Topic: Alafia race course for this Sunday

[EllsRider]

The course is staked and is approx. 6.3 miles. If rain comes in Sat. morning the course will be beautiful and fast. A lot of people will be surprised that the new north trail is not part of the course. Art and Dave from Gone Riding were out with the water truck soaking some of the sandy areas. It packs the sand instantly and hopefully with rain on Sat. will stay packed. The course goes out the main trail to horseshoe and loops through "Shelly?" and then back onto the main trail and crosses the service road. As you cross the road a new section was added that takes you to the first technical section . Art has decided to mix it up and is running this section backwards. A long climb and then  the very steep short climb that puts you back onto the main trail take a righty and into "franks loop?".  Rock Garden is next but skips the more technical first section. A cut through trail eliminates another section of Rock Garden and you exit at the service road where you double back to the entrance of Bridges. At the end of Bridges you skip the first big whoops hill and then ride back up to the whoops section. Then you ride all the way back in and do Rollercoaster. A couple of short cut throughs eliminates some of the switchback turns as you head to Moonscape. Everyone  is riding Moonscape this year.The bail out trail is used  to skip the climb at what I call 4 Palm Hill. You climb up the bench cut(Flintstone Parkway) and head across the rocky babyhead section and down the big drop. Watch out for an ankle grabber at the top of the hill on the right hand side. Ride through and skip the doom trail. The last backcorner section of Moonscape is skipped also as you hug a skinny bench cut and ride to the end of of the Moonscape section and then out to the powerline trail. Loop back through the start gate and do it again. All in all I think it rides pretty fast and has good flow.

[chisel]

 

[EllsRider]

Update:   Dateline 10/27/2006 ....... AJ's Bikes   ..... The whitewave will not be riding Moonscape.

[SS29er8]

just read about the race!  what's the start time, are there different skill levels, etc.?  Thanks!  ride on

[EllsRider]

SS29er8   ... sorry  I did not see your post till Sunday evening. You can get the race info at Goneriding.com. The next race is in two weeks in the Miami area. I think this one is at Oleta. Never been there before so can't  say too much about it. I will say that the races are a blast. They are an excellent motivator and will make you a better and faster rider if you do them. The overall scene is prety cool. The Alafia race is now over  at this time. iI think I like the out of town races better because it puts you in a hotel or camping and everything is focused around the race. Being here on the home turf it didn't have the same feel,  a little like showing up and doing a ride. The conditions were absolutely perfect. What a beautiful day.  They have a special single speed class and those guys kick ass. If you are on a 29er I'm sure you know. That seems to be the way to go. I remember reading an article years ago when Gary Fisher first brought the 29er onto the bike world scene and he said that it would take a few years but the 29 inch wheel is the  wave of the future. Its getting more an more popular.  I race in the beginner category ( they call that the white wave) and we race two laps which total 10.5 -13 miles. The age brackets are pretty straight forward and they also have a clydesdale category ( 200 lbs and up). There are no age brackets for single speed.