It was an awesome race. The start/finish line is right in the middle of the 2.5 miles of gravel. We did a neutral roll out on the gravel and the racing began once we hit pavement. As expected the games began right away and lasted the whole race. It was one attack after another. I stayed pretty hidden as I chased only a few times in the first few laps. About half way through I began to try and get in a break, but everything was being chased down. On the forth lap there was a series of attacks that was putting a hurtin on most of the pack. I had just put in a good move and was about to hook on to another attack when we were ordered to slow down and let the stupid Pro 1,2 guys pass. (It was pretty impressive to see 2 teamates roll by with a few minutes on the rest of their group.) I really think that we were about to lose the pack when we were asked to slow down. We did a neutral roll through the gravel and then the racing started back
up, but all momentum was lost. I just hung around the front and waited for the finish after that. The last lap was pretty intense as the pace rivaled some of the fastest laps at Grattan. On one of the long straights a couple guys went off the front and their teamates covered the front, so guess who had to chase them down. I finally caught them and was pretty tired, but I had about 2 miles to the gravel to recover. I stayed toward the front and was ready for the finish. Chasing had taken a lot out of me, so the glory move was out of the question. As we hit the gravel the pace quickened considerably and I was around 15th. As we continued guys came shooting back, as we were flying. When the finsh was in site I began to hammer and was picking tons of guys off. I really thought I was going to get it, but came up just short in 4th place. Once again lesson learned as I had quite a bit left, but ran out of road. Florida racing is
pretty sweet and they have a ton of good racers. My race had around 50 guys and their was even more masters classes. They had 45+, 55+, and even a 65+.

Dan K