Olympic silver medalist Haley Batten wins debut at Belgium Waffle Ride Arizona while Russell Finsterwald surges in two-up sprint for elite men's victory

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.

The US women's silver medalist in XCO mountain bike from the Paris Olympic Games rode away from a stacked women's field early, winning in 5:58:13. Batten was challenged by the hot weather conditions across the varied terrain, much of the sand and singletrack scattered in the closing 40 miles across the McDowell Mountain Regional Park.

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Haley Smith (Factor Racing) and Cecile Lejeune (Trek Driftless) kept each other company and battled it out for the next spots on the podium, Smith finishing 13:09 back and Lejeune another 26 seconds later.

"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 ultimately sprinted it out."

Last year L'Esperance finished one spot behind Finsterwald as well, with the US rider going second to Keegan Swenson in a late sprint effort that netted Swenson a third consecutive win. For a third time in four years, Torbjørn Røed (Trek Driftless) finished third, this time 4:03 back.

BWR Arizona, now in a fourth edition, was the first stop in the BWR Quad-Tripel Crown of Gravel Series. The second round of the BWR series takes place in Del Mar, California on May 3.

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