FLCX is a tight knit family who enjoy beer, bacon and bruises. We should strive to keep it strong and weird. Alex Hutchinson loves cyclocross so this offer is his way of giving back to the people who make it all possible. Be there early to cheer on your fellow competitors and walk away with a work of fiction that belongs on your cycling bookshelf. It all takes place at Wicked Awesome Racing, the CX series run by pro racer and race promoter Josh Thornton. Josh and his wife have consistently put together a great series for Florida Cyclocross. We are honored to be helping W.A.R. with this special promotion at their season opener. Come early to get a FREE Book! Alex Hutchinson will be by the registration table the moment it opens. The first 30 racers get a Personally Autographed Copy of his new book  Twisted Trails: Least of the Beast . The Twisted Trails series is a collection of Award Winning Stories about the sport we all love. Whether you ride Road, CX, Mountain ...

I love favorites lists. They help me clarify what I enjoy doing, they help race promoters adjust their offerings and they spread the word about events you might not even know about. For me this was a year of firsts. I took on my first endurance race and my first cyclocross race. I bought my first singlespeed, tried fixies, recumbents and landed on the podium twice. As a transition year it was all about exploration and having fun. These are my top seven favorite rides/races of 2014. Number 7: Specialized Night Ride (Venice, FL) Ever get your hands on a dream bike? Back in February I got to tame an S-Works Stumpjumper 29er taking it on a busy Tuesday night ride that sported no less than 40 bikers. There were some high speed banks that almost turned my hair white but in all it was a fun evening. Read the story of how I saddled this beast in the inky blackness of the Carlton Reserve - Dream Bike Review . Number 6: Tour de Picayune (Naples, FL)  Most good races are...

The first rule of racing is that things usually don't go as planned. I learned this during my maiden season of cross country mountain biking up in New England. Back then I was new to racing (of any kind) and so I was never fully prepared for the challenges to come. I took those lessons with me into the sport of BMX and became a better athlete. However doing laps only 50 seconds long always left me feeling unsatisfied. I needed to get back on a big bike and that is when I was introduced to Cyclocross. I'm always up for trying something new so I bought a Nashbar CXSS and started training. Fast forward six months and here I was about to enter my first CX race. The build up hadn't been ideal (See rule #1). My training had consisted of eight weeks of riding, 3 to 5 rides per week at about 30 to 80 miles or 3 to 7 hours in the saddle. I coupled this with 1 to 3 hours of strength training. The result? I felt fit and strong. The downside? I had a nagging foot injur...