The big show is coming to town! For those of you who are interested in seeing some real serious offroad competition, you are in luck. Mark your calendars now for Oct. 24 and 25 at Hard Rock in Ocala... it is the AMBC Eastern Finals. Saturday will be dual slalom competition and Sunday will features the cross country races. This will also coincide with the Florida State Championship race #4. You will get a chance to see local racers and big name nationals competing on one of the premier courses in Florida. It is going to be a pretty big event. The typical local race is a lot of fun and filled with energy. This is going to be a whole level up from that. There will be big sponsors and lots of really fast racing action. If you have never seen a professional or semi-professional mountain biker race... it is definitely an attention getter; scary fast riding, excellent bike handling skills, smooth as glass cornering even over the roughest terrain. I have heard it described as watching a biker who looked like he was just riding a single rail right through the trail. Certainly something to be seen.
Another upcoming race item for your calendars is Nov. 15 for the FSC #5 race in Gainesville. Your hometown race held on a course that is not open to riding except for the one or two times a year when it is raced. This can be a great opportunity for anyone who is thinking about racing to give it a first try. You don't have to travel far and you can bring along the support of your family and friends (or choose to leave them at home so that they won't see the embarrassment of your first crash). If anyone thinks that they might be interested in racing on that date, please contact me and I will be more than happy to give you some background on it and help you sign up. My roommate, Jeff Meyer, raced his first real mountain bike race there last year and had a lot of fun doing it.
For those of you who don't know I have recently returned to school. After three years out of the game, I have decided to pursue a PhD. in Pharmacology/Physiology under the College of Medicine. It has been an adjustment for me, but things are starting to settle down in my life again. One of the good things that has come of this return to the classroom is that I am once again meeting many younger people interested in mountain biking. I am doing my best to get them out for some rides and interested in the club. Hopefully, you all may see some new faces around from my recruitment. Another aspect of my return to school is later nights and difficulty getting up too early in the morning. With regard to this and the cooling of the weather (we hope) I am going to shift my ride times back to Saturday at 1 PM. The meeting place will still be at the Plaza of the Americas in front of Library West. I am hoping that this might also increase some ridership among other GCC members who may miss a Saturday morning road ride and decide to come offroad with us. Occasionally, I will be organizing out of town trips which will necessitate our leaving earlier in the day on Saturday. Check your email for notices about those.