver medals at US Mountain Bike nationals in cross-country and downhill in 2021 for California Polytechnic State University in San Luis Obispo, where Blevins is part of the programme and Haidet recently graduated. She will compete in the Life Time Grand Prix as one of its newest and youngest athletes.

The Hopper Series moves to Maxwell, California on February 25 for Huffmaster Hopper, an 88-mile gravel grinder for the pro fields with 4,842 feet of elevation gain, most of that between mile markers 40 and 60.