FSC #6 - ALACHUA

      San Felasco has always been one of my favorite courses. Mostly because it has a combination flowy short track, technical trails, and a lot of climbing.This is good for me since I'm a pretty good climber. The day of the pre-ride the course was exactly what I wanted. It started off with a gradual climb then went off into some flowy downhill single track for about 1/4 of a mile. Then it went back one even longer and steeper climb and open grass field. Then back into some single track with a lot of climbing, but not nearly as tough. I knew that the first two climbs was where I would need to make my move to open up the gap. The trails were awesome. A cold front came through the night before which made the trails nice and tacky. You could literally nail the corners as hard as you wanted without fearing you would slide out. There were tons of lines, as well. On my second pre-ride lap I made sure to have them all memorized. After pre-ride we went back to the campground for a relaxing evening. 

     I woke up on Sunday to some chilly weather and was totally diggin' it. I got to the trails early enough to watch the Yellow Wave and got ready for my race. With this cool weather I was antsy to get rollin' and made sure to warm up a little more than usual. By the time my wave lined up I was ready to rock n'

roll! The whistle blew I jumped off the start, second off the 

At the start line it was me and Adam battling for that hole shot!

line behind Adam Cohen. As we came to the first climb I made my move. I hit it pretty fast but made sure to conserve my energy for the other climbs. I looked back to see that I had roughly a 5 second gap on them going into the single track. I hammered this section to make sure the gap wasn't closed so that by the time we hit the next climb I could open it up even more. As we came onto the next, even bigger climb, I hit it hard and fast without letting loose. I would look back occasionally and see the gap widening. As we entered another single track I had roughly a 10-12 second gap. I knew there was a downhill coming up and it would give me the chance to recover so I could attack the next climb and continue to open up my gap. My strategy worked. I made sure not to let loose during the race so that I would have consistent lap times. Coming through scoring after my second lap I was in a good lead position with about a 1 1/2 minute gap. Going into the 3rd lap I made sure not to slow down and I pushed forward giving it my all. It took a lot of pain and suffering, but I managed to pull a 1st place finish with consistent lap times. 

1st Place Samuel Connell, 2nd Place Adam Cohen, 3rd Place Tyler Mayer

     Thanks to all my sponsors for their support. So proud to be a part of Team Bents! Thanks everyone for the encouragement!

To see more race pics go to:

www.cycleography.zenfolio.com