Morka wins a wintery Sagebrush Safari

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The Cleveland Mountains in Southern California got a startling dose of winter on Saturday that left up to six inches of snow on the Sagebrush Safari course. Due to considerations for rider safety, the entire 24-mile course had to be scrapped only a couple of hours before the event. Team Big Bear, the country's most experienced mountain bike race organizer, remarkably created a new 5.5-mile course at a lower elevation, and then started the event with only a 60-minute delay in the intended schedule.

Adam Morka (Trek Canada) took advantage of the wintery conditions to take his first US Cup win by over a one-minute margin. Dana Weber (Trek) finished second followed just 12 seconds later by Vincent Lombardi who took third. Zachary Valdez (Whole Athlete) rolled in fourth just five seconds ahead of Ben Bostrum who took fifth.

The hastily organized new course started with a three-quarter-mile long fire road before riders faced a knee-high water crossing. Since nobody had a chance to pre-ride the new course, it was unknown if the crossing was rideable. It turned out to be so, but quite a few riders chose to run across the deep water rather than take the chance of crashing into the stream.

Racers were then treated to some mildly downhill singletrack before heading south onto some rolling fire roads that led back to the start finish. Along the way many sections of road were flooded and often riders had only one obvious route across.

The original course included about 3,500 feet of climbing while the new course most likely only had a few hundred feet. The race advantage went from the climbers to those riders with the fitness and power to ride a flat course. Dana Weber said later, "There was probably only 10 seconds of rest on the entire course."

The elite men started down the first fire road in a pack of at least 20 riders. Morka could be seen on the front, closely shadowed by Manny Prado (Sho-Air Specialized), the Costa Rican national champion, who was considered the race favorite based on last year's results.

When asked about his race strategy, Morka said, "I had a feeling there would be a lot of traffic given the amount of starters and the nature of the course. Hitting the water crossing first was the key for sure. We had inspected it right before the start - so I just pinned it a hoped for the best and not to go over the bars."

Because of a staggered start that eventually had all race categories on the course at the same time, the elite racers quickly found they had to deal with lapped traffic, including some very young racers who were moving slowly.

"I was hoping to get mixed in with the other racers," said Morka. "I knew that weaving in and out of the other racers by myself was an advantage since I was being chased by a group of four or five."

Weber managed to keep the race close for a while. "I was riding with Adam for two thirds of the first lap and he was going a little stronger - so I had to consciously let him go."

"I'm happy. I prefer the more technical course to what we rode today but given the conditions, they probably made the right call."

Race favorite Manny Prado had just flown in from balmy Costa Rica. Despite wearing winter gloves, his wet hands were so frozen that he crashed at least four times. He said his hands would just slip off the handlebars. At the finish, he was in a great deal of discomfort as his team tried to remove his wet shoes and clothing.

Rebecca Tomaszewski won the elite women's race. She was nearly two minutes ahead of the next closest female finisher. "It was more like a cyclo-cross race, but it was definitely a lot of fun," said Tomaszewski.

"Being out here (in San Diego), there are not a lot of opportunities to get into the mud, so I totally appreciated that."

Most of the top racers will compete next at the Bonelli Springs US Pro XCT race on March 12 near Ontario, California.

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