By Dan Vinson
The 7th annual San Dimas Stage Race, held from March 17-19, 2006, was a sold out show for most categories, including the "Pro 1's" who had 125 riders to contest an uphill time trial, a challenging road race, and a technical criterium over three days of racing. About half the field were professionals, including riders from Toyota-United Pro, Heath Net, Jittery Joes, Navigators, Successfulliving.com, and Kodak Gallery.com, among others. By the way, thanks to all you Socalcycling.com users for reading these "reports" and for the encouraging words. Also, keep in mind that these "reports" are my personal diary of the race. It is a single Cat. 1's perspective, from memory, on how the race unfolded. It's a journal of what I did, saw, or heard - typically at 185 beats per minute or while hanging onto an echelon for dear life while in the gutter. I'm not in a Mavic follow vehicle watching the race and taking interviews afterwards. So enjoy....
Stage 1 - Chevrolet Glendora Mountain Time Trial (3.8 miles):
The challenging course started with a gradual incline (3-4%) for the first half mile until you hit the first switchback. At that point, it kicked up to about 7% for a short period and then steadied out near 6% for the remainder of the climb. The elevation gain was over 1100 feet - the top of which each rider would be longing for extra oxygen (and a warm jacket). The weather, like last year, was cold and wet - real wet by the time the Pro 1's hit the line! After a decent warm-up under our team's canopy, I was off to the start line where I would be sandwiched between two Healthnet riders. Lucky me. I rolled off conservatively and picked up the pace throughout, wondering which line through the flowing rivers were the fastest. I kept my head down and away from the rain, occasionally glancing to the left and wishing I was one of those descending riders who had already ended their suffering. Every so often there was a Mavic neutral support guy who seemed to enjoy the show. With a kilometer to go I tried to push it a little harder, but there wasn't much more to give. I crossed the line, without catching or being caught by any other riders, with a time of 15:01 (31st place), 1:36 behind stage winner, Chris Baldwin (Toyota-United Pro). Justin England and Heath Blackgrove (both Toyota-United Pro) rounded out the podium. Defending champion, Scott Moninger, was not far behind, in 4th. My teammate, Rob Alvarez (Kahala LaGrange), finished 5 seconds ahead of me for 28th. Considering I was 45 seconds behind U.S. Pro Champion Chris Wherry who was a solid 8th, it was a pretty good day. Next up, the road race!
Stage 2 - San Dimas Hospital Road Race (98 miles):
The road race consisted of 14 laps of a 7 mile circuit with two noteworthy climbs per lap. There was the more gradual "park climb" and then the steeper "Cannon Street climb" and a few other rollers for over 450 feet of elevation gain per lap, and well over 6000 feet of climbing over the course of the day. The race started fast and it appeared that nobody was wasting any time. Healthnet and Toyota-United Pro dominated the front of the field with multiple attacks and counter-attacks. The first two laps we flew up the climbs in our big chainrings and many riders were already in trouble. By the third lap, a break had formed including Mike Jones (Healthnet), Chris Wherry (Toyota-United Pro), and teammates Peter Hatton and Philip Wong (Jittery Joe's). That's when the pace went from "crazy fast" to "regular fast" and steadied with Toyota-United setting a brisk pace on the front - apparently happy with the breakaway. Having watched way to many kids videos with my 2 year old son, I couldn't get the tune, "the wheels on the bus go round and round" and "the green grass grows all around, all around, the green grass grows all around" out of my head as we made the circuits. Not the most aggressive music to be stuck in my head during a race like this! Over the course of several laps, the lead of the breakaway increased to 2 minutes before Mike Jones attacked and went solo, leaving the others to get caught by the speeding peleton. As we passed the half way point of the race, several legs began to tire and the peleton slowly started to shrink. There was a constant jostling for position in the field. It wasn't so hard to move up front as it was to stay up there for extended periods of time! Jones heroically held onto a one minute lead by himself for a few more laps. He was apparently being left to fry. I sat towards the back in the field, with the plan to move up after we hit 3 laps to go and do the best I could to stay with the leaders. However, Jones was caught with about 3 laps to go and Healthnet put in some massive attacks off the front. Toyota-United hit the front in pursuit at the speed of "scary, crazy, hold onto your fricken' handlebars with white knuckles fast" and we were single file all the way to the Cannon Street climb where the field exploded into several groups. About 40 riders came together to form the lead group. I never had a chance to move up before the split - a big lesson learned here, ouch. I found myself in a chase group as we hit two laps to go and for a short time, we worked together in the hopes that we might catch back on. Up ahead, With just over a lap to go, the final selection of 5 riders was made on the Cannon Street climb including Menzies and Johnson (Healthnet), Mitchell (Priority Health), Blackgrove (Toyota-United), and Wilson (Jittery Joe's). They opened up a gap and motored the last lap all the way to the finish. Karl Menzies took the stage win. Glen Mitchell and Heath Blackgrove rounded out the podium. Our dozen man chase group went tempo the last lap where I finished 47th. There were 94 finishers of the 125 riders who started. Stage 3 - Incycle/Cannondale Classic Criterium (90 minutes): The 6 corner course with a gradual rise on the backside was more challenging and destructive than many riders may have guessed. I was definitely in that boat and can title the summary of this stage as, "Lesson Learned". As some of us attempted to warm up prior to the race, the black clouds we saw on Friday revisited San Dimas and the temperatures dipped to the 40's. About 15 minutes before the start of our race it began to hail, and after that it was raining. A few of us wore rain jackets at the start of the race - probably one of the biggest mistakes ever! Yeah, it kept me warm in dry for the first few laps, but after that I began to get hot. I figured I'd take it off when the race slowed - yeah right! The race was fast from the gun with immediate accelerations from Healthnet which found three riders off the front including Gord Frazer & Karl Menzies (Healthnet), and Brent Bookwalter (Priority Health). The three opened up a gap of 30 seconds and Toyota-United went to the front and turned the throttle, immediately shooting guys off the back of the pack. At this point I was desperately hot and thought my head was going to explode. I sat up and took off the jacket as I floated back and then lost contact. I tried to get back on after tossing the jacket but it wasn't going to happen. So, I rode out a few more laps and then my race was over - so quick in fact that I didn't even have the chance to determine if I had any legs. Oh well. I'm never wearing a rain jacket again - I don't even care if it is so cold that penguins are sliding down the road! The breakaway riders continued to put in a courageous effort and extended their lead to a maximum of about 45 seconds. As Toyota-United chased, the field shred and with 5 laps to go there were less than 35 riders (1/3 of the field) left in the race. So many riders were caught in the crossfire between the Healthnet / Toyota-United battle. The break was slowly being pulled back and it was apparent that the race would come down to the wire. The crowd cheered but it was not enough for the breakaway who were caught just after the start/finish with one lap to go. The final attacks were made which saw J.J. Haedo (Toyota-United) fly around the last turn and sprint to victory. Tommy Nankervis (Priority Health) was 2nd and Alberto Tiberio (Healthnet) was 3rd. Heath Blackgrove (Toyota-United) took the overall G.C. victory with Chris Baldwin (Toyota-United) in 2nd and Trent Wilson (Jittery Joes) in 3rd. Overall, it was a great race with amazing competition - an event that many riders already look forward to for next year.
Dan Vinson
