The National Racing Calendar spreads out this weekend, with events in California and Rhode Island.

By Ophir Sefiha

The last weekend in June will see the National Racing Calendar split between coasts with a pair of big money criteriums. For the right coasters, the Cox Charities Cycling Classic in Providence, Rhode Island will be making its debut on the men’s NRC calendar on Saturday while the West Coast will host the 47th edition of the Manhattan Beach Grand Prix in Manhattan Beach, California, on Sunday.

Bahati guides us through the bent paperclip by the ocean

For many, the Manhattan Beach is the unofficial ‘world championships’ of Southern California crit racing with a win along Valley Drive solidifying one’s place in SoCal cycling history.

“I know guys who train all year just for this race. For some guys it’s the only race they’ll do all year,” says last year’s winner Rashaan Bahati. And he should know, the Rock Racing sprinter has been racing his hometown event for over a decade, winning as a cat. 4 and cat. 3 while also placing second as a cat. 2 and winning last year’s pro race. In outsprinting Toyota-United’s Ivan Dominguez and a host of other top riders, Bahati delivered arguably the biggest win in his first year on Rock Racing.

So what makes Manhattan Beach such a special race? In addition to a star studded roster of past winners including such sprinting luminaries as Juan Haedo, Gordon Fraser, Tyler Farrar, Ina Teutenberg and Tina Pic, Bahati adds, “it’s always a huge crowd being just two blocks from the beach, and the best part from a rider’s perspective is that you can just head over there after the race. It’s definitely something unique about the race. Last year we celebrated at the Manhattan Beach Brewery for the rest of the night. When they found out we won, they really took care of us.”

Frequently described as a bent paperclip or as a hot dog, the 1.4-mile course features two long straight-aways, two sweeping 180° turns, and 50 feet of climbing per lap. Bahatti says it’s a deceptively technical course, one that is really two races in one.

“There’s the race to the last corner. The race can be won coming out of that last sweeping turn so positioning into that corner is key. You can’t pedal through it, but you don’t want to brake any more than necessary”

Additionally, “the fields are always so big that you save a lot of energy being out of the pack.” Even so, Bahatis says he hasn’t seen a breakaway succeed in a long time.

Rock Racing is not the only team that can call Manhattan Beach its hometown race as Toyota-United and Successful Living are both based in Southern California. Expect these teams to field full squads with highly motivated riders.

In the women’s race, last year’s winner Laura van Gilder will take the line supported by a powerful Cheerwine team currently enjoying top spot on the NRC team points standings. In addition to a host of regional squads, Team TIBCO, currently 4th in NRC points standings, will have sprinter Brooke Miller, winner of stage four of this year’s Nature Valley Grand Prix and teammate Amber Rais, herself a stage winner at the Tour of the Gila crit, looking to deny Cheerwine a repeat victory in Manhattan Beach.

For those looking to catch all the action at Manhattan Beach, ibnsports.com will be televising each race live (and available for replay) online free.

In the Ocean State

For the Pennsylvania based Rite-Aid team, the 2007 edition of the Cox Charities Classic criterium was a big success with Alejandro Borrajo emerging from a chaotic field to take the sprint win. Although without the Argentinian sprinter this year, the near home-town team will be fielding a highly motivated nine-rider team eager to deny their former teammate a repeat victory.

For 2008, Borrajo, winner of last week’s Austin crit, will return to defend his title with a very strong Colavita-Sutter Homes team filled with criterium specialists including Anthony Colby, who is currently sitting fourth on the NRC points list.

This year’s Cox Charities Classic criterium will be contested along the banks of the Providence River on a eight-cornered, L-shaped course complete with a short but steep climb.

Toyota-United will be splitting its team between the two races, sending Ivan Stevic, Henk Vogels and Dominique Rollin to Providence.

With many professional riders coming off a busy month of racing that included Philly week, followed closely by the Nature Valley stage race, Saturday’s crit in Providence offers regional elite amateur teams including Targetraining, CRCA Empire and Fiordi Frutta an especially good opportunity to grab a big win against the pros.

FILED UNDER: Road