As the long road season winds down, the SoCal Cup Criterium Series Finale in Dominguez Hills marked the last chance for riders to go for SoCal Cup points this season. The racers also had a chance to go for $2,000 cash in CBR”s BAR Series. In addition, there were five $100 cash primes that were donated by Win-Team to spice things up in the Pro 1/2 race. So, depending if you were seeking points, cash or a little of both there were some great incentives to race hard.
Pro 1/2 Race Recap
With the season winding down, the fields were fairly small. This was no exception for the Pro 1/2 race. With the small field rolling out and the primes on the line, the race started fast with attacks flying to set up for the primes. There were many counter attacks, which produced an eight man break which included; Christian Varley (B&L Bikes), Enrique Aldapa (CaliMex), John Van Dyke (Team Simple Green/Bike Religion), Shawn Daurelio (Velo Club LaGrange), Evan Stade (Sho-air/Rock ‘n Road), Brian Zink (Revolution/Zoca), Kayle Leo Grande (Monster Media Racing/SCVELO) and Ryon Cooke (Team Simple Green/Bike Religion).
The break kept the pace high and was much more fluid than the chasing pack. The chase groups couldn’t get organized to gain any distance. There were some small chase groups that were trying to bridge, but just couldn’t get it together and would get absorbed by the pack after a few hard attempts.
With the race coming into the 45 minute mark, the break lapped the field with Christian Varley (B&L Bikes) bridging first and then the rest of the break in tow to bridge shortly after.
After a few laps of recovery Christian, who seemed to be the strongest of the group, decided to take off and leave the field to never look back. He put in nice effort to hold off a hard chase by the field to take the win solo with plenty of space between him and a small chase group that splintered off with a few laps to go.
Category Winners
The following riders won their respective categories at the SoCal Cup Criterium Series Finale: Pro 1-2 – Christian Varley (B&L Bikes), Cat 3 – Oliver Hutchinson (Team Helen’s), Women 1-3 -Priscilla Calderon (SC VELO/Empower Coaching), Masters 35+ – Jamie Paolinetti (Monster Media Racing/SCVELO), Masters 45+ – Rich Meeker (Breakaway from Cancer Masters), Masters 55+ – Dale Luedtke (Spy-Swami’s Cycling Team), Masters 50+ – Jim Edwards (Team Simple Green/Bike Religion), Masters 60+ Howard Miller (Paramount Racing), Masters 30+ 4/5 Eric Bierman, Cat 5 Bernard Labansa, Women 3/4 – Emily Georgeson (Helens/Cannondale).
More Racing Ahead
As the road season winds down there are still a few events to compete at in the upcoming week. The San Joaquin Valley Omnium is taking place September 8-9 in the Exeter area with a time trial and two Criteriums. In addition, many of SoCal’s Masters have headed to Bend, Oregon to compete at the Masters Road National Championships this week, where bringing home the Stars ‘N Stripes Jersey will be a goal.
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Photo © Frank Sarate / SoCalCycling.com
