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.**