Haley Batten (Specialized Factory Racing) and Russell Finsterwald (LOOK) opened their 2026 off-road campaigns with victories at Belgian Waffle Ride Arizona on Saturday.
Batten’s debut in a BWR event was a solo effort for most of her 100 miles. Finsterwald won in a head-to-head sprint against Andrew L’Esperance (3T-Maxxis-Pearl Izumi), the closest finish ever in a BWR event across 15 years in the series.
“It was absolutely smokin’ hot out there and the 100-mile course was relentless. I’m satisfied with my effort and to ride away with the win. That was hard. It’s hot; I’m pretty fried,” Batten said at the finish, where the temperature on a sunny day reached 88°F (31°C).
Finsterwald, who won the BWR Quad-Tripel Crown series title last year, played catch up most of his five-plus hours on the bike, as L’Esperance and Chase Wark (Lunchbox Racing) launched the early break. Then the Canadian went on a 90km solo attack, and looked to be on his way to victory until Finsterwald closed the gap with 10 miles to go.
“Lespy was the one guy I knew was a really good bike handler, and I didn’t really want to give him any sort of gap. But he went for it early, got that four-minute gap,” Finsterwald told Cyclingnews.
With 60 miles to go, he broke away from a chase group that wasn’t making any inroads and decided to “just go as hard as you can to the finish if you want to try to win this thing”.
“He’s a good sprinter, I was a little worried about taking him to the line. I caught him with about 10 miles to go and tried to attack him right away, because maybe he’s tired. But he still had some legs left and we…
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