Sunday was your typical Southern California day, dry and warm. Temperatures were forecasted to reach over 82 degrees. In this event we had our Cat2/3 and Single Speed racers.
Here’s the current roster:
Kim Finch-Cat2
Priscilla Policar-Cat3
David Sanderson-Cat2
Tony Finch-Cat3
Eric Hunner-Single Speed (but racing with the Cat2 riders)
Joe Solancho Cat3
Cat2 and SS racers started around 9am. I always love watching these powerhouses blast through the course. In the beginning, there was a huge pile up that took down our very own David Sanderson as well as 2 other riders. David and the other rider was able to get up, fix their bikes and jam. Unfortunately, the last rider’s bike got ran over by other racers and taco’d his front wheel, but hey, that’s racing.
As our racers made their way through the course, they started to show up through our feed zone one rider at a time. First it was Eric who was ridiculously fast then our friend Steve “Honda” Ellis, right behind him was David Sanderson. Kim Finch was the leader of the women in her Cat. Not once did they come near her! What’s amazing to me was watching the shear power that was exhibited by Eric and David. As you all know, Eric is like this big huge monster of a guy on a bike. Watching him climb hills is like watching a mountain lion in pursuit of its prey. It’s no wonder we call him ANIMAL. Then you have David Sanderson. Check out the video below because you’ll see what I mean by him being super FAST. At the start of the race, David lost about 1.5 minutes fixing his bike due to the crash. But he clearly made up for it by passing more than half of his competition. Kim Finch was riding strong that day. As I mentioned, her competition never even came close. At one point I thought she was by herself…that’s how far ahead she was.
In the Cat3 races, we had a few of our friends join us. Mark Thomas, Dan Burdett and Val Macatangay all raced the Cat3 27-34, Jodi Vinas in the Cat 3 35+ women, Albert Vinas Cat3 35+men. Tony raced in the older men Cat3 and dominated the field. Priscilla Policar Cat3 34 under women. Priscilla was riding super strong that day. Even after a few crashes, she still kept riding with a smile. I wanted to note that Joe Solancho raced with the KHS 650B. Just to let you know, the Pro guy that won the whole race, was on a KHS 650b bike. Crazy eh?
Boy I tell you what, I LOVE XC racing. To me its super exciting when you see your family and friends out there working hard. My kids don’t seem to care for it, but they do show up for the BBQ’s we have. However, I find it fun. I’d rather watch an XC and DH races than watch some sort of ball game. I usually try and keep up with our rider’s competition. For example, I’ll take count of competitors in Priscilla’s group. Through out the race, I keep tabs on where these people are. If I see them go by before Priscilla, I start counting down in my head to see how far ahead they are and vice versa. Perhaps its my involvement during the race that makes it exciting for me. Anyhow, if you ever get a chance to go watch a XC race, go, its really fun. Besides, I like to heckle the riders as they come through. But for our riders, all I do is give encouragement.
So here’s the final tally for the team on that day.
Kim Finch 1st Place
Eric Hunner 2nd Place
David Sanderson 4th Place
Priscilla Policar 2nd Place
Tony Finch 1st Place
Joe Solancho 16th Place
Our friends did nicely.
Steve Ellis 2nd Place
Jodi Vinas (her first race) 1st Place
Albert Vinas 6th Place
Mark West (top 3, I can’t recall, but he was up there)
Dan Burdett 6th Place
Val Macatangay 7th Place
I’ve created two videos for your viewing pleasure. The first one is the Cat2/Single Speed Race and the second is the Cat3 Racer.
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