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Fontana Urban Assault NMBS |
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Written by Adam Craig
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Wednesday, 09 May 2007 |
I’ve got a confession to make. I refer to greater Los Angeles, California as the “armpit of the universe”. This is meant in no way as a direct insult to the folks who live and work there, it’s more of a social commentary on a place that exists on false pretense and, in fact, from a water standpoint,shouldn’t exist at all. But, I’ve gotta admit, most times I go there something happens to make me understand how people can happily exist there. The Fontana NMBS is a great example of this…
Southridge park is right smack in the middle of the east LA industrial sprawl but somehow has miles of entertaining singletrack, challenging downhill trails and a boatload of local and regional racers who are fired up to give ‘er on any given weekend, which they do in the cooler months at the Southridge Winter Series. Somehow our May visit, which seemed like it would have nothing but dust, smog and temps in the 90’s, provided clouds and Santa Ana (easterly) winds to keep things cool and surprisingly clear. There was still dust though, lots of it. The kind you can’t see which death rut is about to spatch you through….
Let’s talk about Super D. It’s still fun, even though this weekend, like at the Sea Otter, we raced our fully XC prepped Anthem Advanced. I’m sticking to my guns on Super D being whatever it is, in this case a mass -start paved downhill run to our bikes, then an paved uphill run whilst pushing our bikes (during which Carl tried to mount his perfectly good bike before passing the cone and I had to shout NOOOOO which prompted him to somehow jump over his still perfectly good bike and continue running) after which we basically rode elevenish minutes of the XC course consisiting of a bunch of flat and uphill, and a bunch of flowy singletrack downhill. Carl and I had our usual horrible start, getting smoked in the run by a bunch of guys and set about playing the passing game. Which is a pretty fun game. We used some clever Canadian lines until catching Ross Schnell and a local who knew a bunch of double secret Canadian lines that he used to hold up off for the entire main descent. Ross, Carl and I individually snuck by the guy and set off in pursuit of the lone leader, who we all eventually reeled in and passed. It seems like riding hard down a flat canal road alone is easier than riding in a group of three buddies trying to figure out how to beat each other so we just did the solo thing. In retrospect, had we known there would be a pair of formidably sized urban youth walking along the narrow path who really weren’t interested in parting ways for a couple guys mobbing along in tight shorts, we might have stuck together… Fortunately, they gave us an exact handlebar width and an indifferent shrug just as we passed, with haste… Ross third, Carl second and me in the hot seat. I won some gold ODI grips, and we all got old school trophys to fill with champagne, not too bad for an evening’s work…
Kelli held down the women’s super D for us, getting a way better start but ultimately falling victim to negative race tactics by a triathlete (shocker) relegating her to third place after working hard in the lonely wind, but at least not having to eat a bunch of dust… Speaking of tactics, I’m pretty sure I’m fired up to race some proper high country super D that will be bare bones bike riding on proper trails, whoever pins it the hardest is going to win, no drafting, running, sitting in, blocking, etc. Just riding flat out and having a good time. But is it what it is…
Now, I guess we should talk about XC, even though there aren’t too many interesting angles for Team Giant this weekend. I told Carl I was going to try to ride aggressively and see what happened. I did. Some sthff happened, like me trying, alone, in the wind, to reel in Barry Wicks on his first lap flyer, then us getting caught on the second lap and promptly spat out the back of the group to dangle behind just as we dangled in front. Sweet. I’ve got some more getting in shape to do before the next world cup. While I was riding not so smartly, Carl was pacing himself and losing weight by not drinking any water, planning for a last lap surge. Turns out you need water to surge (even though Los Angeles doesn’t) and he didn’t, finishing twelfth.
Kelli must have been in cahoots with Carl on the last lap surge plan, and must have decided to also try and slim down by not drinking much, and therefore, not surging much… It happens, thirteenth.
Short track. Windy. Dusty. Hot. Ross Schnell jumping the double double off the front (for two laps). Ryan Trebron, solo win. The rest of us, looking at each other till the last lap. Me, blowing a corner and getting shuffled to the back of the last lap, 7th place. Carl, getting in the crash I just barely avoided in the first turn and pulling back up to 12th or so. Kelli, getting called up last, then charging hard through the field to finish around 10th, proud effort for someone who claims to be from the land of no muscles (that being Colorado)…
That’s it for the springtime random race location schedule, now we’re going mountain biking in the mountains all summer, it’s gonna be good. |
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