Sea Otter...

Sea Otter…the experience. I think as I have gotten older, Sea Otter means more than just racing to me. It is the one place you know all of your buddies will be. It’s a reunion of sorts. This year was no different.

Megan and I packed the trailer and headed down Thursday night, arriving at 10 pm at campground B just above the main venue. Pretty sweet to be camping at Laguna Seca…that way you don’t need to go in and out of the venue in the insane race traffic if you don’t want to.

Friday – Race day. I got up and started eating immediately. Then, knowing that my race was at 2pm, I went over to ride the end of the xc course and scope out a good place for Megan to hand me a bottle. With no cage on the Blur LT, I decided to carry one in a pocket on my back…mistake. After checking everything out, I went to the expo area to visit the WTB, Santa Cruz, and Rotor booths.

After doing my last minute bike cleaning, I got ready and headed down to the start area. My class was stacked with guys like Dario Fredrick (current national champion), Rich Thurman, Brian Rouse, Mike Heilaman, Todd Booth, and Ben Capron. Amazing depth. I took confidence in the fact that I had been riding a lot, and decided on my race strategy: don’t lead, stay in the top 5, and go with what I thought would be the winning move.

At the whistle, we shot off at a good, solid, but not breakneck pace. It felt vaguely like a road race, as we were on the Laguna Seca racetrack and several people came up on the outside, swallowing us up into the middle. By the time we exited the track and hit the trail, however, the usual suspects were at the front. One guy (I think his name was Steve) shot off of the front while several of us held back a bit. I kept my eye on Dario, as I knew he had won several big races lately. Sure enough, Rich Thurman and Dario started the chase for Steve…I followed down a very fast fire-road descent, then onto some fun single track.

That is the way it stayed for much of the first lap, until Dario and I dropped Rich on a single track uphill. The uphills were very rolling an very choppy with several steep pitches, but my new Rotor cranks with Rotor rings seemed to be making my job easy. My Blur was handling awesome with new WTB Vulpine tires at 28lbs…I was very confident and took the lead on a downhill section. Dario followed my line (even complimented me) and we ripped the section before the “climb home” as it is called. The climb takes you up about 800 feet (although it feels like 1500 or more) on open fireroad and you can see the whole dang thing! Total mind-job! We cruised up trading pulls, and caught Steve finally.

Entering the second lap, my wonderful wife handed me a bottle and off we went. Riding with a bottle in the pocket is not something I will do anymore, as I had to keep taking my hands off the bars to get it into my jersey pocket! Oh well.

We started with the long downhill, and my legs immediately let me know they hated me when we entered the first uphill of the 2nd lap. I recovered and started to get my rhythm back when Dario put in a big effort. I was sitting in 3rd Dario was 2nd, and Steve was 1st when Dario passed and went hard. I had no such acceleration in me, so I gradually pulled past Steve and chased. The gap stayed at about 7-8 seconds until about ½ way through the lap, then my legs started to twinge…cramps…crap. I backed off a bit to try and work through them, and finished off my bottle by the beginning of the climb home. The cramping went away, but my legs were dead, not being able to push nearly the gear I had during the first lap. The climb home was too long…Brian and Todd went by me very fast just a bit into it, then Rich and Mike.

I held onto 7th place, which wasn’t bad, but I was a bit frustrated. Todd ended up winning. Kudos Todd!!! He gets 2nd a lot, and deserves to get this big win. Like I told my wife, you can go out hard to win this race, or you can reserve a bit and take the chance of someone getting away. I went out too hard and payed the price. But, I have to admit, the singletrack was sweet. : )

Looking forward to relaxing and enjoying the festival tomorrow!

Cheers!
Chuck