Stetina wins maiden voyage at Belgian Waffle Ride North Carolina

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Peter Stetina made the most of his inaugural appearance for the Belgian Waffle Ride North Carolina with a solo victory in Hendersonville on Saturday. Across the 129.5-mile route, he battled most of the day with Nathan Haas and Paul Voss, but broke clear late in the contest for the win in 6:55:23. 

Haas finished second, two minutes back, while Voss secured third place well ahead of the chasers, a group of three who were a little more than 15 minutes back. Stephen Vogel claimed fourth, Brent Bookwalter fifth and Eddie Anderson sixth.

Stetina finished sixth at the first round of the Belgian Waffle Ride series in San Marcos, California in early May despite having a broken wrist. After an eighth-place finish at Unbound Gravel, he returned to the podium on his first time racing a gravel event on the East Coast of the US, which presented more than 13,000 feet of climbing on a mix of pavement and dirt roads, with 52.3 miles of the route being gravel.

"We lived in the present, raced hard on perhaps the course with the most vert in all gravel (13,800ft), raced on pristine pavement, rugged fire roads, sinuous singletrack, through a barn with a drum line, and over bridges. In the end it came down to a slug fest between Nathan Haas, Paul Voss and myself. I was able to take the [win] but had to go into some very dark places to do so," Stetina wrote on his Instagram feed.

"My favorite part of Belgian Waffle Ride this weekend was no cell service at the expo. This meant everyone was hanging out in the moment, phones out only for pics."