Sunday marked the 2nd race in the Georgia State Championship Series. This was a dual event which also included the South Eastern Racing Series. That always means a bigger, more competitive group of racers coming out to compete for points.
Once again, the racing gods were not smiling upon us with good weather. All of us had already prepared ourselves for a potential mud-fest due to the threat of rain and thunderstorms the night before. The good news was that it didn't rain as much as predicted, but the bad news was that it had rained just enough to still make conditions a little tricky on the fast, eroded, rooty descents.
Temperatures were almost worse than with the first race where we started out in the 30s due to overcast conditions, and winds that ranged between 10 - 20mph! At the end of the races, we were standing around, teeth chattering, waiting on results which thankfully didn't blow away in the wind!
Results were as follows:
Samuel Mendez (kids 4 to 6) - 1st
Gabriel Mendez (kids 6 to 8) - 4th
Jose Mendez (men's sport 30+) - 7th
Joseph Grimes (men's sport 20+) - ?
Nicki Sutherland (women's sport open) - 2nd
Here follows some comments from the days racing...
Kids Race (commented by Jose)
Samuel came in First place clearing the pack after the first turn. The race course was shorter than last year which probably benefited him since he likes shorter efforts. He was happy with his finish, of course, and even wanted to go and tell the announcer (Bruce) that he won.
Gabriel had a tough race. Had a larger field and the 6-8 category actually rides into the woods - which were wet and a little tricky for young ones. He got a decent start and managed to go 3rd into the woods looking good. I met him on the other side when exiting the woods for the first time and he was doing OK but you could see the pain in his face. He looped around and heading back into the woods still in third place. I veered off to meet him on the other side. I sat there for a bit and here comes 1st place, then 2nd, then the boy who had been 4th into the woods. Uh Oh, where's Gabriel?! I race into the woods to find him on the side of the trail "working" on his bike. Gabriel crashed and lost his chain in the process. He was OK so I finished putting his chain back on and pushed him off. He finished the race in 4th place and was exhausted. Still happy with his finish though.
Jose's Race (commented by Jose)
Overall, I had a good race. We lined up to make up a 30 racer field - less than expected but not bad considering it was pouring the night before and the word on the web was that it would be nasty. As it turns out the conditions were great, maybe it was too dry before the rain so the trail just sucked up the water leaving only a few truly muddy spots plus slightly larger water crossings.
So we are off and immediately I hear my gears jumping around in the back. Hmm, I guess all that adjusting I did Thursday before the race wasn't quite on - oh well, push on. Went into the woods in top 10 position. Then it gets scary for about 5 minutes. The first section is just knarly switchback down hills (and wet) with some seriously tight fits between trees and over BIG roots. Got beyond that uneventfully,looked down and guess what! ...no flats and a chain still on the bike - already better than the Macon race. We push thru the first lap breaking up the group about 30 minutes in leaving about 5 of us breaking away (yes,roadie term). Kept the pace with that group until we made it to the Start/Finish (1st lap though) where I was starting to fall behind the lead group slightly and caught by another rider in my category. I chased him as long as I could but probably a mistake. It made me fade half into the second lap for a few minutes being passed I believe by another rider. Then something happened, I don't know, maybe the GU kicked in - whatever, and I woke up. Picked it up again and started my way pushing up the final sections. I could see 8th place every time we were going opposite ways on the final switchbacks... that's always an incentive to push harder. With 8th place maybe 20-30 seconds behind me I managed to make it to the finish in 7th place. Don't ask me about 6th place, I was in defense mode at that point. I couldn't tell you how far ahead 6th place was from me.
So a good race all in all. I really did not go into this expecting a top 10 position as this was a combined series race. Both the GSC and the SERC series were part of this race. Looking forward to more pain, I mean fun, in two weeks at Winder, GA.
Nicki's Race (commented by Nicki)
The weather combined with a short warm-up and sinus congestion, did not make me feel like I was fully-joy for this race. But the legs didn't feel too bad when I hopped on the mountain bike finally to line up for the race start.
I got a good start, and made sure I was first in the woods. But on the first incline, I wasn't running on all 4 cylinders, and just didn't feel like I wanted to get out of the saddled to chase the girls down. So I sat it out and dropped into 3rd place. The girl in 1st was quickly pulling away from us and I had already decided that she would be the one to chase down today. As we hit the tricky down hill sections, the girl now in 2nd, was tightening up. I found a save spot and put her behind me, moving back into 2nd and never seeing her again. Trying to chase down the girl in 1st, I slipped on a root in a turn, went down and took a handle bar in the stomach. I quickly picked myself up and moved on, trying not to focus on the pain from the fall. At that point, I decided that I would just ride my own race and be a little more conservative today and rather be safe.
Even though I never saw the girl in 1st place again, I felt like I had a good ride (I say ride because I felt like this was more of a ride than a race!)and that in fact, I felt better in the 2nd lap than I did in the first. I think this was probably due to the fact that I decided to ride my own pace, and was able to get a really good warm up. The dismount and run up I had to do up a newly cut section of climbing didn't hurt as much as it usually does either. Ursula was right! Running pays off for situations like these. I wanted to try to climb it, but both times I was forced to dismount due to riders in front of me, and as we know, when you are off the bike on a climb, you are better off just running up the rest of it.
The trail truly felt really good, except for the descents which forced me to ride the brakes a lot more than I usually like to. The bikes also didn't take excess beating, but it is waiting for me at home with a sad face to properly clean it as soon as the sun shines again.
Joseph's Race (commented by Joseph)
to be short... I did survive the course. The conditions were much better than Tsali - like, worlds apart. The trail was wet enough to feel tacky and just enough to make the roots sketchy, and make me feel faster through them!!! I had fun and I scored a top 15.
Next one is Fort Yargo... this will be a really fast race. Course conditions are very much like Flatrock, except with a nasty climb 1/2 way into the lap.
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