Slow and Wet Conditions Greet the Southern California Prestige Series

by Dave Sheek

It was a beautiful day in Southern California, but recent rains made the grass slow © Tim Van Gilder

Chino, CA – After the exciting and hot weekend of UCI racing in Southern California (SoCal), Mother Nature teased us this week with rain and lower temperatures. But by the time racers got their call-ups, the temperature was a blistering 95 degrees. This weekend was a great ride: a fast start led into a winding course through baseball and soccer fields – complete with a handful of mud bogs, a couple off-camber slopes and the infamous H2O Overdrive-Velocity stairs that, literally, pushed riders into overdrive each lap. The Juniors came out in force as the fastest growing category in the SoCal scene (in large part due to the SoCal High School MTB League). The most exciting finish of the day was the Youth Race (under 10) where these young athletes – the most competitive, by the way – rode one lap of the actual 1.75 mile ’cross course. Brody and Ethan sprinted it out to the finish with Brody taking the win. Both boys came over to do an interview and plan to work on their tactics for the next race… watch out!

Elite Women

In the Elite women’s race, mountain bike champion Pua Sawicki came out to play in preparation for La Ruta, a grueling mountain bike race in Costa Rica later this year. However, it was Allison Mann (Rock N’ Road) and Amanda Schaper (SDG Factory), with Pua Sawicki (Ellsworth) and the rest of the field in tow from the start. Halfway through the first lap the SDG rider Schaper attacked on the stairs to take the lead. Sawicki saw the move and opportunity to move up, staying with Schaper to put Mann in third. For the rest of the lap it was Schaper on the front setting the pace but back on the road at the start/finish it was Sawicki who attacked to take the lead. She led the race from there: It was an effort that stuck and a small gap that continued to grow throughout the remainder of the race. Sawicki soloed in for a comfortable win with Schaper finishing second and Mann in third.  To round out the top five it was promoter Dot Wong (The Team) who rode in with teammate Rebecca Siegle behind.

Elite Men

Sid Taberlay Shows his Mountain Bike Skills © Kelly Grief

In the Elite men’s field, it was another UCI-style start that threw the field off from the usual countdown. Brandon Gritters (Rock N Road) was the man with the hole shot who went on to ride the first lap on the front. On the second lap, Taberlay attacked in the barriers with his hopping skills to take the lead but Jason Siegle (Bike Religion) brought him back with the lead group in tow. However, it was the off-and-on attacks from here that started to crack the group. Gary Douville (Platinum) and John Bailey (Bailey Bikes) were doing the majority of the work after Siegles’ effort, while Gritters and Taberlay were playing it smart in back. With three to go, Brandon took advantage of the road section that most used to recover from the heavy grass, and he broke off the front for a quarter of a lap until the group caught back. With two to go Taberlay took advantage at the barriers again to attack and opened a gap that he was able to hold through the entire last lap. In the end, Taberlay took the win with Brandon Gritters second and John Bailey gaining strength for a third place finish. To round out the top five was Douville fourth and Siegle with fifth.

It was a great day in the park, and while some took the week off to rest from the double header UCI Kross-Weekend and the heat, those who came out took special memories from Velocity Cross. Don’t miss next week’s event as we promote the Cross-MTB weekend with SCPS Round 4: LA Cross at O’Melveny Park. Not only is it an intimate park for cyclocross, but there are also some great trails behind it. SoCalCross will support IMBA on this day by creating awareness of our advocacy partner. The next day, head up to Lake Castaic and support CORBA’s Fat Tire Festival complete with lots of MTB activities and cyclocross race!

For more information go to: www.socalcross.org

Photos:

Full Results:

Men P/1/2/3

Women P/1/2/3