Trail Rider Magazine

10 Trail Rider www.TrailRider.com Dennis LeBlanc and Jon McDougal have also been consistently logging top-five finishes for the past few years, and more recently have proved that they are constant podium threats and are poten- al tle threats going into this season. Dennis spent the majority of the winter down in Florida training in the humidity and trying his hand at a few GNCCs. As for Jon, I was fortunate enough to ride with him during the offseason, and he seemed to be ge ng accustomed to his new 2025 KX 250 quite nicely. S ll, the two have never podiumed in the first round, and I believe it's essen al to establish yourself as a front-runner early. Adam Lewis is another rider that I see as a po- ten al threat in 2025. Last year at the opening round, Adam ba led at the front and even led two laps un l ul mately finishing third. These were the four riders I picked to be the strongest contenders for the championship, and an early win at round one. When the green flag dropped, it was Adam Lewis and Dennis LeBlanc out front early. Jon and Tyler weren't as fortunate and had to fight in the back of the pack early on; Luckily, there were two miles of dreamy grass track right off the start that made it easy to pass. Tyler would work his way up to second at the end of the first lap, dropping Dennis back to third. But it was Adam Lewis who was blistering fast early, pu ng a thirty-second lead on Tyler and leading the first five laps. Tyler learned from his mistakes last year and methodically sat in second, slowly bridging the gap and picking smart lines. He would eventually overtake Adam on lap six and put a forty-six-second lead on him to get the checkered flag on lap seven. Jon would work his way through the pack to fin- ish a strong fourth, and Dennis admi edly said he "sucked" and finished a less than ideal sixth place. But let's not forget this is only round one of four- teen, and there's s ll a lot of racing le .

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