Thursday, December 24th, 2009
Southern California Prestige Series Finale
SCPS #18: Santa Cross/Series Finale
Photo: J-Urb’s Flicker
After a week off due to the Cyclocross National Championships in Bend, Oregon and a record number of SoCal Cross enthusiast heading north for the event the Southern California Prestige Series (SCPS) presented by Shimano returned this week for its last race of the series, Santa Cross. It was a perfect day with warm SoCal weather and one of the best courses of the year. Like last year this Pierce College course in Woodland Hills, California dealt the hardest climbs and tricky off camber turns riders have seen this season. It was a culmination of fun and test by course designers, Jeff Herring and Jonathan Livstay, to see what riders have learned this year.
The morning events were off with cheer as riders showed their Christmas spirit dressed with festive colors, as elves, or good old Saint Nick. It was another fun event and great end of the season party as most people stuck around all day to see who would be the top three teams in the series, individual series leaders, but more so for the end of season raffle as promoter Dot Wong handed out the following: Bailey O’Brien CX frame to Lisa Wade, SportsbaseOnline.com awarded a Fuji CX Pro frame and fork to Josh Kepler, Shimano XTR Pedals to Charlie Stone, Alpha Q Carbon CX fork to Dave Lawson, SDG Saddle and Seatpost to Thomas Kanusky and Art Rupio, and a Planet Bike commuter fender to Kenny Avchen. Congratulations to all the lucky winners!
Photo: J-Urb’s Flicker
The Elite Women:
While recently crowned junior National champion Coryn Rivera was not in attendance, the National podium racing Ryan sisters (SoCal Cross/CICLE) were, along with Pua Sawicki (Mata/Ellsworth) and other hungry SoCal racers looking for the final series win. However, many knew the hard climbs of this course would definitely benefit Sawicki and her MTB skills. The race started with a quick road sprint making a long sweeping left onto dirt and then into a quick off cambered right. This technical aspect single filed riders from the get go and it was Kendal Ryan who took the early lead but soon, as most expected from the course, it was Sawicki hard charging off the front.
Photo: David Lawson
The Elite Men:
Like the women’s race it was another Ryan who took the lead as young Captain Morgan Ryan (SoCal Cross/CICLE) took the lead and set a blistering pace through the first lap. While most riders seemed tired from their travels to Bend, Oregon and the long season Ryan showed well as he wanted to prove something to Santa Claus. Saint Nick (Sid Taberlay, Sho-air/Specialized), however, was not going to just let Ryan ride away as he like Sawicki knows how to use the hills to his advantage. While Ryan took the first lap and others battled to take over for the second and third it seemed the race was going to come down to series leader Brent Prenzlow (B&L/Celo Pacific), Brandon & Kyle Gritters (Rock N’ Road), and Taberlay. While Prenzlow pulled the group through a few laps with about five laps to go Taberlay attacked to take the lead. This put Prenzlow in second and the Gritters brothers were riding third and fourth with Anton Petrov of Bike Religion in hot pursuit. In the end it was Taberlay Claus off the front, opening more and more of a gap on chasers with each lap to take the win. In second it was Prenzlow who also soloed in to take the overall series title and Petrov who continued to push passing the Gritters for third. To round out the top five it was Brandon and then Kyle Gritters in fifth.
It was another fantastic season of racing. Thank you to all whom came out to race this year, the clubs that stepped up to help put on some fantastic races, and to all the series sponsors. If you are not done racing yet and want to keep your cross engine going through January like the European racers look at the schedule on www.socalcross.com for the Cross Fever Series brought to you by Shimano… a three race series grassroots with a shorter race day and less categories . The series was created by Prestige Series director, Dot Wong last season (January 2009) to meet the demands of riders who still wanted to race ‘cross as well as continue the momentum of the sport to the real end of the cyclocross season of World Championships at the end of the month. Last year’s series continued to introduce new riders to the sport as well as reaching out to smaller cross regions like San Luis Obispo, Bakerfield and Palmdale. It also helped educate cycling clubs on how to host a cross race so they would be ready to fly during the peak of cross the following season.
