Valley of the Sun Stage Race

16-02-2010 02:10:03

Jonathan Chodroff of Jelly Belly Pro Cycling repeated as Valley of the Sun Pro/1 champion on Sunday. He beat an excellent field from the Southwest US on a stellar time trial performance and held on through the weekend maintaining his lead. Aaron Gomez of San Luis Obispo, CA won the Category 2 criterium for his Artscyclery.com team. Shane Buysse however held on to win the Cat 2 overall for SoCalCycling team by 13 seconds over Matthew Carinio.

Dean Laberge out of Napa, CA and Team Specialized racing won the final stage in the Master's 30+ event while his teammates took the overall and 2nd place for the weekend. A very dominating performance was seen here. Chris Lyman held his lead from the TT, and Larry Nolan made a great attempt in the RR to close the gap to no avail.

Bryan Antol won the 40+ criterium for GST Racing, but it was the wrong rider crossing the line first. His teammate James Silverman needed the 10 second time bonus for the win so that he could overtake Louis Amelburu from Las Vegas, NV. Amelburu also held his lead all weekend long from the TT proving yet again the first day is most important.

In a valiant effort in the Masters 50+ Gary Painter broke away for the victory in the Criterium on Sunday. However his time gain and bonus on the stage was not enough to overtake John Simonson of GST Racing for the win.

Carmen Small of Colavita Racing maintained her 2 second lead over Molly Van Houweling to take the Women Pro/1 race.

Eamon Lucas powered to both the final stage Criterium win, and the overall with an excellent performance for the weekend in the Junior 17/18 event.

In another close finish the Category 3 men's event was separated by 6 seconds. Miles Lamon won the criterium and the time bonus but fell just short of overtaking Robert Shaw of Pasadena, Ca on Sunday.
However the closest finish of all categories was in the Cat 4 event. William Westfall of Bicycle Haus Racing won the final stage criterium, and with the 10 second time bonus fell one second short of tying for the lead and taking the win. Michale Mardosz held on for the win for Team Helen's out of Los Angeles.

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