Florida Endurance series #1 + Short Track – El Lagarto – Loyce Harpe park – Lakeland, Fl

El Lagarto is back in its place again as the opening round of the series and this year we added a new short track bonus to the weekend and despite our best anti rain dances it turned into a wet affair on both days, good news is it didn’t rain during the events and the sun was shining during the awards.

We had a moment of silence for Florida MTB pioneer Jimmy Cotton who recently passed away, Jimmy had many friends in the sport and community and his memory was carried on by Ridge Riders Mountain Bike Association president Tim Lambert as he raced with Jimmy’s RRMBA jersey during the event and also gave us some moving words at the riders meeting, RIP Jimmy Cotton! Speaking of the Ridge Riders they had the trails prepped to perfection and even during and after the rains were making changes to help out with the conditions, many thanks as always to the crew!

The round sponsor LeRoy’s Bike works served up the prizes (and some food) for the racers and as always went above and beyond by providing a large selection for the awardees to choose from directly after stepping off of the podium, many thanks to LeRoy’s and to all of the series sponsors!

Bob McCarty served up a double helping of wins by taking the first ever FLE short track overall and also winning a close race on Sunday and taking the marathon open win and therefore the men’s leaders jersey. Diana Bridges took the women’s short track and her third place on Sunday netted her the FLE women’s leaders jersey by the end of the weekend.

Well the series is off and running despite the weather and we hope to see everyone at round two in Lake Mary.