| March 24, 2025
Ryder LeBlond won the 2025 Grinding Stone Hard Enduro in a nail-biting finish during the knockout-style race in Page, Arizona. This victory marked the Rockstar Energy Husqvarna Factory Racing rider’s first-ever in the U.S. Hard Enduro Premier Championship, following numerous podium finishes over recent years. LeBlond’s triumph in round three of the Bullet Proof Designs U.S. Hard Enduro Series, Presented by IRC Tire, made him the third different winner in the first three rounds of the 2025 season.
Story by Matt Musgrove | Photography by Ryan McCasland
The Grinding Stone Hard Enduro, hosted by the Rockstars Motorcycle Club, has become one of the most iconic hard enduro courses in the world over the past five years. Located across the highway from Horseshoe Bend and Lake Powell, the stunning natural landscape serves as the backdrop for some of the most significant courses of the season. The steep sandstone mesas offer many high-risk yet high-reward lines, while the knockout format allows the level of difficulty to increase over three different races for both the Amateur and Pro classes.
This year brought extra anticipation as two-time Grinding Stone winner FMF KTM Factory Racing’s Trystan Hart was unable to race due to a recent collarbone surgery. This opened the door for either a potential new USHE Premier Championship winner or a new manufacturer to claim victory in a U.S. Hard Enduro, with two-time winner Cody Webb competing on his Rocky Mountain Yamaha.
On Saturday, the first race featured all the racers navigating a 12-mile course designed for B-class difficulty, completing two laps within a five-hour time limit that included multiple checkpoints. Will Riordan from FactoryOne Sherco maintained a fast pace and won the race, which not only improved his starting position for the next event but also earned him a share of the $1000 cash purse that the Rockstars Motorcycle Club allocated to each qualifying race. Many amateurs had their fill in race one, with numerous competitors racing until the five-hour limit was reached.
Jim Flynn, the Grinding Stone race director, has dedicated hundreds of hours to creating these courses, overcoming numerous challenges in marking a course on sandstone and helping to eliminate any bottlenecks to keep the racers moving smoothly. After the first race, the city of Page closed off Elm Street in their downtown area to make way for a giant endurocross course that Flynn and the Rockstars MC constructed over the past few months. Over a thousand spectators gathered around the complex street course, which featured double-elimination bracket racing among the top 32 finishers from the first race. Side-by-side battles entertained the crowd throughout the afternoon, as racers vied for a $2000 purse and major bragging rights.
In the finals, FactoryOne Sherco teammates Cooper Abbott and 17-year-old Braxton Hintze competed, with Abbott edging out the rookie to claim victory in downtown Page. This was the second year of the Street Shootout, which has quickly become one of the weekend’s highlights for racers and fans alike.
On Sunday morning, the top 150 finishers from race one began race two, which featured the same course with additional challenging sections. For any amateurs who felt they hadn’t raced enough on Saturday, race two ensured they filled that void and pushed their limits simultaneously.
Will Riordan was again the winner of this qualifier, gaining a lot of momentum going into race three.
Race three was the final race on Sunday afternoon, in which the top 25 racers from race two moved on to race on a 3.5-mile course with the maximum difficulty. Race three has gained recognition as one of the most intense and technical courses in North America, with infamous sections such as Stairway to Heaven, JX8, High Dive and Double Bogey, challenging the racers in ways that no other race challenges them with. Huge crowds gathered at these sections, cheering on the top 25 and watching them conquer, or not conquer, some seemingly impossible sections.
A few hundred feet from the mass start on top of a small mesa, Riordan went down and lost some vital positions for the beginning of the race. LeBlond pushed ahead to the lead, with Webb and IRC Beta’s James Flynn close behind. Riordan had to push through the field and eventually worked his way to fourth place on lap two, but with such a short course and 22-minute lap times, racers were piling up in certain sections, adding to the already difficult obstacles on this course. Riordan made a charge and moved his way to second place with his sights set on LeBlond; Webb and Flynn were sitting a bit behind them in third and fourth.
LeBlond held a strong lead until his second-to-last lap, in which he had trouble getting up Stairway to Heaven clean, losing two minutes to Riordan, and things started to get heated as the final hill approached. The top four ended up passing everyone in the field, which earned them the right to climb the final hill, Truth or Dare, in front of hundreds of spectators below. LeBlond climbed the hill and made just enough time to claim victory at the 2025 Grinding Stone Hard Enduro.
Riordan made up some serious time and was only 45 seconds behind LeBlond to finish in second. Webb finished 10 minutes behind for third place and his first podium on the Rocky Mountain Yamaha YZ250X. James Flynn finished in fourth, his best USHE Premier race finish yet. Braxton Hintze rounded out the top five.
The next USHE Premier Championship race will be the Moab Hard Enduro at Area BFE on April 11-12.CN
2025 AMA U.S. Hard Enduro Round 3 Results
OVERALL (Top 10)
- Ryder LeBlond (Hus)
- Will Riordan (She)
- Cody Webb (Yam)
- James Flynn (Bet)
- Braxton Hintze (She)
- Branden Petrie (Bet)
- Kamakana Waiwaiole-Kahalepuna (KTM)
- Kawelo Huddy (KTM)
- Quinn Wentzel (Rie)
- Ryder Guest (KTM)
