Defending champions Sofia Gomez Villafañe and Matt Beers picked apart the new course for Belgian Waffle Ride California with ease and the Specialized Off-road riders dusted the elite divisions for back-to-back victories on Sunday.
With the win, Villafañe has now won all seven BWR events in which she has competed in her career, earlier this season winning the BWR Arizona title for a third time. The latest addition to her tally also meant she managed to 'dethrone' Peter Stetina by surpassing his six win record.
"They keep saying he's won the most, but we were tied coming into this weekend with six wins each. So now I'm at seven. Sorry Pete, the title is mine," Villafañe said with a smile at the finish line.
It was a new mass start for the elite riders ahead of the amateurs for the first time. At 106.5 miles in length, this year's BWR Calif is the shortest edition in 14 years. There is 7,500 feet of climbing with relentless terrain shifts that are a mix of 50% fast pavement and 50% 'unroad', comprised of deep sand, singletrack, a rock garden, creek crossing and gravel.
A strong bunch of men and women rode together on the opening two off-road sections. Then just before dirt sector three of 25 headed toward the single track that hugged the San Dieguito River in the Del Dios Gorge, Villafañe went clear of the other elite women even though it was just 20 miles into the race.
"I liked it [the new course], I mean the time was still long. I had a worse time going out, on the way back I had friends," Villafañe said of the 14 mile shorter course which delivered winds gusting from the Pacific Ocean at 20 mph.
In the outbound Del Dios Gorge area, a three-mile stretch of sandy areas and rocky single track bought some unstuck with Whitney Allison (Bike Sports) involved in a crash and Courtney Sherwell (Santa Cruz SRAM) cracked a front rim on a rock garden. Both riders, who were second and third at the time of the incident, withdrew from the race and Allison had to get stitches to her knee.
That may have thinned the pursuit but the competition for the podium spots was still firing. Like Villafañe, Flavia Oliveira Parks (Excel Sports p/b Specialized) came into the BWR contest from a heavy spring of racing, including a win at the Salty Lizard in Utah and 12th at The Growler. She finished second on Sunday, around 33 minutes back. Amy Cymerman was another 11 minutes down for third.
When the lead pack of about 15 elite men made climb to begin the outbound trail in th Del Dios Gorge, they were strung out in a long line for the first pass of Lake Hodges and headed for the biggest climb of the day at mile 36.
Once on the climb to the Black Mountain turnaround at mile 59.5, Beers, Peter Stetina (Canyon) and Alexey Vermeulen (ENVE) were in the lead, with Truman Glasgow (Enve-DNA Cycling) and Jonas Woodruff together in the chase as they all began the return to Del Mar, backtracking on many of the same roads and trails. Beers would quickly put in his decisive gap in a long, technical descent.
"I think I corner a little better than those two. On the singletrack, I knew I could take time the whole way," Beers said.
The next group of Russell Finsterwald (Trek Driftless), Lance Haidet (Specialized-SRAM-Velocio), Daxton Mock (Bear-Orange Seal) and Andrew Dillman (Lunchbox) were five minutes back. Eleven other riders were another three minutes behind the main chase group - Petr Vakoč (Canyon CFR), Griffin Easter (OpiCure Foundation Gravel), Luke Mosteller (Bear National Team), Jacob Velasco (PAS Normal - Victory Veto), Nate Knowles (ProTerra Racing), Jan Teemen (Team ride4IBD), Darren Fahy (Subaru Santa Monica), Matthew Saldana (Monterey Bay Racing), John Davis and Emilio Azcona (Fikato Coffee Crew).
Across the final 30 miles, Beers built his solo lead, and put in 2:28 to Stetina and Vermeulen another 40 seconds back in third. The South African stayed on the gas and finished 9:31 head of runner-up Stetina, and 12-and-a-half minutes over Vermeulen.
"Matt took a corner scary fast and there was a small gap," Stetina said at the finish to a small group of media, including Cyclingnews. "I couldn't close it. That was the split of the race. I just looked at Alexey [Vermeulen] and [started] racing for second. It was a good race.
"I can say I had a great day, and some of the best legs I've had in a long time. Matt Beers was the cat and I was his ball of yarn. All I can say is I'm in awe. I think we've got a real champion for the future on our hands"
Both Vermeulen and Stetina are past winners of the BWR California event, Stetina winning twice, so there was no surprise they were on the podium. The revelation in the elite men's contest was 19-year-old Woodruff who out-sprinted Petr Vakoč (Canyon CFR) and Glasgow across the line for fourth place.
Glasgow and Woodruff stayed together for the entire second half of the race, while on the closing flatter sections 10 riders set a hard pace to make the catch - Mock, Vakoč, Haidet, Finsterwald, Easter, Mosteller, Dillman, Knowles, Saldana and Velasco.
"This year has been a little bit of a rough start, like [Cape] Epic didn't go to plan and then I've had a lot of second places, which kind of irritates me a lot," Beers told several media outlets, including Cyclingnews, referring to a runner-up spot at Sea Otter Classic Gravel and fourth place at The Growler. "So it's nice to get the monkey off the back again. Hopefully we can keep the momentum, to The Traka 200."
