Race Report: The End of a Long Season
Lucas Binder, SKLZ/Pista Palace
With the SCNCA schedule starting in January and building up through spring and climaxing in the summer it has been a long season of racing for Southern California riders. The San Clemente Criterium is a fitting finale to the long season with its exciting course and a nice amount of prize money and primes.
Last year, the race saw a large and deep field of riders that featured all of the strong SoCal teams and a few local pros. However this year, a lot of riders opted to race a flat crit at CBR instead, so the field at San Clemente was small with about 40 riders lining up. With last year's winner Sergio Hernandez racing the Colorado Stage Race with Jelly Belly as well as the other two top finishers from last year being absent, it was anyone's guess who this year's winner would be. However with CashCall having the largest team they would definitely be the ones to watch. Other teams that showed up in force included Full Circle, Franco/MRI, Swamis, and to lesser extents, SoCalCycling.com, Surf City, SDBC, NOW-MS, and Herbalife/La Grange.
Lucas Binder (SKLZ/Pista Palace) drills it at the front as the season winds down.
Photo © Danny Munson
I had one teammate, Adam Livingston, until his rear derailleur cable broke 5 minutes before our race started (this course definitely stresses your shifting cables)....and then it was just me. Not an awesome start to the race. Then as we gathered at the line the officials told us that if we had tubulars with old glue we would likely roll them on this course, as it had happened multiple times in earlier races. You have to love the timing that the USAC officials decided to give us this warning: not quite early enough for you to be able to throw on some clinchers if you brought them but just long enough to make you worry and start to sweat as you wait at the start line on your tubulars that you have been racing on all season. Good thing I had my Vittoria clinchers on which I have been using for most of the season, I thought somewhat smugly as we waited for the race to start. Out to the east big storm clouds were ballooning in the heat and the thundering of artillery from nearby Camp Pendleton in the background added tension to the start.
Even though he broke his shifting cable right before the race, Adam was not totally useless as he gave me a heads up that the first prime of our race would be a jersey signed by no other than Lance Armstrong. I love bike racing and I am an American, so of course I am a huge Lance Armstrong fan. Well, maybe not a huge fan, but he is the guy who was winning when I first started watching the Tour de France back in high school, so I wanted that jersey.
The race started off somewhat mellow without any attacks from the gun and I was able to stay near the front and wait for the first prime. After the first few laps we were still all together and the prime bell was finally rung. I was in good position coming into the final corner and easily took the first prime, which turned out to be a box of gels, which are good, but are definitely not a Lance Armstrong jersey. I cursed my pseudo-teammate, Adam, under my breathe for breaking his shift cable at the start and now for misinforming me about the prime, as I sat up and was reabsorbed by the field.
Soon after the first real break of the day formed off the front which included David Santos and another CashCall rider, Brandon Gritters (LaGrange), and a Full Circle rider. The quartet built up a gap of nearly 25 seconds and seemed like a threat, but with it being so early in the race and a lot of other riders in the field still willing to pull, they were eventually brought back after about 20 minutes off the front.
Lucas Binder (SKLZ/Pista Palace) strategizes on how to win the signed Lance Armstrong jersey.
Photo © Danny Munson
The small hill on the backside of the course had a strong headwind and acted as a great equalizer during the race that naturally neutralized a lot of the attacks that followed. However, another break did get away, this time a duo consisting of a CashCall and NOW-MS rider. They too built up a good gap of around 20 seconds as the tiring field was reluctant to chase, but eventually a chase was started by the Franco/MRI team and Full Circle and the two were eventually brought back as we passed the half way point of the race.
Sometime during the second half of the race I found myself in group of about 5 off the front. We went hard before being caught by another group of about 10, with about 15 other riders off the back. With this split in the field we went hard trying to stay away. About half of the dropped group was able to dig deep and bridge up to us but about 7 other riders were dropped on that lap. Not much later another large break got off the front that included Ivan Dominguez (Franco/MRI), Daniel Ramsey (Full Circle), a couple CashCall riders and a few others, along with a chase group that included Tyler Locke (Surf City). Before they got too far I chased hard and tried to close the gap, and with the help from a Swamis rider, the gap came back down. Ivan Dominguez, Daniel Ramsey, and a CashCall rider immediately attacked again and got a good gap. The 3 of them built up a gap of over 20 seconds and were almost out of sight of the field, but with 15 minutes to go they started to play around with each other, likely because the CashCall rider had a lot of teammates back in the field and used it as a reason to not pull as hard as his two other breakmates. Ramsey (Full Circle) and the CashCall rider were brought back to the field inside of 15 minutes to go but Dominguez (Franco/MRI) had attacked the break and was riding off the front with a good gap. Right when it looked like Dominguez might have a good chance of staying away a series of attacks from the field and a chase from CashCall brought him back into the field inside of ten minutes to go. Soon after Ivan was caught the prime for the jersey signed by Lance was announced and Brian McCulloch attacked. He was chased by a junior rider. The junior rider nearly closed the gap half a lap later and I was able to come around him and sit on Brian's wheel. As we came to the final corner I jumped around Brian and took the prime, and a lap later we were given the lap cards for 3 to go.
CashCall organized at the front but did not ramp up the pace until 2 laps to go when the field split and about 5 riders were up the road that included David Santos and Devan Dunn from CashCall, Andrew Bosco (Full Circle), Trevor Hagg (Swamis) and a few other riders. They dangled off of the front of the field for the last lap and a half as the same junior rider that pulled during the final prime pull the field in chase of the break. I was on his wheel and the two of us were able to just bridge up to the break with half a lap to go, right when David Santos put in an attack. The break sat up a bit and coming into the final corners the field had just caught us. David Santos (CashCall) stayed away and took a well deserved solo win ahead of the field, with Devan Dunn able to win the sprint from the break to get 2nd, followed by Andrew Bosco (Full Circle) in 3rd, and Trevor Hagg (Swamis) getting a solid 4th place finish. I was able to hang on in the sprint and finish in 10th place, which I was pretty happy with.
David Santos (CashCall Mortgage) clinches the win and SoCal Cup title.
Photo © Danny Munson
With his win, David Santos also secured the overall title for this year's SoCal Cup (which has some good prize money this year), winning by just 1 point over Chris Walker (assuming that my math is correct and that Chris Walker won the Death Valley Stage race which was this weekend). A pretty nice title to add to his State Road Race win and State Crit podium this year. With my 10th place finish in the crit I was able to stay ahead of my nearest rival in the SoCal Cup and hold onto 5th place in the standings. That, along with the Lance Armstrong jersey which I am totally gonna wear on my next group ride, made for a nice end to the season. However I'm not completely ready to stop shaving my legs for the off season yet, there is still the Fiesta Island Time Trial and a few track races to do, and maybe even a CBR race.
Thanks for reading.
