Florida Gravel Grinder series #4 + TT – Green Swamp – Dade City, Fl

Beautiful March weekend in Central Florida for the final round of the FGG series, a little chilly in the morning but great race weather as the day slowly warmed up with Sunny skies. Saturday’s bonus time trial was run on the first 9.4 miles of the regular course featuring an out an back hard surface for the most part and was won by Gilberto Araujo and Valerie Rosso.

Sunday the attention turned to the full 25.4 mile loop where sprint racers would do one lap and marathon classes would do two. Despite some rain on Friday night the course was on the dry side and made the infamous Cedar Pocket section a handful with the loose sand but that was where the action happened as the racers who managed the section well tended to also do well. Sunday’s men’s marathon winner was Owen Shott and top female was Pauline Dockins while in the sprint classes it was Jacob Lujan and Amanda Rivero.

The championship awards were held immediately after the normal race awards and it was again Gilberto Araujo and Valerie Rosso taking the overall marathon top classes while Jacob Lujan and Amanda Rivero also double dipped for not only the day’s top awards but the seasons championship in the sprint divisions.

Many thanks to all of the sponsors, club volunteers and racers that helped make the series a success!