Sea Otter Classic
Monterey, CA
April 14-17, 2005

The annual pilgrimage to Monterey, CA was upon us. I say pilgrimage because the Sea Otter Classic has become legendary. It is a race unlike any others. And to get to race at Sea Otter is an experience a rider never forgets. First off it combines both road racing and mountain bike racing at the same venue. Secondly, it has the audacity to offer prize money! And lastly, it attracts the largest number of racers and spectators of any event all year. The Sea Otter Classic is a four day mountain bike stage race at the beautiful Laguna Seca Raceway. I wouldn’t consider a racetrack to have any aesthetic value, but Laguna Seca is an exception. The racetrack is nestled in the lush green hills outside of Monterey. Thanks to a very wet spring, the flowers were in full bloom and the hillsides were full of lush, knee high grasses. Unfortunately the poison oak was also in full bloom. The mountain bike venue was situated in and around the center pond/infield. The tech area was exceptionally large because of the addition of the road teams. The expo area was full of exciting demos, free samples, fun things for the kids, and lots of food and drink. And to top it all off we had some of the best weather I’ve ever seen out there.

The mountain bike event was four stages. The first event on Thursday was the super cross country. It was a mix of both road riding and technical descents on singletrack. Most riders chose to race their hardtail with semi-slick tires. It’s not the most exciting thing I’ve done on a bike, mostly because the paved sections are long, wide open, and very windy. No one wants to stick their nose in the wind so the pace is always painfully slow. The climbing was quite hard, but once again no one could stay away from the group because once we hit the pavement everything came back together.

All the usual riders were in attendance and the race went exactly as planned. We all rode conservatively until the last lap when Sue Haywood launched a painful attack up the last climb. She was reeled in on the pavement. We rode together fairly slowly until the last 500m. In trying to get into position for the final sprint I found myself on the outside stuck in the wind. The speed wasn’t that high so I decided to go for it. I jumped hard and started my sprint early. Caught everyone off guard and got a gap of at least two bike lengths. A 400m sprint into the wind usually doesn’t work, but I felt good and was able to maintain my gap all the way to the finish. First win of the year!! And because of the thirty second time bonus, I was awarded the leader’s jersey. Yippee!

The second day was a short but painful time trial. The course was the “dirt section” of the super cross country from the day before. My warm-up went ok but I could tell the legs weren’t super crisp. When a time trial is so short, you don’t have a chance to ride yourself into the race. You either feel good or you don’t. And when it’s so short the smallest mistake can cost you one to two seconds, which is often times the difference between 1st and 5th place. I had a solid ride, but nothing spectacular. Alison Sydor won, Sue Haywood was 2nd, Kelli Emmett was 3rd and I was 4th. I lost 12 seconds to Sydor, which meant that I had to give her the coveted leader’s jersey. Darn! Seems crazy that you could lose 12 seconds in a seven minute effort, but I did.

Probably the most exciting event of the entire weekend was the Friday night world premier of the movie “Off Road to Athens”. The movie followed the top four men and top four women in their quest to make the Athens Olympic team. All of us stars got treated to a ride in a limo followed by a walk down the red carpet into the theater and then a large autograph session. The movie was fantastic and I highly recommend seeing it. You can check their website for locations. http://www.GrippedFilms.com.

Saturday was the short track cross country. This is always the most painful event of the entire weekend. I love short track racing but for some reason this course always makes me suffer. And it didn’t help that I had marginal legs once again. Luckily my teammate Katerina Hanusova had great legs and was able to control things at the front. The pace was fast and furious. I don’t know when it’s ever not fast and furious. The lead group stayed together until the last lap when Katerina attacked hard and got a gap on Alison Sydor, Sue Haywood, and myself. She held on for the win and I struggled across the finish line in 4th place. I lost more time to Sydor today. Frustrating!

The one thing about stage racing is that you can almost guarantee that your legs will feel completely different each day you line up at the start. I was counting on that and hoping the legs would come around for the longest event, the cross country, on Sunday. Sunday’s course was 36 miles and I think it took us almost three hours last year. It’s by far the longest cross country we do all year. Most of our races are around two hours. After loading up with lots of food and energy drink I headed over to the start line. The race began on the actual raceway. It’s good for everyone because the raceway is really wide. Lots of riders can fit on the front row. And once the gun goes off there is plenty of time to move up before the first single track.

The first steep hill on the racetrack is always painful because it comes right in the beginning. But once you get onto the singletrack things calm down. The cross country singletrack is fast and hard. The ground has dried into interesting bumps, holes, and ruts that were caused by the recent rains. When you’re flying down a descent in a long line of riders you often times can’t see these small imperfections in the trail. If you’re not ready for a small bump or a rut, you can get violently thrown off the trail. Knowing this I chose to lead the field down the first long descent. I didn’t want to take any chances. Sue Haywood, a great descender, crashed early on because she couldn’t see something. Luckily she didn’t get hurt.

The group split and before long there were about fifteen of us leading the race. Quite a large group for women’s racing. Again the strong winds kept things together. No one wanted to attack off the front because that meant fighting the wind by yourself. I was thirty seconds down on Sydor in the general classification and I knew that in order to win I had to drop her before the finish. On the second lap I tried everything I could to get rid of her. I attacked many times but she stuck to me like glue. And again the wind gave her a big advantage. They say that the person sitting in the wind is working almost 35% harder than the person sitting in the draft. That’s a lot at the end of a three hour race.

So it came down to another field sprint. I didn’t have much left in the tank and was only able to manage third in the sprint. Because Katerina had flatted early on I moved into second place overall. A great result but not what I wanted. But you’ve got to be good on every day and I wasn’t. I’m still happy with the weekend. My mom came to the race and got to experience the craziness of Sea Otter. And I even made a little prize money. Not bad.

I’m home for the next month and then it’s back to Monterey. Our Luna Team is racing the 24hrs of Monterey, which happens to be on the Sea Otter course. I’ve got to spend the next few weeks getting used to riding at night. Should be a fun challenge.

Until then…. Happy spring!

Alison