Taberlay closes US Cup season with final victory at Bonelli Park

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Team Sho-Air/Specialized's Sid Taberlay capped of the 2009 season with a bookend wins at Bonelli Park, California. Taberlay, the men's Kenda Cup West Pro Champion, and runner-up in the US ProXCT series, opened the season with a win at the US Cup West Bonelli in March and closed off the year with a victory at Sunday's US Cup Unification shootout.

The men's field blasted off around high noon, under bright sunny skies with temperatures soaring in the high 80s. Immediately a group of six formed off the front including Team Sho-Air's moonlighter Ben Bostrom of A.M.A. street bike fame, Team Turbo's Ignacio Torrez, KHS/Cytomax's Sean Donovan and Team Sho-Air regulars Manny Prado, Sid Taberlay and Dana Weber.

Prado experienced a flat tire less than 15 minutes into the first lap and disappeared from the lead group. He would later claw his way back to a fifth place podium spot, but wouldn't factor with the leaders.

At the front, Bostrom set the early tempo for his team leader Taberlay and had many spectators wondering about him.

Heading into lap two, Bostrom experienced a mechanical and dropped back off the group of five. Shortly after, Torrez made the first acceleration and whittled it down to Taberlay and Donovan, as Weber lost contact.

Donovan was already showing signs of difficulty as he yo-yo'ed off the leaders, but somehow managed to claw his way back to the duo a few times.

Then out on the back section of the course, Taberlay showed his cards and laid down an attacked that only Mexico's Torrez could follow. Donovan was unhitched for good with this latest attack, and gave up ground to the leaders.

From there, Taberlay played cat and mouse with Torrez as they each took pulls testing each other, looking for a chink in the armor.

The heat of the day added to the difficulty, as riders began to deteriorate under the intense racing and sun.

Late into lap three, Taberlay saw an opening and punched it at the top of a climb before a fast, tricky decent. Immediately the Aussie opened up a five-second lead on Torres.

From there Taberlay began putting real estate between himself and the Mexican Torrez on the fourth and final lap.

Eventually the five-time Australian National Champion put in two minutes and twenty seconds into second place Torres and four minutes into eventual third place finisher Donovan. Rounding out the podium in fourth were Weber and Prado.

In the women's race, Allison Mann (Sho-Air/Specialized) won by less than one minute over Krista Park (Incycle/Magura). Joy Duerksen (Pass Physical) was third.

Results