SouthEast Bike Expo

The SouthEast Bike Expo was better than I could have imagined.  I was ready to do some mountain bike riding outside of Florida and Conyers, GA seemed like the best spot.  Although it was 40 degrees and rainy we still were excited to be there. 

We arrived on Friday night and had dinner with Josh and Ty from Orbea.  Those two are really cool to hang out with and we had planned on riding with them but they were too busy at the expo.  Next time guys! 

First thing Saturday morning we hit the trails.  Conyers wasn't like I remembered it.  It was muddy and open.  The area was logged last year and it opened up the area a lot.  The last time we were there it was rainy but the trails held up better than they did this time.  The climbs were still there and I did some of them several times just to get some training in.  Since it was so wet we skipped the granite side and got cleaned up and headed to the expo.

A lot of vendors were there and we got to see the new products and talk to a lot of people about their products.  The highlights were meeting the Vee Rubber Tires crew and getting to see their complete lineup of tires and the SRAM tent had me drooling for some XX1.  Vee Rubber Tires is one of our CycleYouth sponsors and I really enjoyed seeing all their tires first hand.  They have a tire for every kind of bike riding and my Dad and I spent a lot of time with them.  I saw about 5 different tires that would work great here in Florida.  We have hard packed, sand, mud, clay, and everything else in between down here and just about every state series race could require a different tread.  Vee Rubber has us covered!  Thanks for all the swag guys!!!  The socks are super comfortable!

We did another ride that afternoon and hit a small portion of the granite but it was still slick so we cleaned up again and headed out to dinner.  The next morning a few of us went for another ride and the trails had dried out some and the sun was out.  We were able to ride the granite side this time and got some good mileage in with a lot of climbing.

I headed back to the expo for the final time and ran into some of the Georgia CycleYouth team.  I went to the KMC tent and hung out for a while and then made my way to Vee Rubber Tires again.  I feel I have some good tire combinations picked out and can't wait to try them out.

The expo had a lot of vendors and plenty of swag to go around.  I got a lot of samples of gels, tshirts, key chains, water bottles, stickers and beanies.  I can't wait until next years expo!

6 hours of El Legarto

This was my first endurance race of the year and I trained my butt off for it.  I wanted to concentrate on more endurance training this year so I set my first goal to win this race.  I won the junior division a couple of times so last year I moved up to the adult division.  It didn't work out too well.  Even though I would have won the junior division again I only placed 12th in the adult division.  This year I was out to win it!  I entered the Strava base mile challenge to help keep me motivated.  I did 570 miles in January on the mountain bike preparing for the 6 hour race.  Thanks to my training partner Jeff Adams for pushing me at a fast pace during these rides.  We tried to keep the pace above 13 average and were successful at doing so.  The week before the race I did my last big ride of 80 miles and averaged 13.2 mph.  I felt really good on that ride and knew I was ready for the race.

On race day I was pumped and ready to ride.  Red Trail Racing always starts this race off with a 50 yard potatoe sack hop and I was the second one on the bike.  I ended up behind Zach Fout and he had the same strategy as I did...take of hard to avoid the bottle necks and then settle in.  I followed him for the first two laps and then he asked me if I wanted to lead for a little bit.  I went around him and without even realizing it I had opened up a 30 second gap.  I stopped after each lap to get a fresh bottle and some food.  The quarter turkey sandwiches, honey stingers, granola bars and twizzlers were going down great.  As I was leaving my pit area I could see Zach entering his and we were eyeballing each other the entire time.  When I would get to a certain part of the road leading back into the trail Zach would take off again.  I knew he was pacing me.  Around the fourth hour I was expecting Zach to make a move but he never did so I held my 13 mph pace and so did he.  I was feeling really good and was ready for Zach to attack at anytime.  As cutoff approached I was looking over my shoulder a lot and Zach was not closing in so I maintained my pace and kept chugging along.  As I approached scoring for my last lap I was debating on whether to stop again.  My bottle was low so I quickly grabbed another one and took off.  I pushed really hard on this lap trying to open up the gap on Zach so he would really have to work hard to beat me.  I noticed in the trail he was a little further behind me but I wasn't going to back off.  The last thing I wanted was a sprint finish after doing 70 miles.  As I was getting closer to the finish I kept trying to pick up the pace even more and ended up making my last lap just about as fast as my first.  I was excited to take the win.

My goal was to win this race so I could move up a class and race against Kenda/Felt rider Drew Edsall next year.  Drew gives riding clinics to my team a few times a year and it will be an honor to race against him next year.  Our local newspaper, The Ledger, did an article on me and the CycleYouth team before the race and they showed up to do a post race interview.  I had a lot to live up to and I'm glad I did.  My teammates Sam, Jordon, and Jared also had great races finishing 1st, 2nd and 3rd.  Good job guys on a podium sweep in the junior class!   

 

This is who I'm going after next year!

Here is to good riding Drew...see you soon!