The City of Victorville and Majestic Cycling hosted the Victorville Road Race on Saturday, June 18th. The Pro 1/2 field was relatively small with only 20-25 riders. The heat was absolutely blistering so this would make the 14 lap / 84mile race a serious race of attrition with temperatures getting close to the 100 degree mark.
The race course was held on a 6.1 mile lap with something for everyone with some flats, wind, tight twisty turns and a nice 5 to 6 percent grade climb about a mile long.
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Photos by Nancy Ruiz & Frank Sarate
From the start of the race the field was splitting up with small groups of 3-5 riders getting off the front. One and a half laps into the race the first serious move of the day went off the front with Josh Ruiz (Cylance-Incycle -Cannondale) and Joseph Garey (Monster Media). The gap opened up pretty quickly to the field with a few guys trying to bridge across on the hill but with no luck.
About 4 laps in, the gap was sitting around 1 minute to the two leaders. I put in a solid attack to try and get myself across and spent one and a half laps solo. I got myself within 35 seconds of the two leaders but unfortunately at that stage the field brought me back in.
Once I had been brought back into the field the guys all started working relatively well together until we had a few guys messing up the pace. A few guys along with myself jumped away on lap 7, by this point Josh and Joseph had a three and a half minute gap, so it looked like they were going to go all the way.
About 5 laps to go Josh Ruiz unfortunately got a flat, which left Joseph Garey up front alone to fight in the wind. Josh managed to get a wheel change and unluckily got another flat shortly after which put him out of the race.
Myself and the two chasers saw this opportunity to try to bring Joseph back in. His gap in the end though was too big for us and Joseph Garey took the win. On the last lap I took off from the other two chasers to come in for 2nd place with Michael Barker (Team Velocity) closing out the podium.
The Victorville road race was held on an absolutely awesome course and I think this has the potential to be a real good race in the years to come, so a big thanks to Majestic Cycling and the City of Victorville for hosting this race for us.
Be sure to put the Victorville Road Race on your calendar for next year! These are the kind of races you want to support as these types of courses are becoming rare.
Thanks again to SoCalCycling.com Team’s sponsors for making it all possible.
By Wesley Eslick, SoCalCycling.com Team
