EFTA #3 Assault on Clifford Park

This year was much better than last year as far as course conditions go. Course was primarily dry and the weather was great.

I thought I had a pretty good ride, i cut 20 mins off my time from last year on the same course, which i think is fairly impressive considering how technical this course is and I rode it with suspension last year and without it this year. (my hands are probably the sorest thing on my body right now) We had the biggest SS class i think i have ever seen in my short EFTA racing career. Over 20 SSer's started this race!

race itself was pretty uneventful for me, no major crashes or anything else funny to report so i just cover some quick facts:

Ben Moody is so fast i think he might be an alien.
casualties were very high, i think there was something like 40 DNF's out of around 150 people starting.
Adam was doing awesome but ended up flatting.
i kept my bike working, rode all the technical stuff clean and came in at 2h:15m, give or take a minute, I think only about 15m or so off the winner.
during the race i felt like i was about mid field in the SS class (it was hard to tell with all the traffic on the first lap) but turns out I think I came in sixth (maybe results were kinda still screwy when i left) out of only 7 finishers in the SS class (remember when i said casualties were high? (over 20 SS starters down to 7.....)
this leads me to my next rant: I'm tired of people DNFing and making my results look less impressive than they are. this happened at this race last year as well. I was not 6th out of 7, I was 6th out of 20+. If they couldn't finish that probably means they chose bad lines and flatted....i chose better lines and finished = i beat you and I will include you in the results so that I look more cool. that is all.

EFTA #2 Sterling Sizzler

Watch out....I've got a taste for PODIUM.

Thats right race fans, I came in 3rd. (but dont worry, my streak is intact....there was only 3 of us haha)

I came in 20 minutes after the winner and about 10 after the guy in second and got $15 for my efforts...probably just about paid my gas to get down there. Still showing improvement, i used to come in 40 minutes after the leader.

Course was brutal, guy who won SS was riding a full suspension that was converted. Def the bike you needed for this course. actually a dirt bike would have been perfect which is what these trails were for. Course was highlighted by the mud creek we had to ride UP, with mud puddles that were knee deep in spots, and a 200-300yd gravel fire road climb where when you got to the top you turned right around (literally) and came back down. oh and then there was the rest of the course that shook the shit out of me and was so rocky and rooty that i can safely say i never found a rhythm and probably hike'd a bike for at least 1-2 miles per lap (of a 5mile loop)

needless to say im sore as hell and have some sweet battle scars on my legs, but I could care less cause I scored some awesome points and got my first (default)podium.