I hit the race with the Tallahassee Super Couple Jim and Kristen. Jim saved a turtle.

The ride up was smooth like butter until we got about 30 minutes from Heritage Park and the skies opened up for a 45 minute thunder storm. Standing water everywhere.

We spoke to a sport rider who claimed to have walked two of the big drops and crashed hard once. He had cancelled his hotel and was heading back home to Ocala. That had me a little worried. Despite the mud, roots and tricky conditions on the pre-ride I had a lot of fun slippin’ and slidin’ around the course. I think it helps having Red Bug to practice on.

By 11:30 on Sunday the course was mostly dry except for a few deep mud holes. Fast and fun. This course is a true mountain bikers course. There is no faking it. Every skill you have will be tested. Fast downhills, steep up/down switchbacks, rocks, roots, long super steep rooty climbs, big rooty drops and off camber ups/downs. Throw some wet on it and you’ve got yourself a serious challenge.

An uphill grassy start was perfect for me. I had my best start ever entering the woods third wheel. I was super pumped. Unfortunately a bio-mechanical put me at the back about 10 minutes in. I’m used to being at the back though. I chased hard to make up the 1-1.5 minutes lost. Really hard.

Made it into 5th place about 1/4 into the 3rd (last) lap and there I stayed. Dissappointing placing but I ended up only 2 minutes off Trent the Mad OX who won again. Trent is on fire! My super dork podium streak continues! The other fellas look like they’re raising their hands in triumph while I look more like, “please don’t shoot!”.

Jimbo rode his rigid 29 singlespeed to 9th. That’s hard core, but I’m hoping to get him on gears and at least front suspension. If you see him, back me up. Kristen was also 5th after a 2:50 effort. Yowsa! I think expert women should have done 2 laps. A 2:40 winning time is a bit long for an XC race. 1:50 would be more like it. Three of the expert women were out there over 3 hours. That’s approaching marathon numbers.

Add this one to the list of must do Dirty South Races.

sign the petition.

What do you get when you combine welding, stripping and modern dance? AAAAHHHHH YEAH! Flashdance!

You need inspiration to get out there and do it? Look no further.

The park folks have taken down all the trespassing signs and removed the barricades. SWEET!

This is what some folks were doing on Sunday. Pretty nifty. It’s not so much a question of can you do it, but how fast can you do it.

I got a late start Sunday. I set out to do some northside torture laps. As I made my way through Overstreet I come up on Tom and Graham G on the side of the trail. Tom had a flat. Ends up his spare tube had been in his saddle bag so long a hole was worn into a seam. I tossed him my tube because I was confident I would not flat.

I started torture lap one and was 1/2 redbug + 1/2 phipps into it when I flat. Down by the lake on the most tame little trail you could possibly ride on. A stick was flicked up by my front tire and my rear met it at exactly the perfect angle and psssssst.

I had no tube. That is the anti-karma. I don’t think I’ll be giving up my tubes anymore.

I called The Wife and she and The Kids dropped me a tube at the main Phipps entrance. I had to run 1.2 miles to get it. That sucked… but it coulda been worse. I finished my torture laps.

The Dan and I got out at lunch for a quick road pootle through Killearn Saturday. It was pretty uneventful until we got the stink eye (twice) from some sort of tri guy.

Then we passed an old fella going the opposite way wearing his helmet backwards. We really wanted to turn around and take a picture but we didn’t want to humiliate the guy. After all, he was out enjoying a day on the bike just like us.

Well we come around again and see him taking a break at the Celebration church. We hatched a plan to approach him and ask if he knew of any water fountains around and I would snap some stealth photos.

We acted like we went to get some water then as we passed him I tried for a stealthy on the bike photo that didn’t come out too good.

I got home and told The Wife what we had been up to and she called me an a-hole.

This guy is dope! A rolling party waiting to blow up!

Here’s what Fossil Fool has to say:

A bike rapper is like a regular rapper, but instead of showing up in a car and rapping about cars, I show up on bike, and rap about bikes. My bike is a Soul Cycle, which means I bring my own amplification with me. When the moment is right, I reach behind me into one of the Soul Cycle’s pockets, pull out a wireless microphone, and start flowing to the music. It takes me no time to set up, and no time to tear down.