Four weeks ago we opened up a mile and a half of new trail and this weekend they were put to good use! On Sunday Tropical Cyclocross challenged racers from all across the state with a tough course that snaked throughout the park and featured a massive flyover built by Cranklife. Having stretched their legs the day before at Virginia Key Historic Beach park under the watchful eye of Graham Partain’s GoPro toting quadracopter the first wave of racers were lined up and ready to go by 9am. Sunday’s course favored technical riders with a long stretch of beach, two steep climbs, and a long straightaway of compressed gravel immediately preceded by the challenging 14 step flyover.
While the racers warmed up and raced, John Voss treated spectators, volunteers, and family members to delicious waffles. At lunchtime our favorite Sidewalk Salads laid out their usual spread and crazy fans brought doughnuts, potato chips, and all kinds of other snacks to hand out to racers as they passed by.
At noon attention turned to the mountain bike race as racers began arriving and warming up on the course and by 1pm we had our first wave of racers on a course which included every inch of trail, the morning’s cyclocross course and reversed the flyover. Racers zigzagged right, then left, the up a steep ramp and back down 14 steps into a 90 degree right turn. While racers battled each other on the new trails Richard Quintero entertained them with music blasting from his amazing sound system.
After the race club members gathered to clean up and were treated to a nice surprise dinner supplied and cooked by Scott…barbecued chicken, delicious! It was a great day for the club.