2006 - Sport Clydesdale Class - 13th
2008 - Expert Clydesdale Class - 1st
2009 - Cat 1 25-29 - 3rd
2010 - Cat 1 25-29 - 1st
Last year I was all set to go race and had been training hard since November, but then the week of the event this happened and I made the very easy choice to skip Sea Otter and take care of Jen. That event changed our lives, but also my whole outlook on racing. Prior to that event, and looking back all the way to the last time I was at Sea Otter in 2010, I was way too focused on racing and was not even fun to be around the days leading up to a race or especially on race day. Jen called it "race mode" and my friend Brian, who I stayed with in 2010, called me "the intimidator," probably because I showed no emotion. Over the course of the last year I've worked to change my attitude, be more approachable, and make racing fun. So Jen and I set off after work Thursday looking forward to a fun weekend with great weather and friends at this year's Otter.
We were so blessed to be staying with our friends Brian and Bri again this year who are such fantastic hosts. Plus, they live right across the street from the track... can't ask for any better accommodations!
Friday - Short Track:
I had left myself plenty of time to get my Highball ready in the morning and the rear brake was giving me a ton of problems. I thought I had it all worked out and turning without really dragging, but when I came back to it and rolled it over to the car it was dragging even worse and sounding horrible. I think it changed once the temps heated up. Brian helped me get it rolling without too much resistance but it just sounded absolutely horrible. The sun was out and cookin' up temps in the mid 80's to 90 by the time our race was set to start at noon. I've never really done well at Short Track, it's just not my thing. I do better at longer races, and 20 minutes plus 3 laps of an 1/8th mile (?) course is, well, not long. 59 guys lined up and we started clean, for the first 100 ft or so. Then we had an off camber right turn with ruts to start a climb. I knew there would be problems here and it would be just pure luck if I got through it clean. I didn't. Someone washed out in front of me and then we were running. The field got strung out immediately and I was way in the back. I caught back up at the top of the climb and then on the traverse across the top I took an alternate line in the grass and over some rocks to make a pass and then took as many deep breaths as possible on the short downhill.
I made the hairpin turn and stood up to hammer back to the line to do it all again. I lost a couple spots on the climb as my rear brake was making tons of racket and the shifting was even jumping around. Just not a good day.
I was actually wishing I had ridden the Tallboy, not because of the issues the Highball was having, but because there was actually some rough pedaling where I would have been faster since we weren't actually on "trails." Since I wasn't having a great race at all and I know I didn't have the umph to really make any passes stick I didn't push overly hard in order to save a bit for the XC the next day. I lasted a little under 10 minutes before getting pulled, to finish 49th of 58. And that's all I have to say about that.
After short track I set off for a pre-ride of the XC course. Yes, in the middle of the day in the heat, the day before a race, and it would take a couple hours. It may not have been wise, but the course had changed quite a bit since I raced here last I felt it was more important to inspect it and recover/rehydrate after than to race blind. I made sure to keep a steady intake of Hammer HEED, Gel, and Perpetuem to not get depleted of anything. With the warm up, short track race, and pre-ride I got in close to 3.5 hours of riding in on Friday and got some pink skin to go with it. In the evening I finally got the brake and shifting issues all figured out and the Highball was dialed for XC.
Saturday - Cross Country:
I woke up with legs that were a little fatigued so I went for a spin first thing. Just a half hour, but it did the trick to help loosen everything back up. After breakfast, some stretching and final bike and fueling prep I went back up to the track and began my warmup. It was getting really hot out on the track. To the point where I was beginning to wonder if I'd be better off staying cool in the shade somewhere rather than riding around in the sun. I decided to keep moving to make sure my legs were ready to go and keep chuggin' fluids. I felt ready as the time approached and I rolled up to staging with 88 other guys.
I wasn't expecting any sort of call-up but after about 30 or so names I heard mine... but I was in the back and couldn't make my way through and then everyone just all rolled up at once while they were still calling names. It was a little weird when that happened, but I ended up with a decent position in the center about 4 rows back and most importantly in the shade! The start position isn't as important at Sea Otter because we start on the Laguna Seca track and it doesn't funnel down right away. After the national anthem and with a cheering crowd the gun went off.
So now we're on the wide open race track; 89 guys on mountain bikes with wide handlebars, powerful and touchy disc brakes, knobby tires, and way too much adrenaline who don't really know how to road race. Sound like a bad idea? Yeah, it was pretty scary. Even though all those knobbies on the pavement created the coolest sound. We'd fan out wide on the straight away and then everyone would close way down in the corner trying to hit the apex, a few tires skid around me as I lean over in the turn making sure not to overlap the wheel in front of me. I'm white knuckled and my arms are stiff trying to hold my position as the guy next to me leans on my elbow. Ok, first corner is done. The hairpin turn starts a little climb for us, but the leaders take the inside pavement which is narrower (the pit road exit) and some guys slide a bit on the dirt to the side but since we start to climb it slows down and mellows out. We crest and head down the front stretch at 30mph with the group completely fanned out because nobody wants to pull. We bunch back up in the right hand 90 degree turn and a BMC rider almost goes down up front. That could have been really bad. But we made it through and the road craziness is over now that we have a steady climb up to where we exit the track through a 12ft (approx.) gap in the concrete wall. At this point is the first choke of the course and I don't know what happened up front but we stopped and everyone was running through here and it was a total cluster. My pedal gets caught up in someone's front wheel, I was able to yank it out without any damage and remount to give chase. Towards the back of the pack now I stand up and hammer the first short climb and pass quite a few guys by the top. I crested the top and kept the cranks turning on the long downhill and take the rutted line on the right side. Guys are coasting on the left and I can't figure out why, but I'm turning the pedals at 44mph and I pass at least 5 guys on that first descent. The course stays on this ridge line fire road for about 2.5 miles with a couple pretty steep but short climbs. The final one is really steep and of course I end up having to dismount and run up because the guys in my way can't get it done. It's really frustrating to be able to ride something easily in my pre-ride but be forced to get off during the race because of traffic.
One more downhill and I know the singletrack is coming so I try go get by as many as possible, passing a couple more on a gravely corner before turning into the fun stuff. As I expected, my progress is impeded on the singletrack and I just know the front is getting stretched out even more. There's nowhere to pass so I just sit in and relax as we cruise the sandy corners and I have a little fun drifting and finding some good flow. We finish the decent and I, along with a couple others, pass the roadblock racer as we start the next switchback climb. We pick up the pace a little bit but I feel like I could go faster. We're on singletrack here and there are a couple places where I could force a pass, but our pace is just fast enough that I don't think I could have made a move quick enough to make it stick. I looked for a couple places and almost washed out on the inside of a corner once as I hit a rut I didn't see trying to cut the corner a bit much. We crest the top of that climb, about 6 miles into the race and begin another ridge line gravel road. I have no idea what place I'm in but I just keep looking ahead and picking off as many as I can. I get to the first "caution" spot which is a blind downhill full of ruts. As I approach I see a cloud of dust and a course marshal waiving us to the right side. When I crest I see a rider getting up from a crash on the left and the guy in front of me takes a line a little more to the center. I stay loose and to the right, cross over a couple ruts, let off the brakes and make the pass. No big deal and I set my sights on the next guy. We get a little bit of singletrack on a gradual descent which culminates in a 50ft "sand dune" drop onto a dirt road which is pretty fun.
I hadn't quite caught up to the next two riders yet which means I have a flat dirt road section where I'm all alone. I take on a dose of Hammer Gel and continue to drink. This valley is pretty hot but I try not to loose any ground to the guys behind me who might be working together to catch back up. Then comes the Trail 82 singletrack climb which is about a mile long and a fairly steep slog. There's shade in the beginning but about 1/4 of the way up it's just a trail in the bushes with dead air and I'm cookin'. I keep the pace but after a little bit I can feel I'm totally overheating and beginning to get chills. I back it off a little and take on as much fluid as I can stomach. I'm still not feeling great and begin to wonder if I'm going to be one convulsing on the side of the trail soon. Normally I handle heat very well but this was such a drastic temperature change from what I'm use to in less than a week (after the race I heard someone say their Garmin recorded 106 degrees here). I finally crested and turn into a slight breeze at the top so I fully unzip the jersey and keep going. I start to feel better and then I get passed so I match the attack and stay on his wheel down to the road crossing as we catch another small group containing fellow Norcal racer Will Curtis. I'm able to pass everyone in this group and make it stick by the top before a short decent. There's an off camber left turn that I made with a drift and my left foot out. I don't get clipped in before a bermed right turn which opens into a good size water bar which of course had a camera man and a crowd saying "Boost IT!!!!" I'm not fully clipped in but the cheers and cowbells made me do it anyways. I hit the jump and tweak out the bike for show, open jersey flapping, and while in the air realize I'm going to land in a rut. Thankfully it wasn't a deep one but my front tire landed with an objectionable "BAARRRPPP!" Thankfully I'm running WTB TCS Nano's and the bead held strong without any air loss. Still not clipped in I drift the next left hander which set me up perfectly to pass a rider on the right side of the next rutted downhill as I let go of the brakes and hit 28mph at the bottom.
Here begins another dirt road section of a little over a mile. I get passed back by that guy from the last downhill but I'm ok with it and sit in his draft for a bit. We climb up to the "Three Sisters" ridge and I'm feeling pretty good as I catch up to Cody Kaiser after the second climb. About then, Barry Wicks comes blowing by (he had been off to the side with a mechanical early on). I tried, and so did Cody, to stay on his wheel but we couldn't. That was humbling, but I keep on giving the best I've got. It's a little under an hour into the race now and my hamstrings and inner thighs begin to cramp on the climbs. Just as I finish off the rest of my bottle, I see Brian stationed perfectly for an exchange. He hands me a nearly full bottle of water and I was SO needing it! Some goes on my head and back and I chug down as much as I can before the next turn. We're descending on road now as I pass Cody, Menso de Jong and another rider at the base before turning up the twisty Goat Trail climb. Rejuvenated by having water again I'm standing on the pedals and hammering. I also have no choice but to stand because if I try to climb seated my hammies will cramp! I make a couple passes and catch up to a group of three or four which included Jim Hewett (winner of last weeks Napa Valley Dirt Classic). I sit in and recover a second before seeing an opportunity to attack on a steep climb. I go for it with a little momentum and Jim's gears slip, causing the rider behind him to check up and swerve into my path. I check up but my wheel is overlapping the other guy's back wheel and I'm loosing my balance... "go go go GO GO!" I holler but he doesn't go quick enough and I have to dismount... dang. I finally get back on and the group comes back together and I take the next climb to pass them all, just before the final decent on the Goat Trail and I'm able to put in a little gap. I'm totally spent though as I hit the false flat but try to hold my gap before hitting the road. The final climb back has a few steep rollers but overall is a steady slog which normally I can hammer pretty hard. Not this time though as the hammies just want to cramp. And from my efforts on the Goat Trail when I stand up the quads didn't really like that either. I glance over my shoulder after a corner and I see Jim coming. I keep the power down as much as I can and pass maybe three more riders before the second to last climb when Jim goes by. I match him up to the crest of that one but couldn't hold it up the last one. We get a little bit of fun singletrack descent as we're almost back to the track and I try to stay smooth and recover for one final finish sprint. I almost blow a corner and slide into a ditch but saved it with inches to spare. Jim is about 4 seconds up as we hit the track but the gap holds and I roll across the line in 38th place.
I finished in 1:24:14 and was 9 minutes and 56 seconds back from the winner Geoff Kabush. I'm really happy with my effort though and feel I gave it everything I had. I was happy to be done and in one piece after a crazy first Sea Otter Pro XC.
By now you might have noticed the new jersey... I'm very excited to now be racing for the new Santa Cruz / Fox Racing Shox team and representing a great group of sponsors. This is a great group of extremely talented riders of "All Mountain" ability and I feel extremely privileged to be welcomed aboard. The jersey is on loan from new teammate Aaron Bradford who unfortunately broke his collar bone in DH practice on Friday.
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| Best part about finishing a race! |
Sunday - Fun Day:
Greeted by dense fog Sunday morning I set off with Brian for a tour of the Fort Ord fun trails that I've never had the chance to ride. We had a blast ripping around for about 90 minutes when he had to get stationed on the course to provide a feed for Brianne who was on her way to winning her Cat 2 XC race. I finished off my ride on the long climb back of the xc course, encouraging all the cat 2's giving it their best and cheering on the riders I knew. That's one of the things I love about Sea Otter is that I'm surrounded by so many people I know and everyone's just stoked to be riding and racing their bikes.
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| A High Five for Avery Morin grabbing 3rd in the Cat 2 15-18 XC (she's 14!) |
Later Jen and I went down to Cannery Row in Monterey for brunch. Where I powered down an omelette, the rest of her crepe, and most of two HUGE mango-coconut-granola pancakes before spending some time in the Monterey Bay Aquarium where she got freaked out by the jellies and giant octopus... but cute penguins made up for it.
Perfect cap to a super fun Sea Otter weekend.
Sounds like a great ride! Great read too. Dad
ReplyDeleteSounds like you had a great weekend. I really enjoy reading your race tales/report. We were at the aquarium 4/18 - great place.
ReplyDeleteBob T.