Southern Virginia Shootout 2014

This past Sunday I went down to Danville Virginia for the Southern Virginia Shootout. This has been the opening race of the season for me and many mid Atlantic and southeastern xc racers for a number of years now and it is always a great time with a high level of competition. This year a recent snow melt left the race course sopping wet testing racers skills and their bikes. This was also my first ride aboard my new Scott Spark 900 and this race would certainly be a test of the bike's ability.

At the start I found myself in 10th place going into the woods. I quickly picked off 5 riders in the first lap and then found myself alone for most of the race. This gave me time to really get a feel for the new bike. This year the bike came equipped with a fox 32 Float 29er fork and Float rear shock hooked up to Scott's twinloc system which provides full lockout, mid travel, and full travel settings. I already loved the twinloc and the new Fox suspension only made it better. Even in the extremely muddy conditioned the bike tracked extremely well and I felt extremely confident in downhill root sections. On climbs I easily locked out the front and rear suspension and was able to accelerate the bike like it was a hard tail.   

I had so much fun riding the new bike and trying to push it to it's limits on the muddy coarse that I almost wished we could have raced another lap. I crossed the finish line in 5th place which was a good result for such and early season race given the level of competition. As always the Southern Virginia Shootout proved to be a great season opener even in the wet.  

Scott Spark 900: http://www.scott-sports.com/us/en/products/233978008/SCOTT-Spark-900-SL-Bike/ 

Fox 32 Float 29 fork: http://www.ridefox.com/product.php?m=bike&t=forks&p=32603&ref=filter

Fox Float shock: http://www.ridefox.com/product.php?m=bike&t=shocks&p=99103&ref=filter