Back in the Dirt, at Camrock.

     You could say I was raised in the woods. While that statement may be an exaggeration, my first discipline in cycling I learned was mountain biking. It made me the happiest kid when my Dad told me "Gavin we're going mountain biking". Knowing that, you wont be surprised with how excited I was to be getting back to racing again after "turning" into a roady this season :).

     On Saturday June 16th My coach, Josey and I drove from Duluth Minnesota to Madison Wisconsin to participate in the WORS series. The biggest mountain bike series in America. We arrived to the course in the early evening and went for a pre-ride to learn the trails and its features so we could shred race day! 20 minutes in on our pre-ride Josey and I were flying, loving the trails. They were fantastic, flowed well and had many corners (which fits my style of riding). Unfortunately I came into a corner way to hot and slid out landing on my wrist hard. We finished the pre-ride. Afterwards we got ice on my wrist right away.

     Thanks to the Swartz family, who opened up there home to us, I got a great night's sleep. Waking up to that warm and humid weather I've learned to live with in Louisville for so long was great. No doubt, I was ready to race. We made a stop to a local bakery as a result of my coaches constant begging for a Chocolate Croissant. I got a blackberry scone myself; it was awesome.

     Long story short we arrived to the race. Josey, Andy and I started to warm up. Andy's Mom gave us ice to put down our backs and necks as it was a very hot day. We finished our warm up and road down to the start line where hundreds of riders were already gathering. We were in the "junior elite class" so the actual "elites" staged in front of all other juniors riders. When everyone was all set, the officials did there thing. Then the announcer started a count down from ten. It was tense.

He randomly stopped at 5...

I Pause... (i didn't know what the heck was going on)

"GOOOOOOOOOOO" the announcer screamed for at least 10 seconds. This was strangest start I have ever done. Glad I experienced it.

     The field was very large, so it made it very hard to pass people. When we got to the first section of single track (the woods) we were not moving. just sitting on our bikes for at least 15 seconds waiting for the people in front of us to go. After the riders had spread apart I was able to settle into a rhythm and keep passing people as much as possible. Half way through the first lap my coach told me I was was 36 seconds off of 2nd and a minute off of 1st place. I picked the pace up a notch and by the end of the first lap I caught 2nd and was now only half a minute down from 1st. I kept pressing on slowly closing the gap on the leader.

     Half way through the second lap Josey caught up with me and we started trading sections to pull and work together. At the end of the second lap we had caught the leader. Josey flew past him in a grass section. I tried doing the same but was elbowed and couldn't get by. The rider sprinted in front of me and Josey right before the next section of woods, getting there first. So Josey and I were stuck behind the rider for the time being. He climbed the switch backs very slow, causing me to bobble on a switch back. So I had to run the rest of it. A gap formed between me and the leaders.

     The start of the 3rd and final lap I was 15 seconds off first and in a lot of pain. My coach handed me a bottle of water along with a Cliff Shot to help me keep my nutrition and hydration at the right level. I also received a bag of ice from Andy's Mom which was then stuck down my back. It cooled my whole body off and made me feel re-energized. The whole last lap I was struggling to gain time on the leaders and found myself instead losing time throughout the last half lap. My legs started to cramp and I realized making the podium (top 3) was the only realistic goal I could pull off. I was able to stay away from 4th and placed 3rd. It was a super fun race and would love to return next year! It was another successful day with Josey getting the win and myself 3rd. Happy with how things went and to finally get back to Mountain Bike racing! The WORS series lived up to expectations.






Josey Weik 1st, Gavin Haley 3rd.



freinds after the race.

Snake Alley Weekend

     I was very excited coming into this weekend as it has always been super competitive but also just a great time with family. For those who don't know of the snake alley. it is a criterium with a cobble stone hill built in 1898. they call it "The Snake" because of it winding turns. so long story short I arrived in Iowa the afternoon before my race feeling happy how I felt and with how the weather was. However, when I woke up Saterday (snake alley race day) I looked outside to find that wet stuff falling from the sky people call "rain". While most people flip out at the idea of racing in the rain, I was over joyed! I looked at the radar and it showed "50 degrees and raining" for most of the day. I knew the race would favor whoever had the most skill and guts. I say this because the criterium has a BLAZING fast decent with 3 hard 90 degree corners right after the snake. Hard enough as it is, Now we get to do it in the rain!
 
  I get to the course and begin warming up with my good friend and teammate Josey Weik. We both do several laps on the course until we feel confident  with all the features of the course. I get to the starting line and the officials give us the rules for the race. I am super stoked to race! This was my teams (ISCORP Elite Cycling) biggest team race so far with almost 10 guys out of 50 junior riders in the same field. I look around and realize how most of the riders are shivering because of how cold it is. I was one of the only riders warm because of the great warm up my coach (Matt Weik) gave me. I was ready for the 8 laps of pain!

     The Race is off! I felt like I was back in cyclocross season again! Every rider sprinting full speed into the first corner, all of them ignoring the slick road conditions. I did not have the best start. I tried not to panic knowing that the race just started and we had lots of time left to pass. We all get on to the alley, I am in about 15th position, first corner 1 rider slides out! Second corner, another rider slides out and stretches his bike out making it super difficult to come around. It's Funny because I expected the crashes to be on the downhill, not going up. I get to the top of the alley, despite the conditions people are still out cheering, screaming their heads off. I loved it. I started descending passing as many people as I could to try and catch the lead group. They were about 5 seconds ahead. At the bottom of the hill I was able to latch on to the lead group. By the end of the first lap there is already a main group formed of around 8 guys. We were flying. I looked back to see the rest of the field just shattered all spread out.

We all stayed together for the next few laps my teammate driving it up the snake lap after lap! Putting the hurt down on me and all the other competitors in the break. With around 3 laps to go in the race, my Teamate David Lombardo brought the pace UP on the snake and got a small gap with Stephen Basset (last years winner of Snake Alley) they stayed away for around a half lap but was then brought back from a strong pull by Spencer Petrov. We hit 1 to go. I could see the tension in the group, all waiting for someone to make a move. All eight of us eying each other. I was lucky to have 2 teammates there.I made a tactical error of not being near the front on the last lap. The acceleration up the Snake was simply to hard and i got gapped because of how fast the pace was! I tried my best to close back the split between me and the front group. Unfortunately I couldn't pull back up to the lead. Ian McShane and I sprinted in but he got the best of me. I ended up 7th out of 50 fast juniors! It was a great day of racing! Though I didn't make the podium my Teammates Josey Weik and David Lombardo were able to pull off 5th and the win! I was happy with how I finished. Later on that day I did the cat 3's and finished  4th with my Teammate Josey getting 3rd. As always it turned out to be a great day and an awesome team effort with 3 ISCORP riders in the top 10 in the crazy junior race!