It’s not exactly well known outside the cycling community, but every year bicycle racers from all over southern California converge on an empty industrial park for the Chuck Pontius Memorial Criterium. For those unfamiliar, a criterium is sort of like a cross between a regular bicycle road race like the Tour de France, and NASCAR. The cyclists race laps on a short circuit in tight groups. Crashes are not only possible, but sometimes likely.
It’s a pretty exciting style of bike racing because the courses are much faster than a regular road course (flat with wide sweeping turns) and you can watch the riders as they progress up or fall behind.
Anyway, some pictures from today’s pro-level race:
At least 80 riders raced on the course for exactly 60 minutes in the Industrial Center
The peloton, loose in the straights, tightens up and speeds through the corners at 25+ mph
No guts no glory baby!
The whooosh sound they make as they ride by is quite exciting
A Winner is Yuo! This guy from Team Helen's Cycles won the race. On the final lap he, and the peloton, hit 39mph
I enjoyed going to the race but it struck me as kind of sad that these athletes and the race were sequestered off in the vacant industrial center. Many other cities make an event out of their yearly criterium races, closing downtown streets and showcasing the best part of their towns for the athletes, visitors and fans. Merchants and food vendors come out to sell products to the fans, the streets are closed, and new people are exposed to the sport of cycling.
That would never fly here; the amount of bitching about closed streets in the SCV during the 2007 Tour of California was truly epic.
A shame. But a fun time nonetheless! Maybe next year I’ll try to race.
Loading ...
“Maybe next year I’ll try to race.” Heh, heh, heh…. now you’re talking…..
When I was Pres, we approached the city several times to get it downtown. In addition to the road closure “issues,” they weren’t interested because it wouldn’t bring in enough outside $$$=overnight stays. But can you imagine the onslaught of negative LTE’s to TMS? It’ll never happen.
We stumbled across this race last year and it is very impressive indeed.
Hey Jeff! Who were the 4 guys who left the tread marks in the street??
Nice bit on Chuck Pontius… wondering if you could give a link to the photographer who shot the event?
I took the pictures above. I was only there for about 2 hours. I’m not sure if there was an official photog for the whole day. Check http://santaclaritavelo.com/ for more info
Jeff… great job on the picts. You wouldn’t believe how many bad cycling shots are taken by good photogs. Did you only shoot the pro’s race?
Thanks! I know there were some guys with real cameras there; you might wait a few days and then Google it. Someone posted high quality shots of last year’s race.
Yes I only stayed for the pros race and had to leave after that. When did you race?
Raced the working man’s race (40+ 3/4), and managed to win it. Was my first time racing this crit and was impressed with the area. In the past I’ve never made it past Six Flags…
Wow. Congratulations! I’ve never raced; I’m just a simple roadie.
I hope you can make your way up here again; we have some great canyon rides in this area.
PS: Did you check Flickr.com for race photos? Or any of the bicycling forum sites, like socalcycling.com?
Yeah… checked out the usual suspects w/o any luck… I plan to take your advice, wait a couple, and then google it.
Keep up the good work. Like the site a lot.
Oh, and get out and give racing a shot. Definitely a sub-culture of its own.