More Wild West Racing-California Style: Imperial Classic and Brawley Bike Rodeo
Lucas Binder, SKLZ pb Pista Palace
2/23/11 - The past weekend presented Southern California bike racers with two racing options: go to LA for the UCLA Road Race and CBR-NOW Energy Bar Criterium, or head out east into Imperial County for the Imperial Classic and 1st Annual Cattle Call Bike Rodeo in Brawley. I chose the latter. Normally I would take any chance I get to wear my state champ jersey and choose the road race over the criterium, but with temperatures in the 40s and a chance of snow for the road race it wasn’t a hard decision to wuss out of the UCLA Road Race at the last second and head out east instead (not to mention that the Imperial Crits had a nice prize purse while the winner of the UCLA Road Race probably won less than the reg fee). After a hard 3 days of racing in Arizona the previous weekend, all of my teammates chose to take the weekend off or stay more local and do CBR instead, so this would be my first race without any teammates since my Cat 3 days.
The Imperial Classic
The Imperial Classic is an L-shaped course, just under a mile, that runs through the historic downtown and nearby neighborhood. Though the race is relatively low-key on the SCNCA calendar (about 30 people started), the quality of the race in terms of organization and prize purse from the race promoter and community was better. The local paper had us on the front page and, as race announcer Ralph Elliot pointed out, it was one of the only races with posters advertising the event on all the downtown streetlights.
We had escaped the cold and snow of the UCLA RR but still had to deal with the wind in Imperial. With a ripping crosswind on the longest stretch of the course and much of the field already tired from having raced earlier in a Cat 3 or Masters race, a move was bound to get away early.
Craig Turner (Team Redlands) won the Pro 1-2 race at the 6th Annual Imperial Classic
followed by Michael Larsen (SoCalCycling.com) and Iggy Silva (FFCA).
Photo © Jerry Swartfager
On the first lap to be exact. We hadn’t rounded the second corner before Aaron Quesnell (Acqua Al 2/SDBC) put in an attack. I was quick to go with him and eventually about 6 of us were off the front quickly pulling away from the field. Just before our gap became insurmountable for any chase group to bridge Iggy Silva(Wonderful Pistachios) bridged up and was the last man across the gap. We were now 8 strong and with all the major teams represented (DeWalt, SDBC, SoCalCycling.com) our gap grew ridiculously fast. Before twenty-five minutes of racing were over we were approaching the tail end of the field. In a move that was more aggressive than smart I attacked and got up to the field by myself. I thought I might be able to shoot through the field and immediately get off the front again with someone from the field, but instead bridged up solo for nothing while the rest of the break continued to share pulls to get to the field, and now I would have to deal with the 3 big teams all helping their guys who were in the break to get the win. Dumb move.
I attacked once or twice more before the first hour of racing was over. Someone else without any teammates but a lot more experience than me said I should wait until 2 laps to go and I decided it sounded like a good idea. As the lap cards were pulled out I inched towards the front of the field. With 3 laps to go there was a lot of reshuffling at the front as the major teams fought for control. With 2 laps to go I was in a poor position and wasn’t to attack until the penultimate lap was nearly over. I was off the front going into the bell lap and slowly extending the gap over the field. However in the second half of the last lap SoCalCycling.com was on the front working to bring me back. I made the last turn into headwind of the long finishing straight with a precarious lead of less than 5 seconds. In the final 40 meters I was passed by the first few sprinters and was only able to hold on for 5th. The top 3 all sprinted very closely together, with Craig Turner of Team Redlands taking the win, followed by Michael Larsen (SoCalCycling.com) and Iggy Silva (FFCA).
Brawley Cattle Call Bike Rodeo Criterium
On Sunday was the “Bike Rodeo” race a few miles north in Brawley. The course loops around an actual rodeo arena on a super smooth one-way road with all sweeping except for a tight hairpin at the top of a small rise on the course. If you have ever rode around Fiesta Island in San Diego then it is similar to that in the way you ride it, and similar to the old 4-corner Long Beach Criterium in that you could see across the entire course.
Many of the racers from the day before came out again, as well as some that new ones that included Chris Walker of SGBC (he raced UCLA Road Race the day before) and a couple of LaGrange riders.
With such a fast course I doubted that a break would get away as early as it did the day before, but decided to stay near the front just in case and to get some primes which I missed out on yesterday.
Well, there wasn’t a break on the first lap, only a couple of attacks and neutralizations from the big teams (DeWalt/ CAPools, SoCalCycling.com, SDBC). But on the 2nd or 3rd lap a cash prime was up and I moved up to get in position for it. A DeWalt rider attacked but was chased down by someone else with me on the wheel. I attacked once he was caught and we gradually turned into the tail wind section of the course. I got the prime and a good gap on the field so decided to keep rolling. I looked back to see a blue DeWalt and red SoCalCycling.com rider coming up to me. I eased up until they got on my wheel about a lap later and began drilling it again. I didn’t think we would have a chance of staying away, but at least I could put in some hard efforts and make the people who would chase us, like Iggy Silva and Chris Walker, hurt pretty bad to bring us back, and maybe get some more primes along the way.
Lucas Binder (Pista Palace) won the Brawley Cattle Call Bike Rodeo Criterium with
Brent Garrigus (Cal Pools/DeWalt) in 2nd and Raul Frias (SoCalCycling.com) in 3rd.
Photo © Jerry Swartfager
My break companions were Brent Garrigus (DeWalt/CA Pools) and Raul Frias (SoCalCycling.com) and the 3 of us extended our gap to 20 and eventually 30 seconds on the field, with each of us working out a smooth rotation order which we would keep for much of the race. I pulled for most of the tailwind section through the start/finish and then up the small hill, Raul coming around at the top as we turned and accelerated down the hill, and Brent pulling on the far side of the course. I think our gap reached a max of close to 40 seconds, before some people started to really chase and bring it down to 30. I looked across the rodeo arena to see Iggy stringing out the field trying to bring us back, and bringing our gap down to 23 seconds at one time. He didn’t get much help from anyone except Chris Walker and whenever the gap went down a little we would push it a little harder and it would be back up to 30 seconds on the next lap (the spectators were very good about giving us time gaps). The more we rode the course the more I liked it, especially the small hill and hairpin turn, which you could power up and take the turn fairly quickly on the wide smooth roads.
When the lap cards were pulled out and showed 6 to go we knew for certain we would stay away. I kept taking pulls, but started to pull of a few seconds earlier than usual so that Raul would be taking his pull up the hill. With 3 laps to go Raul was beginning his pull as we approached the hill and as we crested I attacked on the inside and got a good gap from the acceleration of the downhill. I time trialed for the next 2 laps and opened the gap enough to take the final lap more comfortably and get the win. My first win of the season and first ever crit win. It’s also the most money I have ever won in a bike race by a lot (the purse was stacked very top heavily). Brent powered away from Raul to finish in 2nd for DeWalt. I also won enough bags of awesome locally grown vegetables like kale and purple and yellow carrots to last me for the week.
It was a good weekend of racing and I hope to come back again next year. Next up on the race calendar for SKLZ/Pista Palace is 4 days of racing at the Callville Bay Classic Stage Race in Nevada.
