Race Report & Pics: FSC #1 2015 Tallahassee

It's finally here! Been a long, hot Summer of hard work, training and a little fun to boot, but ready or not, the 2015 FSC is here!

Lots of changes went down over the Summer. We added some friends to the group, some guys still race, others just love cycling, but we're all friends so we still ride together as Eclipse Racing no matter what colors we wear on race day. Which leads me to yours truly, Eric G, and Boyco joining up with some of our old friends on Mack Cycle's new MTB team.

The old gang, and a few more, all together

The toughest part of the kickoff weekend is the long drive from South Florida to the State Capital in Tallahassee. We changed it up from our usual routine and actually left on Friday afternoon and it really paid off. Instead of arriving tired on Saturday mid day, we had a relaxing morning and hit the trails for some comfortable shakedown laps. This course is a nice mix of climbing and descents. After an opening double track climb, racers are kicked down the Cadillac section that's pretty much wide open bench cut single track, with some bumps and roots to keep your brakes from getting too bored. Throw in a few A & B lines and it's definitely a section to make some passes. Later on Walley World kicks the racers over a perfectly groomed double to hit a nice wooden wall that usually draws a crowd, encouraging the racers to "Get some wood!!"

Walley World

Race day weather was perfect and the races went off quickly. With so many of us in attendance, we'll pick a few random results to talk about. Vic started in his Elite class, a combined class of all Expert 19-49 races. While they'd also be scored in their respective classes, this is where you can find the fastest racers in Florida. After lap one he was mixed in with about the Top 11 riders which then started separating out. After three laps he was battling with another racer between 7th and 8th place. He managed to pull away from his chaser to end up in 7th on the day, and 4th in class, landing him in the always impressive 40-49 podium! The story of the day was Bob McCarty, who popped his chain coming out of the gate, Fixed it in a few minutes, and chased back to finish 5th on the day in the Elite division. No less impressive was Bob's teammate, Doug DeWeese, who took his first overall Elite victory on this day!

Boyco set off in the XC2 19-29, 18 deep which includes contains some of the fastest junior racers in the state. Looks can certainly be deceiving with these kids! After the shuffle of the start, Boyco had just missed the lead group escape and was part of the a chase group. By lap two it was down to a trio and it became a strategy game. Evenly matched through most of the trail, Boyco snuck away with a small gap on the last twisty section to charge to the finish line ahead of the others for 8th place.

As for me, well it started well at least. My XC2 30-39 class was a bit smaller than usual with only 9 racers. I stuck to the group early and tried not to do anything silly. I made a move to get into the Cadillac section first from the group I was with and it worked, so that was fun, but after that I got swarmed on a climb and got sent to the rear. I held everyone close for the better part of 2 laps until my old back issues kicked in and I fell off the pace. Kept it upright the rest of the way, didn't finish last and well, had some fun. The form isn't bad, but I can't shake this injury.

As of this writing, FSC #2 in Jacksonville already passed and was a muddy mess! Elite winner on the day was Bob McCarty with our Vic Nelson grabbing 7th overall again in Elite and 3rd in class! FSC #3 is coming THIS weekend and we'll be at the always awesome Alafia River State Park for that one! Stay tuned for more pics and reports! Enjoy some of the pics below and thanks for following along!

 

Great kickoff to the 2015 FSC. Mostly ITT, Kids, and White wave pics here. Don't forget to like our page on the way out!
Posted by Mack Cycle Mountain Bike Team on Tuesday, September 22, 2015