REPORT FROM DAVE SHEEK @ OUTSIDEALLDAY.COM

Southern California pedaled into the 2009-10 cyclocross season with the C-X-C unification weekend. It was cyclocross races Saturday as the Southern California Prestige Series set way and mountain bike races on Sunday with U.S. Cup Unification race. It was a great start to the cyclocross season that really brought some unexpected events.

The races started early Saturday morning and even with the heat reaching the mid 90’s there were large numbers of racers and spectators alike who flocked to Frank G. Bonelli Regional Park in San Dimas, California. Competitors thought they were going to start the season with a more simplistic course but promoters and course designers threw competitors for a loop with a long technical course that was almost three kilometers in length. The topic heard time-and-time again on the day was the course was fun but definitely demanding as many riders discussed their struggles with the heat and technical aspects the course delivered. If anyone ever wanted a miracle diet all they had to do was compete this weekend as they could have easily lost pounds in water weight at the Bonnelli sweat factory.

The early morning numbers brought strong groups of competitors and battles going on in the fields. Record numbers of women and juniors brought out the best in So Cal... comprising 35% of the day's participants!

In the Elite Women’s field it was the Coryn Rivera of the Proman team who came out for the first race of the season after an amazing road season to win first race of the year. The women’s field started strong and stayed close for the first few laps. It looked like the ladies of the CICLE team were going to stay together and dominate the field. But, it was the two young power houses of Kendall Ryan (Team SoCalCross-CICLE) and Coryn Rivera who pushed the pace and began opening gaps on the field. The chase was lead by Tonya Bray (YOR) as her teammates Alexis Ryan and Dorothy Wong followed working together to real in the two Juniors who were off the front. Unfortunately, they never regained the leaders. It looked like Kendall Ryan had control but in the end Rivera found her way to the front for the win.

The Elite Men’s race was another unexpected event as mountain bikers preparing for Sunday’s race came out to throw down a few hard laps on the technical course. It was confusion from the beginning as pro super-d rider Waylon Smith (Mongoose) sprinted off the front with his ful suspension bike into the first turn with more speed than needed as the almost 180 degree turn threw him into a bit of a fish tale as he slid from the inside corner to the outer bottling up the field. But, it was Sho-Air/Specialized’s Sid Taberlay who was also on a mountain bike and his skills allowed him to see the un-deliberate chaos and respond with an immediate attack as he was the first around Smith and Taberlay hit the course hard. The pack saw Taberlay take off and did not respond with a huge push as they regained form as most thought the mountain bike would be a disadvantage on the cross course. Announcer, Larry Longo, even declared the brilliance of Taberlay’s push off the front but was explaining to the crowd that unfortunately he would not hold onto his lead long because of the disadvantages of the mountain bike.

As Taberlay was attacking the course lap after lap the chase group began to pick up the pace and the battles really began. It was young Morgan Ryan (CICLE) and Rock N’ Road’s Ted Willard and Chance Noble (Giant Berry Farms) who were leading the group through the first barrier and over the muddy grass run up. But the group shifted fast as Chance had not one but two unexpected flats in the race and the heat seemed to melt the power from the rest of the riders’ legs early in the race. By the third lap it was Brent Prenzlow (Celo Pacific) and Brandon Gritters (Rock N’ Road) who were working to get back up to Taberlay as he rode around in Aussie fashion springing over barriers like a kangaroo, never dismounting, to maintain his lead.

In the end it was Taberlay who unexpectedly won with at least a 30 second gap on second place finisher Prenzlow. It was Gritters who was able to hold onto third Jason Siegle of Bike Religion who put in one last hard effort for fourth to beat out Mark Noble who rounded out the top five.

Thank you to everyone for a great first event and remember to remind your USA Cycling officials that you would all like to be scored. See you at the next race September 27^th with Racers and Chasers in Anza, CA.  More info can be found at:  www.SoCalCross.org