Subscribe to SoCalCycling.com’s YouTube Channel
The SCNCA Road Race State Championships, which were held last weekend, saw brutal conditions with wind, dust and heat. Luckily, the conditions for the SCNCA Criterium State Championships were much cooler and slightly overcast.
The Criterium State Championships would be a battle from the teams and individual riders where the finish would most likely come down to a sprint.
With L39ion of LA coming to the Criterium State Championships with seven riders and their strong performances in all the Criteriums this year there would be some surprises! Well almost.
The SoCalCycling.com Team, who showed up with six riders, has been getting organized during the season. The SoCalCycling.com Team has placed well throughout the 2021 season landing on the podium consistently and has scooped up a few wins along the way.
The goal for the SoCalCycling.com Team is to have strong riders that can compete in road races as well as the criteriums and the SoCalCycling.com Team has proven to be a good all-around team.
So with a strong field on the start line, turned out to be an aggressive race with riders wanting to open their legs up and test the other riders to see who was strong.
There were many riders eager not to have it come down to a field sprint so there were many attacks during the race but nothing really stayed out for more than a few laps at a time before getting absorbed by the field.
However, with the race winding down and a few laps to go there was a counter-attack from a previous break. There would be three riders leaping out of the field with an all-out effort to change the race dynamic.
The three riders consisted of John Janneck (SoCalCycling.com Team) Jason Paez (LABC) and Jacob Longo (Go Fast – Incycle). These riders went all in to open a gap that would put L39ion of Los Angeles on the front to close the gap as they usually do but more to control the pace. However this time, L39ion of Los Angeles had to chase a little harder which would cost them a little more energy before heading into the last lap. From that point, we would see the SoCalCycling.com Team get organized behind them sitting there ready to pounce when the time came to help out our fast guys.
Heading into the last lap, the three breakaway riders John Janneck (SoCalCycling.com Team) Jason Piaz (LABC) and Jacob Longo (Go Fast – Incycle) got absorbed and the SoCalCycling.com Team train took over to keep the pace high so it wouldn’t be a cluster heading into the sprint. In most races this year, the Legion of LA team typically controls the last remaining laps.
With the crowd surprised that the SoCalCycling.com Team was on the front taking control for our fast guys, it was suspenseful waiting to see what was going to happen to come around the last corner on the final lap. With a race within a race (since the jerseys were up for grabs for the Pro, Cat 1, and Cat 2 categories) the win for the race would make things a little complicated.
As the riders rounded the last corner, the SoCalCycling.com Team riders were still near the front along with Legion of LA and other fast riders.
As they wound up for the sprint, Cory Williams (Legion of LA-UCI Pro) opened up a little gap with Sean McElroy (Aevelo – UCI Pro) and Osvaldo Mora (SoCalCycling.com Team – Cat 1), Eduardo Cruz (SoCalCycling.com Team – Cat 1 UCI/Mexico) and Ryan Jastrab (Wildlife Generation – UCI Pro) rounding out the top five positions in that order.
With my B-Day the following day it was an early gift to see the SoCalCycling.com Team perform so well. It’s really been a pleasure to watch these young but experienced batch of riders come up through the ranks and see myself and Christy’s hard work pay off for the next generation of riders and see them perform constantly during the whole season for the SoCalCycling.com Team.
We definitely want to thank all our sponsors as well who make all of this happen.
CBR #5 Crit Championships – Photo Gallery
CBR # 5 Crit Championship – Results
Photo by Frank Sarate / SoCalCycling.com
