Gainesville went good but not so good. Saturday afternoon was the Individual Time Trail (ITT) that was cancelled in Tallahassee due to rain. I was pumped for it since it is worth up to 5 bonus points. It was a 4 mile sprint that about made me puke! I knew it would be. I had a real fast and smooth run and only hit 1 tree towards the end. I kind of bounced off it so it really didn't slow me down any. My time was 18:41 and that was not only the fastest in my class but the fastest in the whole white wave. I was very suprised to find out that it was the 26th fastest time out of almost 180 riders for both the white and yellow waves. LeRoy's Bikeworks (my bike shop sponsor) was the round sponsor and gave new Orbea helmets to the fastest Junior 15-18, Junior 10-14 and to the GM base class. So I got me a new Orbea helmet. Thanks LeRoy! Oh, the fastest white wave mens division received an Orbea 29er frame and fastest female a set of SRAM wheels.
Sunday. Race day. I was still pumped from the ITT and felt good on the line. I had a game plan and was ready to race. When we took off I got sandwiched on the sprint and had to back off a little. I still went into the woods in good shape and most of us stuck together for the first half of the lap. Back in the rock quarry section we had a climb that is jagged rock with some steep elevation. This is where Andy Johnston's coaching from CycleYouth camp took over. Andy worked a lot with me on pedal stroke during camp and I have been using his technique ever since. I was able to pass everyone in front of me on the climb and took over first place. Now it was time to open it up and see what everyone else brought. I stretched my lead out to about 45 seconds after the first lap but I couldn't back off because Colin, who won FSC #2 was in 3rd with my teammate Adam Cohen in 2nd. Adam has been getting faster every race so far and I knew he wasn't far behind. Colin is usually faster on his second lap and Adam is very consistent on his laps so I had to keep hammering. With about 2 miles to go I had a 39 second lead when I rounded to corner at the big rock section and there was two other races on the ground all tangled up. Because of the lay out of the trail I had no place to go. To the right was a 50 foot drop into a quarry and to the left was rock too big to climb over with a bike. I had no choice but to try to get them to somehow let me around. A special thanks to some racers from the yellow wave who did a lot of yelling at the downed riders for me. Anyway, I was still in first by about 15 seconds and had the steepest climbs in front of me. Adam Cohen got stopped going up a climb by a rider in another age group who did not make one of the climbs and Colin bolted around him. Colin then turned on the rockets he keeps somewhere in his bike and closed what little gap I had left. Colin simply had more in him and won the sprint finish by about 5 seconds. I finished 2nd and teammate Adam Cohen took 3rd. I could blame the crash that held me up for me not winning but that is a part of racing. We are three races into the season and I am now in 1st place in the Junior 15-18 category. Adam Cohen also moved up to 4th overall.
So far this race season is looking good. Our CycleYouth/LeRoy's Bikeworks team is now in 2nd place in the team competition, moving up from 4th after FSC #2. Everyone is performing as expected and we are looking forward to next weeks race at Alafia. Congratulations to all the CY/LeRoy racers for giving it their all.
Me--2nd 15-18
Adam Cohen--3rd 15-18
Madison McDaniel--mechanical DNF W3 (next week Madison)
Sam Connell--2nd 11-14
Jordon Karras--4th 11-14
Ethan Audette--5th 11-14
Morgan Connell--11th 11-14
Jared Coker--13th 11-14
good read
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