Edict

My first sport class Florida State MTB race was hard. I know I say that after every MTB race and I guess that's because every race is hard. This one had me almost passing out at the finish. Poor hydration (again), pushing too hard at the beginning to keep Steve in sight, and riding the 3 days prior to the race all contributed to my list of excuses. I had hoped the new bike would magically enable me to stay on Steve's wheel, but alas that was not the case. Plus the seating position on the Felt is more aggressive than my Stumpjumper and this caused some back and hand discomfort that I was not accustomed to. Wow, I do have a lot of excuses don't I?

Maybe it wasn't a good idea to ride the new bike, but how could I not ride it? I should have taken a few days off before the race like I normally do but could you really just let that brand new toy sit in the shop?

Anyhoo enough with the whining. I got 6th out of 17 in the old man sport class. I didn't leave anything on the trail. The bike handled flawlessly. I dropped my Endurolyte pills while trying to open the bottle on the second lap. I almost crashed twice drinking from my water bottle. In the future I'll run a Camelback and some sort of liquid electrolyte mix in a bottle. I cramped on the last lap and almost didn't make it around the BMX track at the finish. The heckling from the BC gallery helped me ride through the pain.

I know that's not much of a race report. I could go into a little more detail such as I was on 4th place's wheel until we climbed out of Kudzilla on the second lap, then I lost touch with him. 5th place didn't catch me until I sat up on Magnolia on the last lap. I guess since it was our home race and we ride that trail all the time there doesn't seem like there's that much to say.

Blake had a good ride. I try not to brag on my kid but I was proud of the way he went after this race. In the 15-18 class there's not any distinction between base, sport, or expert so they all race together. He came around on the first of his two laps in second place. He lost two spots on the last lap and ended up 4th. Since this class is the future of MTB racing I had hoped they would trophy back to 5th, however they only went to 3rd. Higher Ground stepped up and gave him prize money anyway.

Speaking of Higher Ground they treated us like factory riders for the day. Donuts and bagels for breakfast. After race hot dogs. I saw them fix all kinds of bikes for free and they worked all day Saturday on the skills track.

Even with all my excuses it was still a great weekend.