Squadron UCC Steamrolls 55s & 60s at MBGP

By John McKee

MBGP was won in the 55+ category by Paul "Kiss" Rodiguez and the 60+ category was won by John "The Claw" Rubcic. Lets digress a bit and start back a couple of years ago. The last time the 55s and 60s got to race MBGP was 2007. The fields had to be trimmed in 2008 and we lost out.
Cat 5s and 55/60+ were cut out. Cat 5 don't belong here anyway but I certainly thought we did but it was a matter of numbers. The women 3/4 were given the nod over 55/60+ but were put on notice that a poor showing would mean replacement in 2009. The gals didn't turn out and earlier this year(2009) Eric Smith messaged me and asked if I thought the 55s and 60s could put 50 racers on the line. My answer was I was pretty sure we could but couldn't guarantee it. I think we hit 50 right on the button. Hallelujah! Hopefully this will mean we will be back in 2009.
Thanks to Eric Smith for working with us 55 and 60+ racers. He has been a big factor in getting racing opportunities for the senior racers. New flash! Just in. This is an email message from Eric:
"Hi John,

When you get a chance from your race schedule back in Louisville, please let your master’s know how happy we were with the turnout out for yesterday’s race. We had 60 riders and they put on a great show for the spectators!

There will be a 55/60 field next year!

Thanks for your efforts to make it happen."

Eric

49 55 and 60+ racers toed the line at around 9 am. There was a slight delay because they had to cart some bodies off the course which is standard at MBGP. Can you imagine 120 cat 4 racers out there. The cat 3s did a nice job though on the last turn and sprint for the line. Very fast and clean. I have to admit once the 55/60+ race started I went into a fog. I know there were a number of attacks and chases but I have no names other than I saw a pic of Mitch Weinstock off the front in one of Jodie Borer's great photos. I will tell you that this was a hard race but the course and the race weren't as hard as the prior week at San Pedro. That was hard. This was pretty hard.
The race was a constant circulation of racers. Prime sprints. Short breaks. The constant work to circulate wore down some of the riders and especially a lot of 60s. The 60s that were working it in the 2nd half besides myself were Monty Pettus, Steve Whitsitt, Bruce Steele, James Heise, Don Kimper, Phil Richards, Mike Fleming(didn't see him until very late), John "The Claw" Rubcic. John broke 2 bones in his right hand 2 weeks ago! He was at his doctor just the Tuesday before this race and the doctor reset his bones. Pretty sure the doc didn't suggest that John go out and race the next Sunday but he did. In the movie "Liar Liar" Jim Carrey would play with his son and his hand would be "The Claw". Look at the podium pic of John and he looks like he has a claw to me.
John said the contraption on his arm worked fine.
MBGP got the 5 to go and everyone was very anxious. There was more bumping in this race then any other this year. I think this is a result of the size of the field, the preception of MBGP being a big race and it is, and the lack of a solid team to counter UCC. Its UCC vs a bunch of independent riders. UCC just dominates and when they don't pace for whatever reason and its usually because they have someone off the front , riders just start stacking up. A hard race throughout like San Pedro GP and riders find there more natural position but in a fast/medium pace race it brings more riders to circulate .
The bell lap came and all the UCC riders were up front except for Paul "Kiss" Rodiguez. Paul jumped the field solo. The pace was good but not killer. Paul was going good up front. I moved up in very good position with only John Rubcic of the 60s ahead of me. Rounding the corner at the top everything was status quo. I was still in great position. Then the pace eased off a bit and things got very edgy. Monty Pettus squeezed through a small hole next to me and that created a larger hole for Mike Fleming to ride through. I didn't pay attention to who was in front of me and I should have. Don't know how the 55s and John Rubcic lined up going into the last corner but UCC timed it perfectly for all of their main riders to finish together with their man off the front able to hang on and that was Paul "Kiss" Rodiguez. Check out the podium picture and he has a tongue to rival Gene Simmons of Kiss. The only riders that could keep up were the El Dorado trio of the Shorts(Ricky and Al) brothers and Howard Miller. I raced at El Dorado most every Tuesday from 2001 through 2007 when I had a bad crash there and these guys were there most every Tuesday as well and still go out there. Howard started racing at "eldo" in the early 80s before it evolved into a real race. Finishing in this "pod" were the new 55 sensation Stan Appel, and Richard Stalhberg. Squadron UCC came in like this- Rod, Kal, Dale, John R and Mitch. To be more precise Kal Szkalak was 2nd in 55+ and Ricky Shorts 3rd.
The only thing left were the last 2 places on the podium for 60+. Going into the last corner Monty Pettus, Mike Fleming and myself were close. Phil Richards was also close. Rounding the corner a 55+ racer bounced off Monty's left leg and put on his brakes. I was behind him and had to either brake or cut inside him and take a chance of taking someone out. I put on my brakes and lost the mo. Coming home Monty was ahead but free wheeled with 20 meters to and Mike Fleming came on for 2nd. Monty was 3rd with Phil Richards having a good race placing 4th. James Heise had a great result at 5 and Steve Whitsitt was 6 ahead myself. Bruce Steele and Don Kimper had to dodge 55s coming in and placed 8 and 9.
The race was a big success and thanks to all that showed up(I count 58 paid from Eric's list but 60 sounds better, right). As you can read above we will be back in 2010. We need a stronger mix of teams to make the racing better and safer in my opinion but that isn't going to happen this year. Thats all for now folks! Train hard and race safe!

Manhattan Beach Grand Prix (Rank 2.0)
Masters 55+
Place	License	Name	Team	SoCal Points
1	58847	Paul Rodriguez	UC Cyclery/JW Flooring	28
2	54522	Kalman Szkalak	UC Cyclery/JW Flooring	22
3	52251	Ricky Shorts	Velo Allegro	20
4	230085	Albert Shorts	Velo Allegro	18
5	47262	Dale Luedtke	UC Cyclery/JW Flooring	16
6	1825	Stanley Appel	Fog Racing	14
7	55591	Mitchell Weinstock	UC Cyclery/JW Flooring	12
8	49424	Howard Miller	Paramount Racing	10
9	50911	Richard Stahlberg	Ironfly	8
10	126351	Steve Bernede	Team Simple Green	6
11	18156	Craig Jones	Velo Avanti Cycling Team	4
12	59549	Michael Vanlandingham	Acme Racing	2
13	49110	Rino Barbagiovanni	Santa Clarita Velo	0
14	198038	Scott Olson	Team Latitude-ABRT	0
15	155459	Thomas Reilly	Pasadena Athletic Assoc (PAA)	0
16	177283	Eugene Poyorena	CA Pools Racing	0
17	34753	Rick Swanson	Acme Racing	0
18	275439	Peter Boberg	Platinum Performance Cycling Team	0
19	250331	Peter Dufour	ACQUA AL 2/San Diego Bicycle Club	0
20	6082	Ben Cardenas	Squadra Carrera	0
21	245777	Steven Borer	Citrus Valley Velo	0
22	23055	Reed Mayne	Swami's Cycling Club	0
23	47380	Carlos Soto	Unattached	0
24	273411	Paul Anderson	South Bay Wheelmen	0
25	55635	Pedro Ordaz	CA Pools Racing	0
26	257503	Philip Walters	Encino Velo Cycling Club	0
27	126668	Joey Valdivia	UC Cyclery/JW Flooring

Manhattan Beach Grand Prix (Rank 2.0)
Masters 60+
Place	License	Name	Team	SoCal Points
1	48760	John Rubcic	UC Cyclery/JW Flooring	28
2	129293	Michael Fleming	Coates /On Deck Foundation	22
3	219074	Leo Pettus	Paramount Racing	20
4	238828	Phillip Richards	Citrus Valley Velo	18
5	163415	James Heise	South Bay Wheelmen	16
6	171652	Stephen Whitsitt	South Bay Wheelmen	14
7	180386	John McKee	Paramount Racing	12
8	236498	Bruce Steele	South Bay Wheelmen	10
9	195498	Donald Kimper	ACQUA AL 2/San Diego Bicycle Club	8
10	45047	Glenn Baldwin	SLO Nexus-Gym One	6
11	101582	William Carvin	Unattached	4
12	50498	Richard Rodriguez	Nytro Racing	2
13	255491	Monika King	South Bay Wheelmen	0
14	61278	Mario Seri	Kahala LaGrange	0
15	203244	Cary Alpert	South Bay Wheelmen	0
16	223119	C Kevin Post	South Bay Wheelmen	0
17	45342	Domenick Forte	PAA / RE/MAX	0
18	57726	Ernest Hoffer	EDGE Racing	0
19	50406	Michael Edwards	EDGE Racing	0
20	266647	Allen Kizuka	Velo Allegro	0
21	57814	Robert Wrench	Unattached	0

San Pedro Father's Day Surprise....NOT!

By John McKee


55/60+ racing had been in full stride by the time of the Paramount GP/SCNCA Championship but since then we have had a pretty major drop off of interest and entries. One of the situations is the collapse of the Citrus Valley Velo racing team. CVV had been a bright spot in the 55/60+ peleton being the only team to try and match up against the powerful UC Cyclery/JW Flooring racing team. Due to injuries, loss of interest, burn out, and probably more than I know of most of the racers are no shows nowadays. Hopefully some of the guys will get the bug again, heal up their injuries and get back out there. We really need numbers at certain critical events through the rest of the season. The one bright spot from their club is Steve "Ironman" Borer. He is there week in and week out.
Sunday June 21st saw the San Pedro Grand Prix taking place. It was orginally on the schedule with the Glendale race the same day. Brad House the promoter of the SPGP was trying to work things out for the 55/60+ racers and I really appreciate his concerns to give us opportunities to race and have the other benefits that top of the line races have like a purse, on line reg without a late fee late into the week, race winner jersey(I have to smile here a little. I have seen low priced jerseys before but...Lol. It was something with the name of the event and winner on it. So cool!), and some decent primes(Sports Splash is not one of them).
The Glendale race was rescheduled for Aug. 30th so SPGP was solo on the calendar. The race had to deal with Father's Day but the 55/60+ started at 9:30 am so really no problem there.
Plenty of time later in the day to spend with the fam.
There were 23 or 24 55s that came to the line at 9:30. 9 60s came up which was disappointing but the malaise and injuries have hit the 60s hard. John Rubcic broke 2 bones in his hand the Sunday before in a fun sprint before getting home from a mountain bike/cyclo cross ride. John's foot came out of the pedal and down he went. John says he can ride now but can't grip his bars that well to sprint. No known time table for a return. Paul Springer is still having trouble with his shoulder which is a shame. Paul had great form at the time of his injury at Ontario.
The race at San Pedro is on an interesting and very tough course. It is 1.1 miles long with a 50 Ft. power climb every lap. Maybe that doesn't sound that great but the pro race at Nevada City had a 100 Ft. climb in 1.3 miles and that was considered difficult for the pros. Lance won it solo. The San Pedro course is actually almost always on as far as effort required. You start out toward the ocean and into the wind, make a 180 right turn onto a very narrow road which starts the power climb. Once you crest the top you finally get a downhill but have to scrub most of that speed because you have another 180 right turn with smooth bricks at the bottom which made traction a bit of a problem on top of everything else. After the last 180 turn you have 600 meters to the finish line slightly uphill into an ocean breeze. There is very little time to "rest" on this course. It keeps taking it to you!
The race started off like fire crackers on a Chinese New Year. Kal typically likes to heat things up just to give the race a little flavor. Lol. Some 60s were shelled right away. I was struggling a little and saw how far I was from the front and how many riders were ahead of me. Howard Miller came by me and gave me some incentive to move up. By the time the race hit the top of the hill for the 2nd time the pace slowed and allowed me to move up. I kept an eye on the 400 numbers series as that was the 60s while the 55s had a 300 number series.
There were a lot of attacks but one that looked like it might stick took place about 1/3 the way through the race. Good mix of riders- Mitch Weinstock, Richard Stahlberg, Ricky Shorts and new to 55 racing Stan Appel. They worked it but somehow it didn't make it. They never got very far away but kept the pace of the race high. This race was hard. I was at my limit most of the race. Once this break got caught the effort level subsided a bit but another jump by Kal Szkalak put the hurt back on everyone and especially the chasers like Al Shorts, Howard Miller, Tom Reilly and Stan Appel. Kal never got very far away but no one could completely close the gap. Kal reminded me of Thurlow Rodgers who likes to go out in front and just hurt everyone in 45+. Thurlow can be just 20 meters off the front and he just keeps grinding it out. I have to give Kal a lot of credit. He is very strong. I just sat in and saw all the 60s move behind me. I knew Bruce Steele has been riding very strong in 60+ and had just won the SCNCA at the Paramount race but this course didn't quite fit his riding style and his motivation is a little down right now. This course requires power, speed, climbing ability (short power climbs), bike handling skills, and a long sprint. Its no wonder that some 55s and 60s were off the back.
With 5 laps to go Kal finally got reeled back in. The pace again slowed and I saw some 55s come by me but no 60s. William Carvin did get by me half way through the race but dropped back during the "Kal chase". The last 3 laps were at a pretty good pace but the lap times were off from 15 to 30 seconds per one of the officials. The pace gave Tom Reilly an idea and he took off with about 1 lap to go. Bell lap. Nervous time. I got on Rick Swanson's wheel figuring that was a good wheel to come in. Lost it at the top but no 60s seemed to be near me. At least a dozen 55s were ahead of me and working for position. Tom Reilly was still away but Dale Luedtke wasn't worried figuring that Tom would be reeled in before the finish.
He was caught but it was close. Not quite like the pro races where someone is away for 50 miles and gets caught with 200 meters to go but I am sure the feeling of disappointment was similar for Tom. Dale came ripping toward the finish line and passed Tom with 2 cones to go(50 meters or less) winning the race pumping his arm before the line (vid of finish included). Kal was still tired from his solo effort and faded a bit toward the finish . Stan Apple got 2nd place in an outstanding first appearance in 55+ racing. Al Shorts came in 3rd in another strong outing.
In 60+ racing I came at the tail end of a line of 55s but one of the guys quit his effort so I had to make my way toward the finish line solo but Bruce was a bit behind so first place to John McKee. Bruce Steele was 2nd with Mario Seri placing 3rd. All the placing will be added when the complete results show up on the SCNCA website (I didn't get a complete list from Eric Smith at the event like I usually do).
This was a very tough and hard fought race. Perfect for me tuning up for Natz. George Chester mentioned that we averaged over 300 watts on his power meter for the 40 minutes. Thats sounds a little high but good job by everyone that came out. We need a great turnout for Manhattan Beach or our options next year may start drying up.
Thanks to guys like Nick Forte, Pags and Michael Edwards who always come out even when the results aren't always there. Hope to see many more of you next week at the MBGP. Thats all for now folks! Train hard and race safe!

55+ Finish List

Luedtke
Appel
Shorts
Szkalak
Weinstock
Miller
Reilly
Swanson
Chester
Vanlandingham
Stahlberg
Alva
Shorts
Bernede
Borer
Cardenas
Haim
Barbagiovanni
Gomez

60+ Finish List

McKee
Steele
Seri
Forte
Heise
Post
Pags
Albert
Edwards

A Cozy Little Race at Ontario Airport

By Steve Borer

Morning at the SCNCA Junior Criterium Championships for the 55+/60+ crowd dawned with lots of dark clouds, drizzle, wind, cold, airplanes and…no riders. Well, not exactly no riders, but just about no riders. To be exact, pre-registration for the 55s consisted of one rider – me – and the 60s had four. Driving to the airport course I told Jodi that I might even get a decent finish today considering the pre-registration numbers, though I secretly knew I would be, to quote Bill Tippets, “poaching a top finish.” But I knew I had properly prepared for the 7 a.m. start by having a massive spaghetti dinner, including spumoni, with family at world famous Vince’s Spaghetti just twelve hours earlier. Bring it on, boys, because I was ready for a poached top finish.

Warm-up consisted of talking to Kal about the lack of racers, watching commercial jets passing just inches overhead on approach to Ontario International Airport and riding my bike. When Ralph called the 55/60 racers to the start line the group approached. I pulled up next to Rino Barbagiovanni and he said “if you work with me maybe I can get a top three finish.” I thought this guy apparently thinks I’m Mule or he forgot his glasses or something because the only top three finish I’ve ever had was in a 55+ cross race that had only three riders. I thought maybe the 55s had only three racers, so I looked to my right to check out the crowd. I saw several 55s right next to me, but then I realized what I saw were Kal’s biceps, which are big enough for several riders. So, in fact, the 55s had three racers. The 60s had seven, meaning a grand total of ten racers were going to ride in the wind, cold and drizzle for 40 fun-filled minutes.

Ramon blew the whistle and we’re off. Apparently Kal felt threatened by the competition because he hauled ass through turn one and up the first straightaway. I rode right on his wheel but as we came through turn two he suddenly backed off. So much for trying to get away. He must’ve figured that with me on his wheel and without any teammates he was toast.

For those of you who have not raced the airport course you don’t know what you’re missing on a dark, cold, windy and wet day. The first straightaway is slightly uphill with a cross-wind, over fairly poor asphalt, complimented by a speed bump. A speed bump on a bike race course? You’ve got to be kidding! No kidding, it was right there on every lap.

Shortly after Kal backed off he took off again. This time only Rino went with him and they opened up a gap, then a big gap, then a huge gap. Then it dawned on me; Kal wanted to see how fast he and Rino could lap the field on the .7 mile course. And lap the field they did. By now the rest of us were riding together (sans Michael Edwards, whose gray locks blowing in the wind were slowing him down) and us 55s watched as the 60s battled it out. At the end, that crafty little Pags was brilliant; he openly professed to simply wanting to finish while in reality he was setting up a sprint finish. And sprint he did, right past the dumbfounded (and soon-to-be third place) Ernie Hoffer. What a sight.

See you all at San Pedro.


Masters 55+ Results

1. Kal Szkalak UC Cyclery/JW Flooring
2. Rino Barbagiovanni Santa Clarita Velo
3. Steve Borer Citrus Valley Velo

Masters 60+ Results

1. Richard Rodriquez Nytro Racing
2. Robert Paganini Pasadena Athletic Association (PAA)
3. Ernest Hoffer EDGE Racing
4. Michael Edwards EDGE Racing
5. Domenick Forte PAA/RE/MAX

Have to Know Where the Finish Line Is

By John McKee

I will have a limited report for the 55s. I wasn't in the race but got some feedback from some riders.

There were 21 pre regs and 24 finishers. 2 pre regs couldn't make it including fellow writer Richard Pollock. As told in my last story about the 60s the 55s started at 7:35 am. UCC/JW Flooring had 5 riders in the mix. Bill Tippetts led the field up the climb. Bill is a great climber and easily led the pack by 100 meters. A hill top finish would of course be great for Bill but the top of the hill was only half way home. I don't know how the race played out after that but a pretty large group came in for the win. Ricky Shorts is usually known as a sprinter but him and his brother Al got over the hill in good shape. The only problem for Ricky was something really simple. He didn't pay attention to where the finish line was when he started. The officials set up was on the left as you would ride in. That's where the finish line was. Ricky was looking at a pop up on the right side about 40 meters after the real finish line as being where he thought the finish was. Oh well. Good ride by Ricky anyway. Karl Weber who I don't know at this time had an excellent ride for 3rd place. Great showing by the 55s at Bakersfield. Here is a complete list of finishers in order:

Szkalak

Shorts

Weber

Luedtke

Rodriguez

Guglielmelli

Huffman

Holland

Jones

Tippets

Marotta

Shorts

Pfister

Laird

Bernede

Horine

Moore

Hechanova

Miller

Hain

Anderson

Borer

Tokar

Gomez