Fixed Fight 2 recap...

Casualty of War


One of the best races I've rode this year by far! Very well organized and the St Pete area itself is a very nice city to ride in. Even traffic wasn't bad and the one time I almost got hit was entirely my fault (more on that later). Killer vibe and as the pictures in the post will show, a great time was had by all that entered. I'm very happy I made it out for this one and helped rep the four-0-seven....

I had major issues getting out of town yesterday, so much so that I didn't leave the Orlando area until 1:40 or so. Knowing I was running mad late, I was hauling ass the entire way and I shit you not, I made it to Tampa in 55 minutes. It was once I hit Tampa that I hit some serious traffic that only got worse once I hit 275 South. Because of this, I did not make it out to the registration point until 3:10, missing the people working it and not being able to register for the race. I thought about driving back to Orlando but I figured "fuk it" and decided to ride around looking for people and if I didn't find anyone, at least I could say I rode around downtown St Pete for a hot minute. So I rode around for about 5 minutes and came across a few racers which seemed to be really lost. I followed them for a bit then ran across another group that seemed to know where they where going. After about 10 minutes of following them, I happen to run in to Pete Young, Shablack, Zach and Kyle (aka Team Furoche) hauling ass towards a check point. I followed them at this point and ended up riding the rest of the route. I hit a total of 4 of the 6 check points this way and got to ride about 80% of the route (based on my guestimate after looking at a manifest post race). What I did race I found to be a lot of fun and with out further delay, here's tbms highlight reel of yesterdays race:

- Making it to Ybor City from Orlando in 55 minutes. yeah s0n, the WRX was hauling ass yesterday! An M5 and I took turns leading and made wikked time to the Tampa area. Too bad 275 South pissed on my parade once I got there...

- Running across Pete Young and Team Furoche: as I mentioned earlier, I was looking for racers and figured if I found some, I would follow them around and do the course that way since I missed registration. Well the first initial racers I came across seemed rather lost and where not riding very fast as a result. It was by accident I came across these guys hauling ass up the street and figured these fools must be at the front of the pack. So I followed and haul ass we did! We proceeded to ride on a one way street the wrong way for what seemed like 5 or 6 miles. Lets just say that shit was hairy but oh so much fun. Followed them to my first checkpoint (which I believe was their third) cutting across traffic and parking lots as we made our way there.

- Check point volunteers: all of the checkpoint volunteers where super friendly yesterday and helped me stay on course once I told them what happened with me not registering. I had lost pete and team foruche when I had to stop for a potty break on one of the first checkpoints on the trail. As a result, the volunteers where really helpful letting me know where to go and where the race was ending. Not to mention there where people at every checkpoint we hit which was nice. Top notch all the way around!

- Riding on that Bike Trail: now the name of the trail escapes me but this was a nice twist on the race course as you could really haul ass on this stretch. There where a total of 2 check points on this trail I believe which offered a reprieve from the traffic. While playing in traffic is one of my favorite parts of any race, this really was something different and it was pretty cool overall.

- Riding with Corey and Julius for the last leg of the race: Once I got off the trail I started following Corey and he was gracious enough to let me follow him back to the end point. As a token of my appreciation, I let him draft off me for a while until he blew past me once he skitched a ride off a SUV. As we where making our way back we ran across Julius as well and all 3 of us made the final sprint back in to downtown St Pete. It was at this point where my ass almost got hit by a car and this time, it was completely my fault. As we approached an intersection, Julius yelled "on the right" which I did not hear. As I bombed through the intersection I hear brakes screeching and look to the right and see a big ass dodge durango coming at me. I just barely managed to get past it and waved at the driver trying to express my gratitude for not running me down like the dumb ass I was. I honestly thought he was gonna double back around and beat my ass but he drove on. Other than this incident, I had no major run in with drivers yesterday and I have to say St Pete drivers for the most part are pretty mindful of cyclists (from what I observed). Plus I didn't get anything thrown at me this time either which is always a plus... :)

- Finish line: the finish line was at the top of a parking garage in downtown St Pete. It wad a final sprint to the top of the garage at the end. There they had the awards ceremony as well as the foot down, trick and track stand contests. With the city skyline as a back drop, it made for a nice end to one bad ass race...

Finish Line


Awards Ceremony


Foot Down





Trick Contest
















Track Stand Contest






and last but not least, photographic proof that Pete Young has to abide by the laws of gravity just like everyone else does... :)



As usual Tampa/St Pete raising the bar for races here in the state! Thanks to Todd and all the volunteers that helped organize this race. Also a big shout out to all the riders I met from across the state. I would list your names out but too much free PBR post race didn't help with retaining anyones names. It was nice to see all parts of the state repped to the fullest as the fixed scene continues to grow here. I hear there are some big things in store for Jax in the very near future so keep it locked for details.

..now off to get some caffeine and then I'm off to East Orlando for the Bike Co Op race! Hopefully I'll have some pictures to post tomorrow. If not, remember that it's 420 so I'm not really stressing shit today! :)


ez!