This past Sunday was a very tough and intense day of cycling. With an important AMBC race coming up next weekend I wanted to get some great training in along with some fun racing. So I decided to race a very technical mountain bike trail and follow that with a Cat 3 Criterium (State Championships).

The mountain bike race was a lot of fun. The locals absolutely kicked ass on the technical areas, but my fitness level gave me an advantage. I went back and forth with one other racer for the first and seconds laps, but was finally able to shake him off in the last lap to pull off my first cross country win of the year. I was so stoked about my win. The endorphins were kicking in and I told myself I couldn’t stop there and went directly to the Cat 3 Crit State Championships which started about an hour after I finished the mountain bike race. I was dehydrated, sore, and very close to bonkingl, however, I knew that the benefit from the extra race would pay off in the long run. The Crit was, to say the least, painful. I positioned myself in 10^th place coming into the last corner where I met a steep uphill followed by about 100 meters of flat section to the finish. I stood up planning on sprinting and did so for most of the hill, but then my legs just gave up. The prior race took out almost all the power I had to sprint with. So I ended up finishing in 26^th place. Not too bad considering I won a race about an hour prior to starting that race!

So this past Sunday was a very good training day that has left me in pain that will probably last throughout the middle of the week, but it has more then prepared me for what is to come this next weekend in my second race as a semi-pro.

SERC #5 Ducktown, TN

Coming into this past weekend’s race I was almost sure that we were in for another mud fest. So I prepared for the worst and packed my car as full as possible. Saturday met all my expectations with foggy, rainy conditions which made for an interesting pre-ride of the course to say the least. However, after spending at least an hour and a half cleaning my bike that night and putting new brake pads in, we were pleasantly welcome by a sunny and great racing day on Sunday.

I was more then prepared to do well in my debut as a semi-pro. I was familiar with the competitors on the starting line and knew what had to be done to do well. I did have my doubts though including some tough climbs, and believe me they were tough especially for a native Floridian. I got a great start and headed into the first 20 minutes of climbing. I settled into a solid 2^nd place not knowing how my body would react to a faster then normal pace that was also up a 2 mile climb, something we never get in Florida! I blew up about 15 minutes into the race and was passed by 3 struggling individuals putting me in 5^th place. When the climb was over I had lost about 2 minutes on the leaders.  A brutal burning sensation sat in my legs the entire first lap. At that point in the race I never expected to pull through with a good finish, but I knew that my fitness level was very high and that anything was possible. So I stuck with it and was able to get into a solid rhythm halfway through the race. I made up 3 positions and watched as I passed the racers that had originally passed me in the beginning. I had a very good feeling seeing that I sat in their exact same positions only an hour earlier. I was able to hold a good pace on the last lap and drop a minute off my previous lap’s time. I came through the finish line in 2^nd place in the semi-pro / pro class. I was very happy considering this was my debut at the semi-pro / pro level. Overall a great course and finish at Ducktown, TN that had its share of challenges along with some very fast and fun downhills.

After training hard for a solid 2 weeks, it's now coming down to that time of racing. The car's getting loaded with three bikes, 2 friends, and a bunch of bikegear for a long 12 hour drive to Ducktown, TN. I'm looking forward to new competition in the Semi-Pro / Pro field seeing that this will be my first race at that level. Come join in the fun and let's see what you got!