Southern California handcyclists dominated the racing at last weekend's Redlands Bicycle Classic, with Oz Sanchez (San Diego), Erica Davis (Carlsbad), and David Lee (Cardiff-by-the-Sea) coming out on top of the Men's kneeseat, womens, and men's longseat races, respectively.
Sanchez has shown that he can get lean and fit as he readies himself for the Rocky Mountain Omnium in Denver this June -- and he hopes an accompanying spot on the 2008 Paralympic Cycling Team. After barely missing the top spot on the podium by :03 behind Scott McNeice in the Thursday's hill climb TT, he easily won the next day's road race by 4 minutes. At Sunday's PossAbilities Criterium Finale Sanchez and McNeice battled it out until the final 2 laps when "Oz" launched a vicious attack and soloed to an impressive win in front of a huge -- and loud -- crowd.
Davis meanwhile, showed she is not a quitter after crashing on the descent in Thursday's race, and racing through road rash and pain the entire weekend. David Lee cemented his status as a Paralympic team contender as well, grinding a huge gear all weekend and easily winning all three longseat races. Some of Lee's major competition wasn't on hand however, and he will have to see how he does in Colorado against guys like Matt Updike (who beat Lee in Denver in 2007).
2nd in the longseat race was Carlos Moleda, who is returning to some racing this year and was the winner of the *NEW* 45-54 racing category. Moleda is showing great form for his first race back, and helped some of the newer racers learn the ropes...including newcome Neil Harding of Utah. Harding didn't race Sunday's criterium, but rode very well behind Moleda in the TT and road race.
Another racer to look out for in the future is local racer Dan Davies. Not only did Davies turn double duty as the handcycle race coordinator and a participant, he showed that he has the bug for handcycle racing and has some potential. You heard it hear first....USHF is referring to him as "Updike, 2.0." due to his similar look and build to Matt Updike. Davies is also quite a bit younger, so his potential for London in 2012 is hard to ignore.
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