Florida Gravel Grinder series #4 – Jennings Forest Grinder – Middleburg, Fl

After weeks and months of unusually wet weekends in the area the weather gods finally looked down favorably on the final round of the Florida Gravel series and produced flawless conditions with sunshine and mild temperatures. Even the original course had to be rerouted the week prior due to the said wet conditions and the racers ended up with a slightly longer but puddle free loop that measured 16.9 miles, this meant the sprint classes would do two laps and the marathon distance scheduled for four. The course surfaces were basically two types, hard pack limestone and packed (but later unpacked) sand. The sand section was only a mile and half or so long but it played a big role in the race according to most of the racers as the riders that could power through with strong bike handling skills would be the ones that seemed to have risen to the top.

Now to the racing action, Carlos Pacheco hammered hard towards the win in the men’s marathon open class with a 22.0 mph average over 67.6 miles, Carlos’s win also gave him the overall series championship title. Stacy Addicott claimed the women’s win by almost two minutes and it was Nicole Blessing however that took the overall series championship. In the sprint classes it was Felipe Shumacker Guagliard (men’s open) who completed a perfect sweep of the series with four wins and maxed out his points in the two time trials. Women’s open sprint winner was Kelly Jones as she took the days win and the series.

The overall series awards was held onsite as the top three from each class were honored with prizes and plaques from the series sponsors, congrats to all.Florida Gravel sponsored primes for the fastest lap in the primes. Many thanks to all of the sponsors and racers that made it the series a success!