With Summer in full swing, the City of Ontario was the host for the Season End Grand Prix, which was the final event of the 2017 Ontario Series.
The Pro 1-3 field had some strong teams with young riders entered into the race. With the temperature reaching nearly 100 degrees, the riders were in for a race of attrition with the heat and high speeds.
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Within the first 10 minutes of the race, a break of six riders formed that worked together gaining time on the field. Some riders in the break had teammates back in the field controlling the chase efforts.
As the break worked well together and made lapping the field look easy, some of the riders in the field were having a hard time maintaining the high speeds with the heat.
Eventually, another breakaway would form just before the first breakaway of six would catch the field. Four riders detached themselves from the field mid-way through the race and also gained time quickly to get out of site of the field. They worked on getting back up to the field to finally lap the field which made it a total of ten riders to lap the field with one rider spending a good portion of the race in no mans land only to be caught with a few laps to go (great effort). There would be some late attacks as the laps were closing up for the finale.
With the field still mainly together it came down to a field sprint and Jan Paul Morales, who came all the way from Philippines, took the win ahead of Daniel Pearce (Les Rois Cycling Club) in second and Leonardo Martinez (Watchung Wheelmen) in third.
The pictures tell the story, as always!
Report & Photos by Frank Sarate / SoCalCycling.com
