By Chris Vargas
The first annual Shimano Sundown Sprint Series is held at the Flying B Ranch in Orange County. The course is a 6 mile sprint over steep, jagged topography with one grueling hike-a-bike. The event is promoted by the Warrior's Society, who put a great emphasis of grassroots fun and a total family atmosphere. They are also earning a reputation for food! All entrants are treated to a free salad, pasta, rolls, soda or beer meal. It's available to non-participants for a nominal charge of $5. It's so good that people county wide show up just for the eats.
Following is a report on the top action by Chris Vargas of the Warrior's Society; www.warriorssociety.org.
As far as the hammerheads, it was a real battle between the two Open class race leaders en route to setting a new course record. Manuel Prado, normally a Semipro competitor, had the fastest time finishing at 24:33. Manuel also had the fastest time at the first race of the series with a time of 25:15. Manuel and the second place finisher Dana Weber really battled it out for first place; it was a photo finish with Manual beating Dana by only 1 second!
Club Photographer Bob McCarter, who positioned himself on the last downhill, noted: "Towards the end, where I was getting shots on the last downhill, I was surprised how far in front of the "pack", the leaders were. Manny and Dana Weber passed me and it was 3-5 minutes before I saw the next rider. Then, the riders trickled through almost one by one, spread out by at least 30 seconds apiece, maybe a minute. Rarely did I find 2 riders in my viewfinder."
Dana Weber normally races pro and rides for Jax Bicycle. The fastest single speeder was Brad Stephenson with a time of 26:44. The complete finishing times, by class, are listed below. Brad normally races pro single speed and rides for AFP-Velosport.
NOVICE 36-50 YEARS
Rick Grebner - age 42 - 34:25
Steve Ellis - age 48 - 35:54
Tom Jones - age 40 - 36:18
Treve Misemer - age 39 - 35:58
Marty Taylor - age 41 - 37:06
Adam Maywhort - age 50 - 1:00:43
NOVICE 19 TO 35 YEARS
Joe Crouch - age 30 - 28:48
Stuart Ames - age 33 - 30:42
Charlie Marinko - age 31 - 36:17
Winston Walker - age 34 - 38:20
Arty Azadgan - age 23 - 39:01
Carlos Ulloa - age 28 - 1:00:44
NOVICE 14 AND UNDER
Cameron Panttaja - age 11 - 41:27
Loren Wood (female) age 11 - 55:47
Erika Huth (female) age 12 - 58:48
OPEN 36-50 YEARS
Pablo Garcia - age 36 - 29:38
Donald Jackson - age 48 - 32:46
Mike Foy - age 40 - 32:49
Robert Walker - age 43 - 32:51
Paul Vujovich - age 43 - 32:55
Ed Runyon - age 41 - 35:18
Mary Huth (female) - age 43 - 38:19
OPEN 18 TO 35 YEARS
Manuel Prado - 24 - 24:33
Dana Weber - age 24 - 24:34
George Munoz - age 22 - 26:17
Noah Holcomb - age 21 - 31:11
Michael Morrell - age 33 - 31:38
NOVICE 18 TO 15
Kyle Schwartz - age 18 - 33:08 (on single speed)
Trung Nguyen - age 18 - 37:13
OPEN SINGLE SPEED
Brad Stephenson - age 40 - 26:44
Josh Jacquot - age 31 - 27:21
Drew Lazenby - age 28 - 28:16
Mark Scheetz - age 43 - 29:10
Keith Eckstein - age 47 - 30:01 |