Southern California Prestige Series #4 – Elbows and Bodies Flying

by Dave Sheek

Los Angeles, CA – Finally, the temperatures decreased in Southern California to make for the first comfortable weekend of racing. The intimate setting of O’Melveny Park was good for a course with tree coverage and a good mix of conditions. The start held a gradual road climb to a tricky left turn onto a dirt, which then climbed up only to weave back to the grassy fields for some winding turns and more punchy climbs. The two tricky barrier sections did bring some good highlights to spectators but it all added up to a perfect weekend of racing cyclocross in SoCal for all groups. The course seemed short and the deep grass seemed to keep the laps normal, but as it packed in it became considerably faster as the day went on. So, it should be noted that Men’s 45+ winner Bob Langin, Sr. was crushing it early on with a fastest lap time that would put him easily inside the top ten of the men’s Elite field.

Elite Women:
After the ladies were called up to the line there were some jokes about how there were going to be some elbows thrown because of overly narrow marked starting positions. And, it actually proved true along the first straightaway as the ladies bumped around for position. It was SDG Factory rider Amanda Schaper with the lead up the road, through the first scary left turn from the road to the dirt, and through the quick bumpy descent into a sweeping left hand turn. Unfortunately, a mistake in the bumpy turned allowed Allison Mann (Rock N’ Road Cyclery) and Megan Elliot (Black Mtn Bicycles) to jump ahead, but Schaper was back on it and able to catch back up, with Dot Wong (The Team SoCAL CX) and her teammate Christina Probert right behind. The four fought for positions over the first couple of laps, but the hilly course was very well suited to Mann’s strong climbing abilities, so she started pulling away from the group. Probert, Elliot, and Schaper were together for a while, until Probert started falling off of the pace. For about a lap, Elliot was glued to Schaper’s wheel, but when they hit the pavement with about four to go Schaper attacked putting in a strong effort through the entire straightaway. When she hit the dirt again, whe had put a descent gap on Elliot. It was close as Allison Mann continued to ride off the front; Schaper was second with Elliot close behind, and Probert not too far behind her. Eventually, Elliot started fading and Probert tried to bridge the gap up to schaper. But again the course suited Mann’s skills, as she consistently pulled away throughout the entire race, finishing in the top spot. Schaper managed to keep the gas on for second with Christina Probert third. And it was Nancy Klinger of the SoCal team who moved up for fourth with Wong rounding out the top five.

Elite Men:

The race started with Kyle Gritters (Rock N’ Road) leading up the road until an unfortunate crash in the first corner sent him sliding across the dirt. The crash almost took out Sid Taberlay (Sho-Air), but he was able to slow enough to avoid getting clipped from the inside. Mark Noble (Franco) then took off up the dirt climb and John Bailey (Bailey Bikes) also went down as the rest of the group closely came around to follow Noble up to the grassy fields. On the first lap it was Noble with Brent Prenzlow (Celo-Pacific/B&L), Brandon Gritters (Rock N’ Road), Jason Siegle (Bike Religion) and Taberlay who made a little break from all the commotion in the first turn. The first lap was interesting and fast as the group of five began to immediately attack each other to gap off the group. But, the only one that stuck was the effort of Taberlay as he led into the second set of barriers and used his hoping abilities to get off the front of the group. For two laps the group chased hard with Prenzlow and Siegle doing a majority of the work to reach back up to Taberlay. By the fourth lap, it was definite that Taberlay was going to ride away with the win. The real racing was then the battle for second. Prenzlow worked hard attacking the group with efforts to drop the chase group. It began to work as Noble and Siegle fell off the group but as Siegle moved back on he pulled Noble with him. In the final lap the four were back together. Gritters’ gears skipped after he came through the first set of barriers a few times, putting him to the back of the group. Prenzlow continued his charge into the final turns. When they hit the road for the final sprint, Prenzlow led it out, but Noble came around him to take second with Prenzlow in third, Siegle fourth, and Brandon Gritters to round out the top five.

After another great day in the park and cooler temperatures it is finally starting to feel like fall in CA. The rain is coming so get the warm clothing and costumes out for the upcoming week. It is the most exciting race of the season, SCPS 5: SPOOKY CROSS next Saturday night and then get up early and head north to San Luis Obispo for SCPS 6: Slo Cross. This is going to be the scariest week of racing ever as it is definite that the Spooky Cross costume race will bring a lot more pumpkin slamming wrestlers and men in dresses to the event than before.

For more information go to: www.socalcross.org

Photo Gallery

Results:

Elite Men

Pos	No.	Name	Club/Team	Total Tm	Diff
1	58	Sid TABERLAY	Sho-Air/Specialized	51:42.7
2	36	Mark Noble	Franco Factory Team	52:15.6	32.85
3	49	Brent Prenzlow	Celo Pacific/B+L Bikes	52:15.8	33.11
4	60	Brandon GRITTERS	Rock N Road	52:17.2	34.45
5	70	Jason SIEGLE	Bike Religion	52:30.9	48.16
6	62	John BAILEY	Bailey Bikes	52:47.8	01:05.0
7	68	anton PETROV	SDG Factory Team	53:04.2	01:21.4
8	61	John BEHRENS	Bailey Bikes	53:49.5	02:06.8
9	55	Eric COLTON	The TEAM SoCalCross	54:08.2	02:25.5
10	39	Kyle Gritters	Rock N Road	54:25.2	02:42.5
11	63	James WALSH	Celo Pacific	54:25.7	02:42.9
12	30	Frederick Bottger	SDG Factory Team	54:35.2	02:52.4
13	34	Eric Christenson	SDG Factory Team	55:13.2	03:30.5
14	43	Oliver Hutchinson	Helen’s	56:16.4	04:33.7
15	38	George Barthel	Helen’s	56:37.4	04:54.7
16	66	Vincent Owens	Yahoo! Cycling Team	56:50.8	05:08.1
17	48	Ben Jones	Celo Pacific	51:48.3	1 Lap
18	32	Lance Voyles	Giant	51:49.8	1 Lap
19	45	Ryan Weeger	Celo Pacific	52:04.0	1 Lap
20	46	Timothy Sparks	Metal Mtn	52:25.8	1 Lap
22	33	David Sheek	SDG Factory Team	52:43.0	1 Lap
24	65	Griffith VERTICAN	Bear Valley Bikes	53:03.6	1 Lap
25	44	Robert Snyder	Backbone Racing	53:29.2	1 Lap
27	29	Jeff Pink	The TEAM SoCalCross	54:17.0	1 Lap
28	41	Matt Snow	Surf City Cyclery	54:27.3	1 Lap
31	67	Colby WEBER	Metal Mtn	55:36.8	1 Lap
32	50	Bobby Langin Jr.	Friggin Sweet	55:55.8	1 Lap
33	35	Lawerence Leonard		56:01.4	1 Lap
34	59	Chris Bassett	Mafia Racing	56:09.1	1 Lap
35	42	Jeff Do	Jenson USA	56:15.0	1 Lap
36	56	Brian Coyne	Mandalay Bay/McGhies	56:16.2	1 Lap
37	47	Dan Breyer	Celo Pacific/Focus Bikes	56:20.4	1 Lap
38	57	Matthew SPEER	VCRC Factory Racing	56:23.6	1 Lap
40	37	Danny Kaukola	fueltheburn.com	56:59.1	1 Lap
41	54	Mark Colton	The TEAM SoCalCross	57:07.4	1 Lap
42	31	Roger RILLING		50:52.6	2 Laps
43	27	Ben Barthel	Echelon Santa Barbara	52:06.1	2 Laps
44	40	Jay Kwan	The TEAM SoCalCross	52:54.8	2 Laps
45	53	Kenneth HILL	SC Velo	53:18.7	2 Laps
46	69	Bryan GARFOOT	Northwestern University	56:09.6	2 Laps
DNF	51	Douglas HALL	The TEAM SoCalCross	42:03.4	DNF
DNF	28	Marco AROCHA	Sho-Air/Sonnance	41:06.0	DNF
DNF	1	Jeff Sanford	Celo Pacific	25:43.0	DNF

Elite Women

Pos	No.	Name	Club/Team	Total Tm	Diff
1	153	Allison Mann	Rock n Road Cyclery	44:00.3
2	152	Amanda Schaper	SDG Factory	45:12.6	01:12.3
3	154	Christina Probert	The Team SoCal CX	45:44.2	01:43.9
4	158	Nancy Klinger	The Team SoCal CX	46:32.0	02:31.7
5	151	Dorothy Wong	The Team SoCal CX	46:54.5	02:54.2
6	159	Megan Elliot	Black Mtn Bicycles	49:06.2	05:05.9
7	155	Sarah Brodsky	Bicycle John’s	50:20.7	06:20.4
15	156	Annette Padilla	Celo Pacific	45:28.4	2 Laps