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by Dave Sheek

It Was a Beautiful Day in Southern California, but Recent Rains Made the Grass Slow © Tim Van Gilder

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

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

Pos No. Name Laps Total Tm Diff Best Tm In Lap Club/Team
1 1 sid taberlay 9 1:02:24.2 06:36.4 9 Sho-Air Specialized
2 6 brandon gritters 9 1:02:32.5 8.302 06:37.8 1 Rock n Road
3 33 John Bailey 9 1:02:51.7 27.501 06:38.6 1 Bailey Bikes
4 28 Gary Douville 9 1:03:10.1 45.88 06:37.6 1 Platinum
5 5 jason siegle 9 1:03:43.6 01:19.4 06:37.8 1 Bike Religion
6 41 Ben Bostrom 9 1:04:08.2 01:44.0 06:42.2 2 Sho-Air Specialized
7 43 Kyle Gritters 9 1:04:16.6 01:52.4 06:40.1 1 Rock n Road
8 34 Oliver Hutchinson 9 1:04:45.4 02:21.2 06:49.6 2 Helens
9 32 John Behren 9 1:05:05.4 02:41.2 06:50.7 2 Bailey Bikes
10 12 Eric Colton 9 1:05:49.7 03:25.4 06:52.0 2 The TEAM SoCalCross
11 36 Eric Christenson 9 1:07:02.0 04:37.7 06:56.5 2 SDG Factory Team
12 16 David Sheek 9 1:07:45.8 05:21.6 06:57.8 2 SDG Factory Team
13 37 Griffith Vertican 9 1:08:03.3 05:39.1 06:55.9 1 Bear Valley Bikes
14 15 Ben Bertiger 9 1:08:38.1 06:13.9 06:39.9 1 The TEAM SoCalCross
15 27 Doug Barnett 9 1:09:04.5 06:40.3 07:05.6 1 Camarillo Bike Co
16 38 Tim Sparks 9 1:10:13.7 07:49.5 07:17.1 3 Metal Mtn
17 40 Jason Hardy 9 1:10:17.2 07:52.9 07:26.3 2 Unattached
18 22 Edward Harris 8 1:02:30.5 1 Lap 07:10.0 1 B&L Bikes
19 23 Alex Boone 8 1:04:25.0 1 Lap 07:35.4 1 Pablove Racing
20 13 Colby Weber 8 1:04:35.5 1 Lap 07:26.9 1 Metal Mtn
21 42 Jeff Pink 8 1:04:37.3 1 Lap 07:10.4 1 The TEAM SoCalCross
22 9 Ryan Merlin 8 1:05:17.9 1 Lap 07:12.6 1 Claremont Colleges
23 20 Matt Snow 8 1:05:30.0 1 Lap 07:24.0 1 Unattached
24 39 Lance Voyles 8 1:05:36.8 1 Lap 07:16.1 1 Giant
25 19 Mark Colton 8 1:07:46.5 1 Lap 07:51.1 1 Team Socal Cross
26 30 Danny Kaukola 8 1:08:08.9 1 Lap 07:47.4 1 fueltheburn.com
27 14 Christopher Woodruff 8 1:08:29.0 1 Lap 07:27.9 1 The TEAM SoCalCross
28 10 Kenneth Hill 8 1:09:08.9 1 Lap 08:06.9 1 SC Velo
29 24 Vu Le 8 1:09:44.5 1 Lap 07:26.5 1 Pablove Racing
30 17 Clayton Plummer 8 1:10:06.9 1 Lap 07:56.8 1 Fuji Bikes
DNF 8 Ted Willard 6 44:34.5 DNF 06:54.8 1 The TEAM SoCalCross
DNF 18 Mike King 6 50:07.1 DNF 07:41.6 1 Metal Mtn
DNF 7 anton petrov 5 37:00.4 DNF 06:55.0 1 SDG Factory Team
DNF 29 Ryan Wheeler 5 40:56.8 DNF 07:10.9 1 Celo Pacific
DNF 2 ben jones 4 30:26.6 DNF 07:16.1 1 Celo Pacific
DNF 26 Todd Stephenson 3 22:42.5 DNF 07:19.4 1 Sho-Air Sonance
DNF 31 Samuel Grove 3 24:01.5 DNF 07:10.9 1 Unattached
DNF 21 Bobby Langin Jr 3 24:32.3 DNF 07:20.0 1 Friggin Sweet
DNF 11 Christopher Bassett 3 24:48.7 DNF 07:20.1 1 Mafia Racing
DNF 25 Dan Breyer 2 16:47.2 DNF 07:52.3 1 Celo Pacific
DNF 35 Miles Ludi 2 17:11.0 DNF 08:21.1 2 Swami’s
DNF 4 curt dosier DNF 0 Paramount

Women P/1/2/3

Pos No. Name Laps Total Tm Diff Best Tm In Lap Club/Team
1 133 Pua Sawicki 5 37:47.8 07:18.9 2 Mata
2 127 amanda schaper 5 39:20.9 01:33.1 07:24.6 1 SDG Factory Team
3 126 Allison Mann 5 39:44.0 01:56.2 07:32.9 1 Rock N Road
4 124 dorothy wong 5 41:48.7 04:00.9 07:57.7 1 The TEAM SoCalCross
7 128 rebecca siegel 5 43:26.6 05:38.8 07:58.0 1 The TEAM SoCalCross
13 134 Tonya Bray 5 47:30.2 09:42.4 08:17.9 1 Pablove racing
19 197 Kim kiunke 4 39:39.8 1 Lap 09:20.1 1 SoCalCross
22 130 annette padilla 4 43:40.8 1 Lap 09:17.7 1 Celo Pacific