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Barcia may have been the only 450 rider to happily embrace the wet, muddy conditions we had early at the Ironman National. Barcia has been searching for his breakout ride all year long and the conditions looked perfect for it at the final round. He looked great in qualifying practice earning pole position for the day and he
was more than ready for that gate to drop. When the gate did drop for moto one, Barcia stormed out of it and right behind class champion Ken Roczen. No one has been able to keep Roczen close early in the motos this season but Barcia would do just that. At least during the first few laps. He stayed right with the German until about halfway when he lost tail completely. Still Barcia would nail a very solid second place finish gapping himself from the rest of the field. He finally got back to the kind of pace that we saw him win a few races with last year. If you still were not completely sold on Barcia’s breakthrough after the first moto, he would go and prove you wrong in the second moto. He locked in behind Roczen once again to start the moto and started putting in steady laps. He would not have anything for Roczen this time around but he pulled a large gap between him and the rest of the pack. He looked to have another strong second place wrapped up when he got loose and stuffed the front end. He kicked the bike back to alive but the bobble allowed Tomac
to close right up on him. Tomac smelled blood in the water but surprisingly Barcia responded by keeping him at bay and actually pulling back out on the Kawasaki rider. It was a very impressive 2-2 performance from the JGR Yamaha rider and just what he needed to go
into the offseason with a positive state of mind. 2016 may have been a struggle as a whole but Barcia ended it very strong with a pair of second place overalls to end it.
words/SETHHARNISHFEGER
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