Another day, another race in hot and sunny Florida. The race this weekend was in Brandon, Fl on the trails in Alafia State Park. The course was mostly flat and fast, but had some newly cut short and explosive climbs that were  tough and forced me along with many other riders to push the limits.

                My confidence and motivation were very high coming into this race. On top of that I have been really enjoying myself in the series this year. All of this has added to my success including a top 3 finish in this race. That being said, this race was fun, interesting, and tough all at the same time.

The start was on pavement which made it fast and breathtaking to say the least. I was able to pull myself together and go into the single-track in 3rd place, which was right where I wanted to be. However, about a mile into the race I made a huge mistake by slipping on a root allowing the front leaders to gap me and the rest of the group by about 30 seconds. This forced us to pick up the pace and make up for the lost time. At this point of the race I was hurting, and made one more costly mistake that sent me back to about 10^th place forcing me to settle in, re-focus, and pace myself. By this time I was about 20 seconds behind the leading group of 5 riders.

 So I settled in and started a comfortably hard pace, but still didn’t feel like I had what I needed to finish strong. However, about 10 miles into the race a drastic change occurred in my strength and mental state. This occurred when I, once again, saw the now 4 leaders only about 15 seconds in front of me. My confidence shot to the roof and I felt great. I slowly began to pick the pace up to where I found myself right with them going into the 3^rd lap. What a great feeling that was!

Now the true racing began. Kevin Hoffman, followed by Victor Alber, attacked just after I joined the group. A strong attack, but only enough to shake one rider off the group leaving four riders left in the lead group. Me and Ryan Woodall slowly made our way back to the two leaders and met up with them on a fire road section. As soon as we met up with them I attacked immediately with confidence setting a strong pace. This was just enough to put Kevin over the edge, but Victor Alber hung on my wheel while Ryan Woodall was just behind. I held the pace knowing that both Ryan and Victor were both extremely strong riders leaving no room for mistakes.

I came into the 4^th and final lap in the lead with Victor still hanging on and Ryan only about 5 seconds behind. I wanted the win, but it was now about who wanted it more. I attacked and attacked and attacked hoping to eventually shake off Victor and keep Ryan with a gap. This worked until we came into one of the newly cut technical sections. That’s where Victor strategically attacked and left me struggling to find strength in my legs. Closely following this was Ryan who also passed me. All I could do is hold on as much as possible and give all of what I had left. I came around the final turn in 3^rd place. I was happy at the placement, but disappointed that I didn’t have the strength to pull it off.

This was a great race and victory for Victor Alber. Ryan Woodall has been on a winning streak for the past few years and has been almost unbeatable in the local series. I was also happy with my result and hope for similar results in the future. The Florida State Championship Series has so far been very interesting with some extremely strong riders racing. I look forward to the next few races and hope that positive results and fun races continue to follow.

A big thanks goes out to Goneriding for putting on a great series so far. Take a look at their website at goneriding.com for more details. Other then that keep on riding and I hope to see some of you out at the next race in Miami, FL which will also include a cyclo-cross race on Saturday.

    Gainesville, FL Florida State Championship #4       

          After a solid month of fun on a single speed bike, I decided it was time to see where my fitness was at by racing my geared bike with the top mountain bike racers in Florida. The race was in Gainesville, FL and it was the fourth Florida State Championship Series race for the 2007 season.

            I was very confident and motivated coming into this race. The course was extremely entertaining with some longer climbs, for Florida that is, and short explosive hills. On top of that I was coming off a very strong finish in the previous race on a single speed bike.

            With that being said, I had a strong start off the line in this race putting me in second place within a half a mile. The pace was tough, but I was able to hold my own and felt confident with the pace. However, about three miles into the first loop my hopes of staying in that position fell when I heard my chain fall off and get stuck in between my front chainring and crank. I was forced to stop and get the chain back into position.

About a minute and 30 seconds of yanking at the chain, I was able to hop on the bike and get moving.  By this time I was behind the entire pack. The best thing for me to do was to start to pace myself and slowly pick off the stragglers.  I used this to my advantage and settled in at above average race pace as I slowly picked off racers and built my confidence up.

By the fifth and final lap I found myself in sixth place and slowly creeping up to the fifth place contender. After keeping such a high pace for the first four laps, I was in excruciating pain on the climbs. My legs wanted to seize up with every hard push on the pedals, but I could see the rider in front of me and kept on pushing. Halfway through that lap I caught him.

I passed him hard and fast to see what he had left. He jumped right onto my wheel and the race was on. I pushed a very hard pace and attacked a dozen times trying to get a large enough gap to where he would be forced to slow down. But he held on and wouldn’t let go. We were moving so fast that we were creeping up on the third and fourth placed riders. In fact, we passed the fourth rider with about two miles to go and came within fifteen seconds of the third rider. But, to my demise, the “wheel sucker” was able to stick to my wheel until the finish line and pass me within feet of the line putting me in fifth place at the finish.

So the race was exciting to say the least. I was surprised with my fitness considering the lower volume of training I have been doing for the past two months. I also pushed myself harder then I ever had and left nothing on the trail. Overall, the race was tough and fun at the same time. Something that is not easy to come by.

After a success in my first single speed race two weeks ago, I decided to give the single speed a go in the Semi-pro / pro class. Some people may think I am crazy, but there were three reasons for my choice: first of all the course was almost completely flat with lots of twist and turns with little need for a large gear choice, also the course was filled with large sections (10-20+ feet) of 1-2 feet of water that I decided I was going to run through and carry my bike, and at only 19 pounds the bike had a large advantage in terms of weight and acceleration. On top of that it was easy to throw the bike on my shoulders and literally sprint through the puddle sections.

In terms of the race course it was, to say the least, flooded. One of the sections was about 4 foot deep with water and almost impossible to ride through. So going into the race I just wanted to have fun and enjoy Florida’s unusual conditions that we were presented with.

At the starting line I was almost sure I would be out sprinted considering the single gear selection that I had. However, surprisingly, the lightness of the bike and 44-20 gear ratio shot me to the front of the pack and I was able to go into the trail in 5^th place. Once entering the trail I immediately hopped on my bike and starting running. I passed two more people and found myself in the top 3 early on. I was surprised and kept the intensity and running consistent. I was interested to see if I really could stay with the top guys on a single speed. So I kept the pace up and slowly started to pick off the other two riders in front of me to the point where I found myself in first place leading the semi-pro / pro class about 5 miles into the course. I pushed the pace as much as possible, but found little to no ground on the 5+ riders behind me.  But then we hit the largest flooded area on the trail. There I jumped off my bike and sprinted pushing the limits of my fitness level. I managed to gap the group by about 15-20 seconds and came around the first lap in first place.

I was very excited and surprised to say the least. I was wondering if I could keep this grueling pace up and was quickly answered with burning pain in my legs.  I pushed it a little farther until my fitness gave way. I came to the front section again and jumped off my bike, but my legs didn’t want to run anymore. I was forced to stop and recover from what was too high of a pace for me.

However, I was able to recover and get back into the race slowly. I stayed positive, had fun, and I started to pace myself for what was a very, very tough race of running and biking. I came around the 22 mile course in 6^th place. A very respectable position considering the circumstances and bike I was running.

Overall that was one of the most fun races I have been in. On top of that it was a huge learning experience. I hit the wall hard, blew up, but recovered and pulled off a decent result. This will be a race to remember. Next time I will plan ahead and bring the wetsuit, some running shoes, and maybe a snorkel or two.

Thanks to all my sponsors for the race. They keep me going and on top of my game 24/7.

 Stay tuned for some more crazy Florida races in the next few months and good luck to everyone in their races.

Drew Edsall