The General GNCC Results 2019

Cycle News Staff | March 18, 2019

Kailub Russell bounced back from his opening-round loss at the Wild Board GNCC to win round two at The General GNCC in Georgia. The FMF/KTM team rider came out on top of a three-way, race-long battle against Rockstar Husqvarna teammates Trevor Bollinger and Thad Duvall. After nearly three hours of racing, Russell took the win by just 13 seconds over Bollinger. Duvall finished another 42 seconds back after crashing on the last lap.

Kailub Russell Claims The General GNCC Victory

"The — **Kailub Russell took the overall win at The General GNCC.** Photo: Ken Hill

It was a dogfight the whole and Russell was happy to come out on top. “This track is really good for racing the first couple laps, then after that first lap everybody kind of finds the fast line and gets dialed in and then you break apart,” said Russell. “I knew it was going to be important to get a good start to position yourself up front there. We were able to sneak around there on the inside and make some moves, but like I said there was a bunch of lines that just kind of zig-zagged back and forth. It was tough to piece together and that’s why there was such close racing that first lap or two.”

Russell is now in a familiar place, back in the points lead. “Yeah, it’s nice to get that back. It’s a long way to go but it’s always nice to have it.”

However, Bolinger wasn’t so happy, despite it being one of his best rides ever. “I’m pretty bummed with it actually,” said Bollinger. “I feel like I had all the pieces there to fight for a win on the last lap. I honestly made two mistakes the whole race and one of them was on the last lap, and it just allowed Kailub to get that much further out of sight.”

Last week’s winner, Steward Baylor, was fourth overall at The General GNCC. He came into the race nursing a sore knee and did what he could to finish in the top five.

Josh Strang (Kawasaki) rounded out the top five overall, with Josh Toth (KTM) taking sixth.

It was a good day for Ben Kelley. The Trail Jesters Racing KTM rider claimed seventh overall which was good enough for the XC2-class win.

Jordan Ashburn (Kawasaki), Andrew DeLong (Honda) and Evan Smith (Husqvarna) completed the top 10 overall. Smith took second in the XC2 class.

2019 Grand National Cross Country (GNCC) Series