14th Annual Southridge Winter Series presented by Shimano

FONTANA, Calif. (January 28, 2008) - The 2^nd round of the 14^th Annual Southridge Winter Series presented by Shimano, kicked off this past weekend under surprisingly beautiful conditions! While the rest of the country is under snow, and the majority of California is getting pounded by rain storms, it was surprising to see that the small town of Fontana be perfectly set up for some epic riding!

Approaching the town of Fontana, was a bit nerve racking to many riders as the snowline in the local mountains were surprisingly low. Luckily, Saturday started off calm & beautiful under sunny skies.

A few familiar faces were seen around the pits. US Champ Melissa Buhl drove in from her home in Chandler, Arizona to dust off her MTB legs. She admittedly said that she has mainly been riding moto during the off season, so it was good to get a change of pace. Colin Bailey also made his return to southern California and was kicking back with a group of friends on the “Sellers” pit area. Colin didn’t race this weekend, however he mentioned that while temporarily living in so cal, he is getting back to training for the ’08 season. (Interested in sponsoring Colin? Check out Pinned’s FREE AGENT page).

MOUNTAIN CROSS

Eric Carter wins again. It’s almost as simple as that. EC had another easy day at work, showing the kids how it’s done. Luckily for the fans, there was still plenty of action behind EC. Frequent battles between Rich Houseman, Logan Binggeli, Ryan Condrashoff & John Hauer had fans screaming in excitement. Racers were bar to bar going into the first turn & scrambling to locate the best passing lines. Racers dove in, on turns, rode wide open on fast berms & jumped nearly over each other in their fight for transfer positions. Experienced rides knew how to block, but no one was invulnerable. It would only be a matter of time, while racers were banging bars, when someone would go down. During the semi’s that happened when Rich Houseman & Ryan Condrashoff collided exiting a berm. Rich went over the bars & landed on his reconstructed shoulder. Luckily, he wasn’t too badly hurt. Rich was seen sporting a bandage on his elbow & forearm later in the day.

Pro Men MTX
1. Eric Carter
2. Logan Binggeli
3. John Hauer
4. Ryan Condrashoff

Pro Women MTX
1. Melissa Buhl

JrX MTX
1. Kevin Aielo

DOWNHILL

After a strong overnight rainstorm, racers woke to find that nearly half the pits were under water. Nema (yes, that would be me), had to relocate their pit altogether. Unfortunately because of the recent storm, only a fraction of the people from the first round a few weeks ago showed up to race. It was their loss. Even though the weather report was calling for chances of rain throughout the day, the sun came out & dried up the track perfectly. Rider coming down from practice had a huge grin on their face & commented on the perfect traction!

True to their word, Southridge event organizers added new sections to the downhill track. Everyone loved the fast flowing & fun upper section, consisting of numerous twists & turns. Even with Chris Kovarik in town (CK won the first round), everyone knew that it would be a very tight race, as the upper section suited Eric Carter’s slalom style.

Even with a rider friendly course, not everyone had a great weekend. US Jr Champ JD Swanguen, was blitzing the course all weekend, but unluckily clipped his front wheel and soared over his bars in a turn (see photo sequence).

Unofficial King of Fontana, Cody Warren made his ’08 winter series debut this weekend, after missing the first round due to an injury. Unfortunately drive train issues would dampen his weekend. These unlucky mishaps opened the door for a lot of new faces to the podium.

Ryan Condrashoff, having a clean & fast run, claimed his best finish – a 3^rd place! “The conditions were great” said Condrashoff. “I think I could have pushed the track a little harder, but I’m happy with my run and am stoked with my finish here this weekend!”

You don't always see a course that just glistens in someone's eye. But when it came to this particular track, you knew EC was gonna have some fun! The top of the track was made for his style of riding. EC mowed down the track, hitting nearly every corner with perfection, but fell just short of the win. CRC Intense factory rider Chris Kovarik would back up his win from the first round 2 weeks earlier. Kovarik demonstrated that his winter training in southern California has been well spent. Kovarik is determined to have a great year! Even pedaling the wall with flat pedals, no one would deprive Kovarik of the victory. He stated that "the minute pedal at the bottom didn't get me as bad this time so i can save the vomit for another time, haha!" Check out the video clip of CK's run.

Joe Lawwill (who’s retired from competitive racing and a wannabe photog) dusted his legs off & broke out his Santa Cruz Heckler to show these new school kids how it’s done. Lawwill couldn’t resist the perfect conditions and put down his camera long enough to post a 2:19 run which placed him 5th overall (in Pro). However since Lawwill signed up in the Vet Expert class, so that he could shoot photos of the Pros for the Southridge Usa web site when his time was 20+ seconds faster than 2nd place in that class he felt bad and told scoring to remove his name from the category. They said then we should score you with the pros since that is the last class you raced even though it was over 4 years ago. So the results were adjusted for Lawwills time…until protests abound and Lawwill was relegated to the cheap seats. “The course was so sweet," said Lawwill. "I couldn’t pass the opportunity to throw down a race run…it was fun to be out there again!”

Speaking of timing, if we swing over to the Jr X field, there’s a name that might starting really familiar soon! 16 year old Kevin Aiello has been putting the smack down on all the Jr X mean… and most of the Pro men for that matter! His in the DH this weekend would put him 5^th on the podium! Rewind to the first Soutridge round & his downhill time would have put him 3^rd just behind Kovarik & EC! The kids fast! Downhillers be warned! Kevin’s got a bright future ahead & was recently picked up by Yeti Cycles to be part of their southern California regional team. Under the tutelage of veteran Rich Houseman, Kevin’s sure to dominate the downhill scene… not to mention he’s been dominating in MTX as well!

In the women’s field, Canadian female DH star, Claire Buchar, was seen on a new DH rig. Intense Cycles is supporting Claire & presented her with a slick new Intense ‘Socom’ to ride until her new ’08 model arrives (with a slacker geometry than the previous season’s design). With the new ride, Claire proved she was one of the fastest women on the hill finishing in 2^nd. The women’s DH victory would go to Melissa Buhl, who proceeded to stomp the competition & double up for the weekend (having won the MTX on Saturday)

Pro Women Downhill

1. Melissa Buhl 2:35:04
2. Claire Buchar 2:41:30
3. Michelle Rivera 2:52:67
4. Jenna Kowalski 2:53:56
5. Lauren Peterson 2:54:02

Pro Men Downhill

1. Chris Kovarik 2:14:69
2. Eric Carter 2:15:73
3. Ryan Condrashoff 2:17:51
4. Waylon Smith 2:19:62
5. Ian Odom 2:23:31
6. John Hauer 2:24:03
7. Jason Memmelaar 2:24:97
8. Gary Houseman 2:25:66
9. Quinton Spaulding 2:25:66
10. Brad Benedict 2:25:81 (*includes time penalty)

Semi-Pro Downhill

1. Nathan Wright 2:22:82
2. Preston Moore 2:26:64
3. Jake Goena 2:28:25
4. Christian Schloessman 2:28:74
5. Jorden Loomis 2:29:22

JrX Downhill

1. Kevin Aiello 2:20:28
2. Connor Bloum 2:24:81
3. Justin Wyche 2:27:12
4. Stephen Hoelzel 2:27:94
5. John Keep 2:29:79

For a full list of results, check out SouthridgeUSA.com.