The Gloucester Grind

I'm not sure if the XXX is for the race course hazards or the bottle of Jack.

Mike Lanigan took 7th place in his first EFTA NECS race.

Judy Webber having fun!

Glenn Raiche pushing (literally) his way through the crowd of racers

The CBR Team headed down to Gloucester, Rhode Island on Sunday for the First EFTA race of the season; The Gloucester Grind.  The majority of the team had raced this event previously and kind of had an idea of what the terrain was like, but for Anthony Catauro and Mike Lanigan it would be their first time racing this event and they had only heard the rumors about the rock gardens that would devour the weak and demoralize the strong (we kind of talked it up bit)!

When we arrived in the lovely town of Gloucester the weather wasn't too bad, overcast and temps in the 50s.  We all were just hoping the rain would hold off and it did for the Novice racers, but no such luck for the Sport, Expert and Elite racers.  About halfway into the first lap the sky opened up and start dumping on us.  The course turned into a total shit show!  Riders were dropping like flies in the rock gardens and on the slick roots, and the mud filled trails made it hard to pedal, but you know what, this is mountain biking and mountain biking is WICKED freakin fun!

Taylor Clark grinding his way to the finish line.

Anthony Catauro flying through the finish line.



Colleen Raiche with her game face on!



I have to give credit to Colleen Raiche for helping out a little boy who went over the handle bars on his bike and broke his tooth.  Colleen stopped to help the boy out while her nemesis rode on by and got a huge lead on her, but Colleen fought hard and caught her towards the end of her second lap and passed her for a second place podium finish!



Kyle Clark powering through the corner.





The CBR Team raced hard and posted good results.





Next weekend is Willowdale!