Race report by Rich Henthorn Sunday May 2nd was the 3rd XC race in the Bud Light Series at Bonelli Park in San Dimas. Long way to go for a race, I know, but the way the organizer set up the series this year, I needed to have a SoCal race as a spare, especially since I already did the Castaic race and got my buttocks firmly kicked and finished out of the points (hence, no write-up as I was too pissed). The Bonelli course was pretty easy, really. All the climbs were either short or gradual of the middle ring (and sometimes big ring) variety. Only 3 (out of about 7) descents were of any interest. The most noteworthy was a combination of two short and rocky sections. The first one consisted of a lot of babyheads that was pretty tricky because of the speed one carries into it and the natural flow of the trail takes you right up against a tree. In the second part, the trail is made of very large rocks. About the size of a compact car and very bumpy. I expected to see some crashing here. The rest was basically a freeway. Passing was easy to do about 80% of the time. Weather was ideal. Foggy and cool at the start. Overcast and cool at the finish. No overheating this time. I got to the staging area in time to not start in way-back, like at the Sea Otter. There was about 2 rows of 6 riders in front of me. The race starts on a paved trail for about 3/10 of a mile, then off on a double track for a middle-ring climb of about a mile. Sure enough, as soon as we hit the dirt, some guy goes down about 3 riders in front of me. Good, he's not hurt, but more importantly, his crash doesn't slow me down at all. The rest of the race was pretty dull. Much to my surprise, I didn't see anyone crash on the rocky parts. On the first lap, I couldn't get around some slow dude before we hit the rocks, so I had to tuck in behind him. After he stumbled over the first part, I backed-off a little more fearing he might take me down with him. I had a little chainsuck on the very last short climb, but since I was all alone at that point it didn't effect my placing which was... 13th out of 40. Not bad. After what happened at Castaic, I was pretty happy. But I know I can do better. The next two races in the series (Laguna Seca and Grant Ranch) I have home field advantage, so I'm hoping to land on the podium (yeah, right). OK, top 10. Next race: May 16th in Sonoma. Raw-Ken-Roll baby! -Rich