Alex Wagner - State Series Round 1
State Round 1 - Fitzroy Falls
The first state round is always the hardest mentally as it shows where you stand in the scheme of things. Although the fact that I had never ridden Fitzroy Falls before took my mind off the competition and set it onto how awesome will this track could be.
I arrived at the race site at 9am on Sunday morning, it was beautiful weather, sunny and not a cloud in the sky. At around 10:45am, 25 minutes till race time was announced, so I got ready and began to warm up.
This was my first time racing on my brand new Scott Scale 20, much thanks goes to Blackman Bicycles for hooking me up with it, with some pre-race rides on it I could notice the extreme comfort riding on a carbon hardtail, it almost felt like I was riding with some rear suspension.
5 minutes till race start.A The start groups for junior categories, U13’s up to U19’s, was huge around about 60 kids raring to race. My category, U19’s, was the first to start and it was screamingly fast!
The first 250m was fire road to sort the order out, into the single track I was second although everyone was still bunched together like a mountain bike peleton. I stayed in second place for around 3km where third and fourth passed me, I was in a race zone like I had never been before, so I said to myself not to let them get away and to attack with any chance possible. My patience paid off 4km in, second place overshot a tight technical corner which also meant that third place also had to stop, I rode straight past without thinking twice.
I held second place for the rest of the first lap, only three more to go, I thought. My race plan was now to take the second lap a little bit easier and come home strong in the end. This plan was soon out the door when third place was within sight behind me. I was riding the best race I have ever done so I was not up for loosing places, so I clicked into the big chain ring and grinded away for around 2km to make a gap on third. This worked, he was not in sight.
The third lap began and I was feeling great as was the bike, a great feeling to have in a race. Two kilometres into the third lap I heard a rider behind me, it was third place again. Once again I thought loosing places is no option today, so I used a little training technique. I rode like I was doing intervals, big ring, one minute effort and 30 seconds recovery in between each. I completed around 5 sets of these, just to look behind me and see nothing but empty track, this time I had dropped him for good.
The last lap came round very fast and I was still feeling fresh, I went hard for this lap but still enjoyed the track which definitely lives up to its reputation. With little hills to worry about, the technical aspect took its place, every corner like a hairpin made it hard to keep a good flowing speed, but rewarding when you could. The last kilometre of the track was considered the hardest part, but the scale just felt like it was flying over the wooden ramps, technical drops and exposed tree roots. Once this was all cleared the last 200m of fire road lay ahead, I crossed the finish line in second place and I felt extremely happy with my result.
I couldn’t be happier with how the bike rode this race and only have Blackman Bicycles to thank for this and also to their ongoing help and support, thanks again.
