Florida Gravel Grinder series #2 – 3 Forks Rec area – Palm Bay, Fl

When a weather forecast is made it is important to look at the details, if you just glance at the headlines for Sundays Central Florida weather there were terms like “washout”, “all day rain” and 95% chance of rain. But a closer look revealed a low chance of rain until the afternoon at the race site and in fact it did not rain until after 2pm at the race site well past the end of the event. What was very true was that the area was windy most of the day and that proved to be biggest topic for most of the racers.

This year the course was set up utilizing the North section of the park and a 15.5 mile loop (although there was one 5 mile stretch of two way traffic) that provided the riders more variety and a few more challenges not to mention a little more of a break from the wind than last year’s course. The layout seemed to be a hit with the racers and under dry and windy conditions the speeds recorded were impressive.

The overall male was Brendan Deska with a  22.6 mph average over 62 miles and in what was basically an early solo break all the way to the end, he was however valently chased by a hardy group just to keep him honest. The women’s field was won by Kerri Robbins who also won one of the Florida Gravel primes on the day. The other Florida Gravel prime was won by Javier Lopez who logged the fastest lap of the marathon 40+ class at 41:19 min.

Many thanks to all of the sponsors and riders that braved through the wind and weather forecasts! Next gravel race is 2-23 in Eustis, Fl!