South Georgia Cycling: GSC #6 - Eatonton Race Report

Sorry for the delay on the race report but since V-Mac is in Las Montanas for 3 weeks the report is left of to Bill and I. First thing that I would say to everyone is that if you need to get away for a quiet relaxing weekend then visiting Rock Hawk Effigy Trails on Oconee Lake outside of Eatonton, GA, is highly recommended. The facilities are managed by Georgia Power and thus pretty well kept. There is a beach area to swim from or you can do like Bill and I did and just swim right from your campsite. It was a bit warm when we headed to bed but the beer that we had loaded up on for pre-race prep reasons assured that we would SLEEP well.

We casually arrived at the Rock Hawk campground around 5 PM, set up camp and started doing some minor calculations as to how much beer we should drink pre our pre-ride so that we would have plenty of beer to drink post our pre-ride but still have beer to drink post our post-ride. If you can't follow all that then you haven't been on a camping trip with SGC! But as usually Bill and I had a good time even though we were minus a other SGC team members.

Dave from Goneriding.com had promised approx. a 10 mile loop for the race Sunday AM. Bill and I decided to wait until about 7 PM to start our pre-ride loop as to avoid as much of the days heat as possible. We road a casual pace and finished the loop around 8:20. Bill thought that I would turn in lap times around 45 mins during the race but I really had no idea and was just content that the climbs were very tight and technical and the descents were mostly double track wide and really fast and fun.

Pre-race dinner Saturday night wasn't quite up to Clark's standard but it consisted of black bean and rice burritos with a peach chutney type salsa and vanilla yogurt enhancement. TOTAL FLAVOR EXPLOSION! The bean burritos were planned to ensure that we would not have any problem with mosquitoes.

Race morning went really smooth. Bill races in the white wave and I race the yellow wave which meant that I would be going off at 9:30 and Bill would go off at 11:30. Riezie, the newest addition to the Fix household(see photo below) did a great job on hanging out at the campsite and allowing Bill and I to get prepped for racing. I think I would have to say that pre-race rituals went to plan and as I toed the start line, I felt warmed-up, stretched and chemically balanced.

Dave choose to do a rolling start which works for me because it takes the jitters out of folks and makes things a bit more safe. My race went as planned. I road the first lap just following Jamie Saye from Peachtree bikes but towards the end of the lap he made a miscalculation and went off course. I yelled to him that the trail was this way and being the gentlemen that I am I didn't attack but then again, I didn't slow down and wait for him. That was his cracking point and Peter Joski and I did not see him again until the podium. Peter and I came through the first lap good enough to put in the fast lap time for the day. As we headed back out I was content to let Peter take the lead going into the single track. We were rollin along nicely but were still unsure as to whether Jamie was going to come back on us so when I realized about a 1/4 of the way into the second lap that I was actually slowing a bit to stay behind Peter, I asked to move around and take the lead. Being the awesome guy that he is, Peter moved over and let me roll. Before I knew it I had opened a descent gap on him even though I was riding well inside my comfort zone. Anywho, we almost caught Jafer the leader of Expert 19-29 group during the second lap but as soon as Jafer saw us coming he took off and we never saw him again. 3rd lap was uneventful and had I pushed myself a bit more on the 3rd lap I would have had the fastest time for the day but instead Jafer beat me by 5 seconds.

I don't have a ton of details on Bill's race so I will just take the liberty to imagine how it went. As Bill lined up he realized that he to was chemically balanced thanks to having spent the morning with Josh and that he felt amazingly fast because of the black beans that had his GAS tank filled to the rim. Being the cool character that Bill is, he entered the singletrack very calm cool and collected deciding to let others blow their wad a bit. With only one lap to complete though he couldn't take any chances and let the leader get to big of a gap. Since Bill hired a new mechanic and dumped his old faithful, he has had a lot less technical difficulties during races. So like GSC #5, Bill felt very confident that the Bontrager would perform at its top level and it did allowing him to ride himself into 2nd place in Clydesdale for the day, one step higher then GSC #5 at Dauset.

On a closing note, I would like to say thanks to Bill for providing me with bottles and watching Riezie while I raced. Thanks to Dave and his lovely wife for putting on yet another event that went off without a hitch. Thanks to the church group that arrived at the pavilion Sunday AM to find a bike race right next door. Being the good Christian folks that they are though they opened the doors and feed anyone from the race and just sat back and enjoyed the scene. I just wish that there were more folks like that in this world but then again that's the type of stuff that happens at a mountain bike race. Thanks to all of our sponsors, but especially to Elements Coffee and Maxxis Tires. Elements: Bill and I would not have been properly chemically balanced if it weren't for your java. Maxxis: we definitely would not have been as fast with out your awesome tires.

Thanks to all the folks that volunteered, raced and/or cheered. To me there is nothing better then racing mtn bikes with some good folks and sharing a few laughs after the race. So thanks for sharing that with Bill and I.

Bill taking the 2nd step. Way to go Bill!