Fernandina Beach proved again to be a very fun race weekend. Mountain biking, eating out with friends and playing on the beach. Who could ask for more?
As usual we headed up to Fernandina on Friday afternoon. After we got there we unloaded very fast and headed down to the beach. My Dad's parents came along this year as well as my Dad's Brother's family. Running around on the beach at night made me relaxed and started off the weekend just right. Saturday morning we all met for breakfast and headed to Ft Clinch State park. Obviously the trail had recieved some rain because it was a lot less sandy than past years. There was still some sand but not like you were riding ON the beach as in years past. The local bike club had also made some improvements to the trail. Mulch was spread in some really sandy areas and stones that were added to the big climb last year had finally settled in. The preride went great. My Dad went over a few areas to watch out for and then turned us loose to do a couple of laps. We hung out for a little bit and headed to the beach. I spent the rest of the day body surfing, boogey boarding and skim boarding with my Uncle Jeff and fellow teammates Sam and Morgan.
RACE DAY! I wasn't out for revenge but I was determined to climb up the podium. Mentally I was ready and physically I was ready. Goneriding took us out on a controlled start because of the amount of pavement leading out to the trail and because of the cars and RV's coming down the same road we were racing on. Austin took off sooner on the motorcycle than I had planned on but there was plenty of road to get a good position into the woods. THEN, we saw a huge RV in the road and had to settle in line earlier than we wanted. I entered the woods 8th but made a few quick passes to get to 6th. 7 of us were wheel to wheel the entire first lap. When we exited the trail to head to scoring we had about a mile of pavement to ride on so I made a few more moves and reentered the woods in 4th. There were plenty of places to pass but the trail was soft and made acceleration difficult. Thanks to the 100 yards of pavement in the middle of the woods I was able to move up 1 more spot. Colin, who stopped to help Adam at Tallahassee was leading and had clear trail in front of him. AND HE TOOK OFF! We chased as hard as we could but he was gone. We came out of the trail onto the half mile of pavement for what I knew was going to be a sprint finish. About half way to the finish I hammered it. Tyler Mayer was in front of me my teammate Adam Cohen was right behind me and the 3 person fight for 2nd was on. Fortunately I had enough in me and crossed the line for a 2nd place finish. With my heart rate reaching 203 I felt like puking and almost did.
Congratulations to Colin for winning FSC 2. I ended up 2nd with Tyler, Adam and Cody Ham filling out the top 5.
RACE DAY! I wasn't out for revenge but I was determined to climb up the podium. Mentally I was ready and physically I was ready. Goneriding took us out on a controlled start because of the amount of pavement leading out to the trail and because of the cars and RV's coming down the same road we were racing on. Austin took off sooner on the motorcycle than I had planned on but there was plenty of road to get a good position into the woods. THEN, we saw a huge RV in the road and had to settle in line earlier than we wanted. I entered the woods 8th but made a few quick passes to get to 6th. 7 of us were wheel to wheel the entire first lap. When we exited the trail to head to scoring we had about a mile of pavement to ride on so I made a few more moves and reentered the woods in 4th. There were plenty of places to pass but the trail was soft and made acceleration difficult. Thanks to the 100 yards of pavement in the middle of the woods I was able to move up 1 more spot. Colin, who stopped to help Adam at Tallahassee was leading and had clear trail in front of him. AND HE TOOK OFF! We chased as hard as we could but he was gone. We came out of the trail onto the half mile of pavement for what I knew was going to be a sprint finish. About half way to the finish I hammered it. Tyler Mayer was in front of me my teammate Adam Cohen was right behind me and the 3 person fight for 2nd was on. Fortunately I had enough in me and crossed the line for a 2nd place finish. With my heart rate reaching 203 I felt like puking and almost did. 
No comments:
Post a Comment