How the time Flies!

 Summer is almost over and it's been quite a year! 2022 turned out to be our comeback season! After laying low in recent years, with the Covid Pandemic finally moving past us, we got excited to get back in the swing of racing and for our primary goal as ORAMM in July. 

First up in February was the 12 Hours of Santos (3 hour edition) After getting a taste of racing again in January's Bad Habit, we selected Santos as a first event to actually prep for. Chose the 3 hour edition to keep it fast and fun. Alex would dust off his race legs and come out for the first race in 3 years! I'd been dabbling at the fun events over the last 2 years, but this was first serious effort to prepare for an event. The 12 Hour Santos Event is one of the biggest events in the State of Florida due to typically perfect weather and a great course. Racers typically camp on the grounds and make

it a great riding weekend, so that's what we did! The race itself was came and went quickly as the course consists of 3 flow sections divided by two twisty, punchy, techy sections. Put out some decent efforts and kept the rubber side mostly down and had some solid feelings at the end of the day to know that ORAMM was going to be attainable!

Next up was the Hialeah Hustle, a 60 mile event at Amelia Earhart Park and one of my home events. If Santos was the tech course, Amelia is the flow, with basically 7-8 mile loops of fast flowing singletrack. Easy to go fast, but also easy to push too hard and pop. Unfortunately, the rance landed on what turned out to be one of the early HOT days of the year in April. I started with intentions of hitting the 60 miles, but 3 hours in, it was 11am and temps were already at 91 degrees! I had more in the tank but was definitely feeling the heat and decided to play it safe and call it a day at the half way mark. Saw many in the field with the same idea, and with highs of almost 94 that day, I didn't regret the decision. Didn't get race footage this day, but here's a taste of Amelia in the vid below!

Finally up, was ORAMM, but I'll give it a dedicated post as it's truly a great event. Will get that posted up next!

2022 is here and so are we!

Finally racing across Florida has been back in action for over a year now and we're excited to kick off our 2022 campaign, kicking off the year with Endurance races. Our main target is a return to Oramm in Old Fort, NC, (Whiskey Off-Road in Prescott, Az) and we'll be using some of Florida's toughest Endurance events to prepare!

2022 kickoff at the Bad Habit

Eric here and a week ago we kicked off at the Bad Habit 4 Hour race at Markham Park. Normally beautiful Florida January conditions were swapped out for chilly 50s, wind and overcast skies for the entire day. I targeted the race for early season fitness and wasn't too disappointed. My racing skills on the otherhand were a bit rusty. A nearly immediate pileup had my lane completely blocked and quickly passed by the large mass start group. 15 minutes of bottlenecks later, the course cleared enough to get on my pace. and ride a mostly otherwise uneventful race. My single lap pace wasn't bad, but overall I'm not ready to challenge in the Sport 40+ age group yet in these long events. Had a great time getting back out and seeing old friends though and even had the family show up and cheer me on which is great motivation!

Nothing like a family
fan club to push you!

Now that we've started, I'm happy to say that Alex and Eric Norris are back and will join in the adventures once again! We've got the 12 Hours of Santos (3 hour distance) and San Felasco Endurance race in the early season calendar, but the big target is a return to the Whiskey Off-Road in April! Had such a great experience in 2019 I immediately said I'd return (Update) ORAMM and looks like 2022 is the year to make it happen!

Can't kick off a season without support and am excited to have continued support from our old friends. in no particular order, here are some of those that are helping us this season so far!

ESI Grips - What can I say about them? They're simply the best grip out there. Durable, GRIPPY and FUN due to the variety of sizes and colors. What's really been great about them is dealing with the family. After many years of partnering with them we took a step back due to our lack of racing, but when I reached out Anastasia she was more than welcome to extend support for 2022 again. 

Rudy Project - Have loved wearing and representing Rudy Project for over 10 years and have  always love their style and fit. Their glasses and helmets can be seen all over the Pro Peloton and Mountain Bike fields, and you'll see them once again on us!

Twin Six - Twin Six has been a personal supporter since 2014 and I simply love them. They bring fun an funky, American Made cycling apparel that's simply awesome to wear. There's many big brands out there, but Twin Six is family run from the USA and it's a pleasure to represent the brand. We may have team kits at some point this year, but Twin Six gear will be with us along the way.  

GoPro - A recent addition to our supporter list and I don't think there's enough I can say about them. True pioneers in the action cam industry, GoPro has mostly led the industry since day one. I've personally used them for many years with various models, and the current Hero 10 Black is truly the best they've put out. With amazing quality and image stabilization, great battery life and a mobile app that makes footage easy to process and publish, the Hero really has become a product thats easy and FUN to use. Will be seeing plenty of footage from us using our GoPros!

That's it for now. The training is in full swing and looking forward to Santos in a few weeks! Thanks for following along another year!