The Road to Florida

The Florida race is very different from all of the other GNCC races. It is in the sand, so whoops are a huge factor. It is very hot, coming from the winter up north, where many of us are from. Florida is known as the 'who's in best shape' or 'who has the best endurance' race. Technique and machinery are important, but fitness rules the podium at this race.

The other thing to consider when preparing for Florida is a good shock setup. I know why a lot of people blow off the Florida race (besides it's so far away from all of the other races). Your shock setup for Florida is completely different than the setup you need for all of the other races because you have to battle whoops for 2 hours instead of normal dirt/clay track. If it's a spring shock, I usually have to run 25-50 lbs heavier springs. For an air shock, I have to add more air pressure for Florida. I'll talk about shock setup for Florida more in a later post.

Florida 2011



Many pros go down to Florida right after the holidays are over to begin training. Some go down before the holidays. They train for months in the heat and the sand to prepare. I did this one year. I was lucky enough to be living with my parents still and they helped me go to Florida for 2 months to train.

This year I'm only planning on going down to Florida for one week. Like most people who race GNCC, I have a job. I need to make money to be able to race, so leaving for months and losing all that money (not counting the cost of living in Florida for that time) is too much.

From my experience, training in Florida for months is the best way to get in shape for GNCC, if you can afford it. But for those of us who can't, we are not at a big disadvantage. We can do loads of cardio training up north, and head down to a sandy area for a week, like me, or for a weekend to test out shocks. For example, we've gone to Sumter/Manchester SC to test shocks for Florida. It is a lot closer than Florida, and provides similar sandy terrain to test out the whoops.

Moral of the story, Florida is expensive enough without going down for several months to prepare. Do what you can where you live, and if you can afford to, go down for a week or so. As long as you're constantly training, on or off the quad, to better yourself as a rider, you will do well in your class and improve throughout the year.

I will have a few more blog posts talking about Florida preparation, since that is what everyone is doing right now. If there is something specific you would like to know about, let me know in a comment, or at HurricaneHoyland@gmail.com