Friday, May 9, 2014

2014 Florida State MTB Championship--Lakeland, FL (5/4/14)

Ethan A., Bryce K., Me, Nico T.
Steve Agronick--still shredding it in his 70's
Last weekend was the Florida State XC Mountain Bike Championship. I had a blast and really enjoyed seeing all my local friends.








Saturday was not the best pre-ride I've ever had, but to be fair, it wasn't too bad. I was originally not going to ride the course because the past couple days it had been raining hard, making the trails really muddy and slick. But, after waiting two hours, I decided to just go ahead and ride two laps. The course was drying up really quick and by the time I was finishing my second lap it was almost completely dry. However, once I changed and packed up the car, it started pouring AGAIN.


Sunday was much better. By the time I raced, the course was mostly dry and fast. After doing my warm-up, I went to staging and waited for the start of my class. Off the line I had the hole shot, gapping everyone by several yards.

Throughout the race I just tried to keep a fast and steady pace, and by the time I crossed the finish line, I was over five minutes ahead of second. (Actually, second, third and fourth had an exciting sprint to the finish that I was glad I got to see.)


After looking at my lap times, I noticed that I had one of the fastest lap times of the day. I was only surpassed by the Pros and Cat 1 19-29 men. Winning this race was a great accomplishment, and I can't wait to try and get my 5th Florida State Championship title in the criterium race towards the end of the month.


**Thanks to Michael Ploch, Christie Burnett and Carissa House for the race photos I "borrowed" for this week's blog.**

6 comments:

  1. Great job Mike! So far you've crushed about everyone in the country!
    Just wondering, are you going to the Talent ID Camp in Boulder CO this June?

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    1. Thanks, John! I'm not going to be able to go to the camp this year because I'm going out to Wisconsin for road nats the beginning of July and we're already going to be on the road for the whole month doing races. Last year I did the East Coast camp in Maryland, which was cool. Maybe next year, if I decide not to do road nationals.

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    2. Yep, Cooper and I are going. If this camp helps me get within 30 seconds of beating you, I'm coming back next year. :)

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