SERC #4 Fort Yargo State Park, Winder GA

Catherine models the new clothing on the 2nd place step.

Sunday was the 4th stop for the SERC series. While the endurance ladies were recovering from Cohutta on Saturday, the rest of us were screaming around the trails at Fort Yargo State Park. The trails are super fast and fun; kind of a roller coaster through the trees. Emily, Helen, Catherine and I represented Vantaggio for the weekend.

Let me just start by saying that the weekend had way too much stuff crammed into it. Winder, GA is only about 20 miles from Athens, GA where the famous Twilight Festival was going on. Twilight is a weekend of fun and fast NRC crit racing. Huge crowds and lots of good times. We were going to have to make an appearance and do some cheering. One of these years we'll even race it again but it is tough with so many mountain bike events the same weekend.... so much racing, so little time.

Catherine started the weekend off with the morning 3/4 womens crit (she took 5th) and then went and did a pre-ride of the mountain bike trail with Helen. Mark and I pre-rode the course and then did a second lap while teaching a beginner clinic. We then all went to Athens to watch the night racing... what a great time. Whew. It was a long day for everyone. We were EXHAUSTED by the time we finally got to bed.

Catherine claps for the competition.

Sunday morning came WAY too early. We were all a little bit tired after a long day on Saturday, but we were also all fired up after hearing about how well our teammates who raced Cohutta finished the day before. It was a really fun course and the sun was shining so the racing was going to be a blast....

The Pro/Expert women's field was one of the biggest and strongest we have had all year. 7 pros and a whole bunch of Experts (okay, USA Cycling is now calling them Category 1 racers). Emily and I lined up for what was sure to be a really fast race. Immediately upon "go" I could feel that I did too much on Saturday. Oh well, suck it up and pedal. It was still a really fun trail and my Specialized Era was the perfect bike for it. Fast and smooth.... just what was needed. I rode to a slightly disappointing 4th place finish; not a bad placing but personally frustrating. I know that because of my own doing I was slower than I should have been.

Emily, on the other hand, had the race of her life. She rolled to the start line and said to me "I feel good today, I'm going to have a great race". She did!! She took 6th, finishing ahead of 3 Pros and was the second Expert rider. At 16 years old, she schooled a lot of women twice her age. Congrats Emily, we are so proud of you!!!!

Catherine demonstrated her ability to suffer by taking a strong 2nd place in the Sport race. And as always, she did it with a smile.

Helen got the award for the most spectacular crash of the day and she did it while we were all watching. Right at the start of the race there was a sharp uphill 90 degree turn. Helen went into it third wheel and the girl in second came to a complete stop right in front of her. Helen grabbed her brakes only to do a SPECTACULAR endo in front of the entire field, causing everyone to stop. She got back up and chased the rest of the race to finish 9th. Good recovery Helen.

Helen after her race. "Please put the camera away..."

All in all it was a great weekend. Both at Fort Yargo State Park and Cohutta. This is already shaping up to be an incredible season.

Thanks for reading...