Bonelli Park XC
race report by : charlie gilmore
The nasty weather finally appears to be behind us and we couldn’t have asked for a nicer day for a mountain bike race than this past Sunday’s U.S. Cup Triple Crown #1 held at Bonelli Park. This was my first trip to Bonelli Park which is located in San Dimas, CA and I was pleasantly surprised at how green and scenic the surroundings were. I was even more surprised at how fun the course was. I had heard that Bonelli was a mountain bike “road race” with virtually no single track or challenging climbs. On the contrary, I found this years newly designed track to have an excellent combination of short steep challenging climbs and fast semi-technical single-track.
The nice weather and deep field of highly talented pros drew huge crowds for the age group categories. Troupe Racing Co. had an excellent presence with 10 racers competing in 7 different categories, including Mykyta, Ben, Tim, Michelle, Tom, Randy, Laura, Monica, Jeff and myself. We all competed in our respective age categories except for Jeff, who competed in the ultra fast Cat 1 SS category. Most of us were using this race as the last training event in preparation for Counting Coupe and Vision Quest next week.
The race consisted of 3 laps (4 for Jeff) which were just under 6 miles each. Since I am more of an endurance rider and fairly new to cross country races, I am still learning how to deal with the fast and furious pace. In addition, I was on a brand new Santa Cruz blur XC carbon, complete with crankbrothers Cobalt wheels/pedals/directset, X-Fusion Velvet fork and shock, Formula “The One” brakes, The Hive’s new Fifteen.G crank, Fizik Gobi saddle, and Ergon GX1 team grips. I have to admit I was a little apprehensive about racing a completely new bike, including suspension and components I had never used before.
For this event, I decided to focus on starting with the leaders and holding on for dear life as long as I could, even if it meant blowing up. My concerns about my new bike were quickly alleviated as everything performed flawlessly and it was noticeably faster than my old blur xc. I knew I had spec’d a dream bike. I managed to stick with the lead crowd for most of the first lap until I threw a chain at the least opportune time heading up a steep single track climb. By the time I remounted, the leaders were gone and I had been passed by several others. I felt deflated but I tried to regain my motivation by attempting to pick off whoever was in front of me one at a time, regardless of which class they were in.
To my surprise, on the third lap I caught one of the lead riders I was originally trying to stay with. He looked like he was struggling and passing him gave me a huge boost of adrenaline and helped me ride strong all the way to the finish. When I crossed the finish line I was elated to find out I finished in third place as this is my first cross country podium (hopefully not my last).
Overall, Troupe had another great showing with Michele and Laura taking second place in their respective categories as well. Jeff finished 3rd in his cat 1 single speed race. Mykyta would have also finished on the podium if it wasn’t for a flat that derailed his chances. Tom and Monica finished just shy of making the podium, but still had a great race. More importantly, all Troupe members represented our team well, both on and off the track.
troupe racing co. : bonelli park xc warm-up/podiums from troupe racing on Vimeo.
Now it’s time for a well deserved taper week as we head to Vision Quest and Counting Coupe.
editor’s note: while we remembered our cameras, most of us forgot to charge the batteries. oi vey…. good thing tom had his.
