The Rim Nordic XC Series finished the main part of XC mountain bike racing in SoCal until next year for the 2014 season. The course for the last race of the series had the start loop that included a semi technical single-track back down to the start/finish area used for the other races and was 7.0 miles with about 950 ft gain per lap. The racers had to race the series finale Sunday to qualify for overall. The teams were also going for the large and small team overall placings as well, after the stage race shook up the overall point going into the series final.
A warm clear day, the race announcers birthday, and being the series finale brought a big turnout with about 150 starters that had wmost finishing. There was the same lap count for each group as before in the previous XC race days. The beginners came in mostly separated after doing their one lap finishing in 50 minutes to about hour except for a few. The Rim Nordic courses are never easy. Any beginner that can finish the series at Rim Nordic has some skills and fitness ready to move up to the next level after the series for next year.
Photos & Report by Kenneth Hill /Â Light & Shadows Photography
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The Sport group had the largest number of races bringing lots of competition over two laps of the course for each of the age classes. Also at stake was the Team Overall for small teams as a source of pride and bragging rights. Some racers were going after their best result of the series for their team or wipe out one bad result from the three previous races to improve their overall. Â The Pro/Expert finished off the work that their teammates did in the earlier groups. For the first time in the Series, this year two pro women came out. Lesley Paterson of Scott Bikes took the win and Kristen Gross of Team Ninja finished in second. John Nobil the Series leader going into the finale was out due to a race back east. Romolo Forcino of Chains Required was in theory in the lead, but had a good day to secure the overall.
Daniel Munoz of B-rads Bike Shop in Corona was in third in the overall on the start line due another missing person but had to win the day to win the series. Daniel lined up at the start with the others. Somewhere on the first lap of three, Daniel got in front and started growing the gap back to the others. On the second lap he was hurting but he rode through it. On the third lap he started to feel better and grow the gap again. Romolo was chasing hard but it was not enough and finished about 3 and half minutes behind Daniel, with Daniel taking the win for the day and the Series with 16 points between them in the overall. Stuart Gonzalez of Bear Valley Bikes finished third on the day and the Series followed by his teammate Derek Hermon. Garnet Vertican of Spy Giant was fifth and Trey Jarno of Bear Valley was sixth.
The Team rankings for the large teams saw no changes with Bear Valley Bikes taking the win with a convincing gap over Chains Required. Team Ninja has grown into a large team with third place. The small teams competition was a tight battle to finish with The Cyclery Bike Shop winning by just 16 points. Troupe Racing Co. took second. Cal Coast Bicycles came in third.
