Sea Otter Classic Recap

First off, sorry to all those who were eagerly awaiting news from this weekend's racing. After my last posting, things got crazy, and I basically only had time to eat, sleep, race, and clean my bike, clean my bike, and once again clean my bike. Yes, it was that muddy. The short track course just had no hope of drying out because it was pretty obvious that the ground was fully saturated, and the water wasn't going anywhere. Almost the entire course had about 6 inches of high water content mud (didn't stick much to anything, but was like trying to ride through chocolate pudding). Then of course there were the "holes", that you couldn't always anticipate, and would gobble up your wheel if you tried to ride through them. I've scanned in some pictures from the Monterey newspaper, as I did not really get any racing pictures (when I was with my bike, I was either racing it or washing it). These pictures are not just the highlights (or lowlights), but are very indicative of how the entire race went for every rider. I managed to not have any spectacular crashes, but did manage to slide out twice in corners. Possibly the most amazing thing about the short track race was that I went through a complete set of disc brake pads in about 20 minutes (I didn't even use my brakes very much!). This made for an expensive race, though I was glad I didn't do any major damage to my bike. Because I got behind a guy who slid out in the first corner of the race, I was immediately at the back of the race, and never moved up very far. My name is not on the results list, so I don't know my exact position.

The cross country race on Sunday was a whole new experience for me. Besides being essentially an all new course for the first time in the six years that I have done Sea Otter, this was the biggest Semi-Pro field that I have competed in (75 starters, I believe). When the race hit the first single track section, I was about mid pack, and that's about where I finished (33rd).
We were greeted at the start line with a slight drizzle, which followed us for most of the 3 hour, 38 mile race. The first lap was quite fun as the course was pretty tacky and fast, and the group was keeping a high pace. Bikes were working well, until towards the end of the lap where the mud pits were waiting to gobble up our bikes. I made the decision to ride through all the pits, which in the short term netted me a lot of passes. However, the mud collecting on my bike took its toll on my drivetrain, and later on in the lap, and at the start of the second lap, I began to have some serious chainsuck problems. It got to the point where my chain was trying to jam into my chainstay on every hill (the course was very rolly), causing me to lose all momentum, and most times causing me to get off my bike. This began to take its toll on me mentally, as I was starting to lose all hope of a good finish. To cap things off, I got caught by the Pro Women just a couple miles into the second lap. The only other time I've gotten caught was last year in the last mile of the race--after riding a whole lap with a nasty bonk. That said, this year, because of the high UCI ranking for the cross country, many of the top World Cup racers came to California for the race. The rider to pass me first? None other than multiple World Champion Gunn-Rita Dahle. She was flying! Then came Sabine Spitz. Shortly after passing me, she had chain problems, and I passed her back. Not wanting to make Velonews for being the guy to cost her the race, I pushed it hard through the single track. Inevitably, she was breathing down my neck, and I let her by as soon as I could. I must say that instead of being bummed by getting passed by girls, I was honored to be riding (albeit briefly) with these world class athletes.
With the constant drizzle that had been with us for the first part of the race, came mud everywhere on the second lap. What once was tacky, was now slick and wet. After having my chainsuck problems for a good while, I finally figured that if stayed in my small ring, I would be ok. Half way through the second lap, I started catching the back end of the Pro Men's field, and suprisingly, rode up on Cody Peterson. We chatted a little while, and it turns out that due to chainsuck he was stuck in his big ring.
Coming up to the final climb, the first American women caught up to me (Sue Haywood, and Mary McConneloug, along with Jimena Florit and Katernia Nash (formerly Hanusova)). After gapping me a bit, I caught back up to Mary, and rode into the finish with her. All in all, I had a fun time, but only wish I had figured out my chainsuck solution a lot earlier.
Check out my next post where I will talk about what went on when I wasn't sleeping, eating, racing, or washing my bike. There'll be pictures too.