Taberlay and Sawicki Solo to Wins at Velocity Cross

10/13/10 - After the exciting and hot weekend of UCI racing in Southern California mother nature teased us this week with rain and lower temperatures but the race day temperatures again shot up to 95 degrees to make the racing blistering. This weekend was a great course laid out with a fast start leading into a winding course through baseball and soccer fields complete with a handful of mud bogs, a couple off camber slopes and the infamous H2O Overdrive -Velocity stairs that pushed riders to the test each lap.  The juniors came enforce as our fastest growing category in the sport (in large part to the SoCal High School MTB League). The most exciting finish of the day was the Youth Race (under 10) where these young athletes (most competitive by the way) rode one lap of the actual 1.75 mile cross course!  Brody and Ethan sprinted it out to the finish with Brody taking the win.  Both boys came over to do an interview and plan to work on their tactics for the next race… watch out!

Elite Women
In the elite women’s race, MTB Champion, Pua Sawicki came out to play, as she gets ready for La Ruta, a grueling mountain bike race in Costa Rica later this year. However, it was Allison Mann (Rock N’ Road) and Amanda Schaper (SDG Factory), with Pua Sawicki (Ellsworth) and the rest of the field in tow from the start. Halfway through the first lap the SDG rider Schaper attacked on the stairs to take the lead. Pua saw the move and opportunity to move up, staying with Schaper to put Mann in third. For the rest of the lap it was Schaper on the front setting the pace but back on the road at the start/finish it was Pua who attacked to take the lead. Pua lead the race from there. It was an effort that stuck and a small gap that continued to opened through the race. Pua soloed in for a comfortable win with Schaper finishing second and Mann in third. To round out the top five it was promoter Dot Wong (The Team) who rode in with teammate Rebecca Siegle behind.

 
The women's podium.
photo © Tim VanGilder

Elite Men
In the elite men’s field, it was another UCI style start that through the field off from the usual countdown. Brandon Gritters was the man with the hole shot and who rode the first lap on the front. On the second lap, Taberlay attacked in the barriers with his hopping skills. To take the lead but Jason Siegle (Bike Religion) brought him back with the lead group in tow but it was the off and on attacks from here that started to crack the group. Gary Douville (Platinum) and John Bailey (Bailey Bikes) doing a majority of the work after Siegles effort while Gritters and Taberlay were playing it smart in back. With three to go Brandon took advantage of the road section, that most used to recover on from the heavy grass, and he broke off the front for a quarter of a lap until the group caught back. With two to go Taberlay took advantage of the barriers again to attack and opened a gap that he was able to hold through entire last lap. In the end, Sid took the win with Brandon Gritters (Rock N Road) second and John Bailey (Bailey Bikes) gaining strength for a third place finish. To round out the top five was Douville fourth and Siegle with fifth.  It was a great day in the park and while some took the week off to rest from the double header UCI Kross-Weekend prior and the heat, those who came out to took special memories from Velocity Cross.  

 
 While other riders dismount, Sid Taberlay (Team Sho-Air) just bunny hops the barriers.
photo © Kelly Grief