Todd Booth from Platinum MTB reports on the state final.
The California one day State Champion race was hosted in SoCal this year at Big Bear Lake. The weather was beautiful, sunny in the mid 70's with little to no wind. Tom Spiegel and the Team Big Bear crew set up a challenging course with lots of climbing and added technical descents. This was the same course used back in June for the California State Series. The start of the race was at 7000 feet and topped out at 8200 feet. The racers took off on a 2 mile fire road climb right from the gun. This always puts a shock into your system! The course was a large loop which was shorten for the beginners and sport riders. The beginners raced a 16 mile loop, the sports were led on a 21 mile loop and the expert/pros continued on a 24 mile loop. The 24 mile loop totaled 3300 feet of climbing. Without any rain, the fire roads were very loose with sand and rock obstacles. It's always a treat dropping down Fall Line, Pirates, Fern Trail and Plantation. The single track was tricky. Very sandy in sections with rock out croppings. Perfect conditions for those with technical abilities to gain time on those who favor the road. In the end, all the riders were treated with a couple of tacos at the Cantina. Great way of wrapping up a day of racing.
The Santa Barbara based Platinum Performance team had 13 riders competing for the state title. After the dust settled 6 Platinum riders were crowned California State Champions in their respected classes. This year TBB combined many of the age groups for a mass start. This made things more interesting for riders who don't normally get the chance to race head-to-head against the other divisions. The ages were divided in the results.
PLATINUM LOVE
Platinum's Gary Douville hammered the climbs putting himself in the lead of the entire expert field until the last descent where team Sho-Air's Chuck Ross (Expert 35-39) caught and passed him. Chuck took it at the line by .6 of a second!!!! Gary won his Expert 30-34 class by a large margin. Terry Dahl took his Expert 65+ class after taking some time off since his National Championship win in July. Terry looked great in the stars and stripes! Luke Werkhoven pulled off a back-to-back State Champion title in the Sport Clydes 19-34 class. Chase Schoen won his last Sport 30-34 race in a large margin. Now he moves up to the expert ranks. Amanda Schaper is unstoppable this season with another win in the Beginner Women 19-29 class. She too is looking to move up to the sport field for 2009. Young guns Brandon Droese has proven himself in the Beginner 18-Under-Class before upgrading to sport next year. Brandon rode away from has field! Todd Booth pulled off a 2nd place in the always competitive Expert 35-39 class. Chester "The Rockstar" Gillmore pulled off a 2nd place finish in the Sport 19-29 class despite getting a flat tire. Adam Poytress finished strong for a 3rd place standings in the Sport 25-29 class. Stephanie Rivera rode to a respectable 3rd place finish in the Beginner Women 45-59. Steve Bertrand placed 5th in the Sport 50-54. The 2008 Come Back Kid winner Jim Garwood starred death in the face! Not only did Jim pull off a remarkable recovery from a crash at this same course last year that almost took his life...he came back to race and conquer it! Jim raced to a 5th place finish in the Beginner 50-54 division. Great job! John Reveles pulled off an 8th place finish in a deep Sport 40-44 class.
ELITE CAL STATE XC CHAMPION WALL OF FAME
PRO: Charles Jenkins...Cytomax-KHS---PRO WMN: Angela Parra...Bear Valley Bikes---PRO SNG SPD: Brad Stephenson...Sho-Air---SEMI: Romolo Forcino...Bear Valley Bikes---EXP 16-: Garrett Garcia...Ladera Cycle---EXP 19-24: Matthew Obregon...Adobe-HDR---EXP 25-29: Greg Heinz---EXP Wmn 19-29: Heidi Kanayan...Velo Bella---EXP 30-34: Gary Douville...Platinum---EXP 35-39: Chuck Ross...Sho-Air---EXP Wmn 30-39: Natasha Hernday...Amgen---EXP 40-44: Tim Zandbergen...Sho-Air---EXP 45-49: Dermot Carroll...Michaels B---EXP Wmn 40-49: Cheryl Roth...Fisher-Helens---EXP 50-54: Steven Hensler...Possabilities---EXP 55-59: Jon Miller...Sho-Air---EXP 60-64: Stan Ford...Cycopath---EXP 65+: Terry Dahl...Platinum---EXP SNG SPD: Erik Ebberoth...Joselyns
SPORT CAL STATE XC CHAMPION WALL OF FAME
SPT 14-: Casey Williams...Bear Valley Bikes---SPT 15-16: Matthew Thome...Backbone-P---SPT 17-18: Brett Stark---SPT Wmn 18-: Tiana Row---SPT 19-24: Vu Le---SPT 25-29: Eric Snyder---SPT 30-34: Chase Schoen...Platinum---SPT 35-39: John Saliamonas---SPT WMN 30-39: Kathryn LaPointe...Cycle Anal---SPT 40-44: Art Custer---SPT 45-49: Richard Kim...Sho-Air/So---SPT WMN 40-49: Vicki Chernoff...AFP-VeloSport---SPT 50-54: Rick Timossi---SPT 55-59: Gary Shuey---SPT 60-64: Nils Hendrix...SGDC---SPT 65+: Gary Foster...Cycopath---SPT CLYD 34-: Luke Werkhoven...Platinum---SPT CLYD 35+: William Thomas...Galaxia Ti---TNDM: Edward/Ju Sibby...Cycopath---SPT SNG SPD: John Schmidt...Sho-Air/So
BEGINNER CAL STATE XC CHAMPION WALL OF FAME
BEG 18-: Brandon Droese...Platinum---BEG 19-24: Jeremy Maldonado...Sho-Air/So---BEG 25-29: Cheyne McKeever...Bear VAlley Bikes---BEG WMN 19-29: Amanda Schaper...Platinum---BEG 30-34: Matt Smith---BEG 35-39: Adam McCamish...Coates---BEG 40-44: Clinton Campbell...Sho-Air/So---BEG 45-49: David Jurist...Chicken Ranch---BEG WMN 40-49: Ronda Warden...Bear Valley Bikes---BEG 50-54: William Kaiser...UCLA Cycling---BEG WMN 50+: Anne Roch---BEG 55+: Bob Wolf---JR 12-: Cameron Williams...Bear Valley Bikes---JR 13-14:P Brandon Dillard...Redding Ve