Sarasota SX Round Challenges Curtis.

Leanna's last World Cup round in a hot and humid Florida ended with many positives, showing great track speed all weekend in a small but hi-end Elite women field. Now with time to fine tune some areas before the USABMX Grands at the end of November.

We arrived in Florida late Sunday night with a few sessions planned on the brand new Sarasota track early in the week before racing on the weekend. Unfortunately the weather had cancelled/shortened a couple of those sessions but the weather was great on Tuesday and I had a good session. The track is a bit more challenging compared to Rockhill but is a lot of fun.

The humidity on the first day of qualification motos was tough, similar to rock hill the girls numbers were low and with a couple of girls dropping out, the motos were pretty cruisy as all of us would qualify through to the main day of racing tomorrow. On day 2 my back was quite sore from yesterdays racing so I had my coach tape it up so it wouldn’t bother me too much in today’s racing. I crashed in my first race in the first turn but was alright to continue racing. I then placed 3rd and 2nd in the next two races which qualified me into the semi final. My start in the semi was no good and I spent the rest of the lap trying to catch back up to the front girls but unfortunately I crossed the line too far off in 5th.

Now I am heading to Rockford Illinois to hang out with the guys at Area251 until the USA Grands next month. These results are motivating me to get straight back into training and fix some small things to be on top form for the Grands.

Image: Craig Dutton