Race-starved Western conference flocks to UCSB

By Chris Stein

After a full month without any collegiate races, approximately 120 riders from the Western Collegiate Cycling Conference eagerly saddled up for UC Santa Barbara’s race weekend, which featured a criterium, team time trial and road race.

With only one race under their belts this season, the competitors, who drove from Reno, San Diego and all points in between, were eager to prove their prowess and gain points both for themselves and their teams. Although official standings were not immediately available, after multiple category wins, second place team UC Davis will likely emerge ahead in omnium rankings after this weekend, possibly displacing Cal Poly SLO as conference leader. However, strong showings by third-place UCLA as well as Cal Poly means the competition for best team in California and Nevada is still far from decided.

Sprinting in Santa Barbara

Though the weekend-opener Island View Classic Criterium was held on the straight-forward roads of an office park, a nasty headwind buffeted one end of the course, providing a cold check to any riders eager to attack off the front of the pack.

Riley Oneal (UC Davis) made a stunning Men’s A debut by winning the field sprint, just ahead of Eric Bennett (Ventura College) and Les Morales (UC Santa Barbara), who was also racing his first A race.

In the Men’s B field, Alexander Walters (UC Davis) relied on his team’s superior tactics to give him the win.

In the Men’s C category, Eric Stoutenberg (Stanford) beat out  Sean Browan and Patrick Edziak (both from Cal Poly SLO) for the win. Faced with a massive turn out in the Men’s D category, race officials decided to hold two crits with 33 riders in each field, and UC Davis racers Byron Anson and Dominic La Marche won their respective races.

In the Women’s A field, Courtney O’Donnell (UCLA), this category’s omnium winner in 2009, sought to hold onto her title by breaking away on the last lap of the race, and, with the help of UCLA teammate Sara Painter, narrowly beat out Amy Chandos (UC Davis) for the win. In the five-rider deep Women’s B field, Soquel Schafer (Cal Poly SLO) took the victory from Jessica Gasiorek (UC Santa Barbara) thanks to help from one of her teammates. Meanwhile, Megan Melack (UCSC) succeeded in opening a huge gap between herself and rest of the Women’s C field in her sprint for victory, leaving second place finisher Karianne Burns (UC Davis) far in the distance.

Rise of the Skinsuits

Racing continued the following day on the rolling hills of the Santa Ynez Valley, beginning with the 11-mile team time trial. While the UCLA team not only won the Men’s A time trial by 16 seconds, they also did so in their transparent white skinsuits, ensuring that their competitors saw what they were made of in explicit detail.

In Men’s B category, the thoroughly clothed Stanford riders eked out a victory over UC Davis by a mere second. Angry over their foiled victory in Men’s B, UC Davis retaliated by winning both the Men’s C and Women’s A time trials by margins of approximately a minute in each category. UC Santa Barbara’s two-racer team dominated their home course in Women’s B, beating the second-place finishers from Stanford by more than a minute.

The Toll of the Rolling Hills

The road race took place on the same 11-mile course used for the time trial, with racers doing between three and six laps, depending on their category. The course featured a little bit of everything: flat stretches, a sustained climb, rolling hills, as well as a crash-inducing ravine.

Buffeted by a vicious headwind, the Men’s A field became perpetually strung out during its 65-mile race, with numerous breaks emerging from a dwindling pack. This disarray worked out perfectly for Blake Anton, Joe Binder and John Bennett of Cal Poly SLO, who were able to regroup at the front on the final lap and tactfully decide on their finishing order, before crossing the line in first, second and third places, respectively.

Joe Dickerson (UC Davis) broke away from the Men’s B field with no teammates and fought a headwind the entire race, but in the end won his field and his first bike race ever. After upgrading to Men’s C, Anson won his category once again, a victory he credited both to great teamwork and a steady diet of coffee and cake.

In Women’s A, O’Donnell escaped her field on the first lap, then whittled down the other riders in her breakaway until only two remained. She then promptly outsprinted both for the victory, bringing a second omnium victory just a little bit closer. Repeating her performance from the previous day’s crit, Schafer (Cal Poly SLO) avoided a bloody crash to take first in Women’s B, while Melack continued her winning streak by conquering the Women’s C field.

Collegiate road racing continues on Mar. 13 and 14 with UC Davis’ race weekend, featuring a criterium, road race and team time trail that will be held in northern California.

Chris Stein is a student at UC Santa Barbara and a member of the school’s cycling team

FILED UNDER: Collegiate / News / Road