Race Report

Race Report by Dave McCrimmon

Wow! It was great seeing everyone out at the C-Ott. I had more fun this year than over the past few years. Maybe thats because I didn't camp in the rain and freeze my arse off. Well atleast it didn't rain!

Sunday's Race

Lining up and I am surrounded by Paul, Peter, and Allan. We have a nice chat and then Franck rolls up. The start goes off and I try and take off. Nothing! I watch the people move up the track and still Nothing! I start to pass people but still, Nothing! Whats going on, I have no gusto. I feel no burn, my HR is in check, and my breathing is controlled but I have nothing. I pass a few people and make my way from the track to the dirt. I pass a few people and find myself on the high side and sliding down. Next thing I know there is a guy who moves directly in front of me onto the only line. Well I run into him and he doesn't move. Note to self, its great to loose weight but not at the expenses of not being able to bump people out of your way. Normally I would have screamed but whats the sense when your fighting for DFL. I sit in and make my way onto the single track. Actually being way in the back allowed the group to move through the single track nicely. Maybe thats because I wasn't pushing but just sitting in. Being in the back is actually nice, the guys are pretty polite. When ever I came up on anyone, they moved out of my way. Very Cool! I was passing people here and there and then got caught by the class from behind leader on the ascent of hurl hill. My lack of that extra gear made me just kind of ride the course. I found myself on each climb loosing ground and then making it back up on the descents. Hmmm is this training program working, started to enter into my mind. Oh well, two races so far this year and I am missing that extra gear. Everyone I have talked to say, it will pay off. Okay remain patient.

After the old hike a bike section I pass a guy who passed me at the start. He had asked me if I knew Mike Gin. He was an old TWW guy riding a Catamount. Sorry didn't catch his name. I left him as I finally felt like my legs were coming alive. I ride with a group of guys making our way through the sandy new section. This guy, two people in front of me, keeps taking bad lines to pass and then jumping right back in where he originally started off. The whole time he keeps cutting off the poor guy in front of me. The guy in front of me says nothing but just keeps riding. We hit a little climb and there goes a-hole again trying to pass. He starts loosing ground, just as the guy in front of me finally starts to pass the a-hole cuts back and they both go down. The a-hole guy picks the other guys bike and flings it. Then wants to fight. I calm them both down and we start moving quickly. Funny thing, A-Hole guy had a Trail Head Jersey on. Hmmm seems like another experience I had. I start to pass people and leave a-hole behind. We get to the three sisters and people are scattered like flies pushing there bikes up. I ride in and out of people and leave them all to their pushing. I am now flying down to the grind only to run into a guy on a blue specialized who wont let me by. Oh well, such is life. I finally make it to the road and pass blue specialized. He jumps on my tail. Just to prove that I haven't lost all my a-hole tendencies and I haven't turned into a touchy-feely guy who rides at the back of the pack, I lock up my brakes. He smashes into the back of me and off I go. Sorry if you are not going to let me by then you dont get to draft. He said nothing, I think he figured out I was sort of mad.

Half way up the grind I realize that I am catching people but whatever. I slow and enjoy the view. I hit the track and basically pedal in as people start sprinting by, whatever. So I didn't get 110 I ended up 113. I am sure that is going to affect my TWW standings.

I am all smiles now but if I am still riding this way come June, you will hear a guy screaming in the pack. It wont be the same guy with a smile on his face and playing jokes.

Dave

Race Report by Scott Seery

This was my first race in 2 years. At age 49, I am still stuck in the 40 - 49 Exp class. Big class, with tons of talent coming up wet behind the ears from the 35-39 age group. Next year......

Arrived Thursday and met up with a friend (Mike Fine) who races 35-39 Exp class. On my first two practice runs I crashed hard, hard enough to lose skin through pads, shorts, and ballistic outer shorts. (How does that happen?) And whatever confidence I may have been lacking coming in, was soon so far out of sight that it took until the end of Friday's practice to catch up to it again. I managed to get in 11 runs in two days, and felt I had found some good lines and good confidence over the multitude of kicker, hip, and drop jumps at the lower, speedier 1/2 of the course. At the end of the day I ran into Heim, and quizzed him, jokingly, about why he wasn't on his Superlite as he had at Big Bear 2 years prior. Uh oh..... that got the gears to spin in his head. (Shortly thereafter Heim crashed hard in a practice run on the Superlite, breaking his scapula in jigsaw pieces, and getting yet another ambulance ride to the hospital. There's got to be a better way to score morphine in my view, Jon.)

Come Saturday morning, I left Santa Cruz in the wee hours, getting to the venue in time to do one last practice run. The course had changed significantly from my last run the day before, and the hope for rain overnight did not materialize. I saw Frank grinding away on his mag trainer at the top before the start (he's one of the young "newbies" in my class I mentioned), so I thought I should commandeer another I saw up there and do the same. And so I did, for about 10 minutes. And then I raced.

I finished my race unscathed and in 7th place with a time of 3:14. Not where I wanted to be, but was glad, after 2 years out of the racing scene, to have finished safely. Winning time was 3.02, followed by three 3.08s, and then a 3:09 and a 3:11, then me, as I recall. I rode the Yeti ASX instead of the full DH bike, and it was a joy!

My race run was not especially pretty. I went a little wide and got into the soft and slow stuff on the very first turn (the very first turn!), and was not as smooth through the new series of sandy "esses" (just after the log drop) as I had been in practice. But I did the upper jumps better than I had ever done in past races there (actually clearing 3 of 5), and felt good throughout on the technical side, especially the steep chute, and multiple high speed jumps in the lower half. The lower jumps were the most fun on the entire course.

But I also caught the guy who had started 20 seconds in front of me at a critical time when needing to really crank on the speed in the approach to the last big drop jump where the landing is on an off-camber side slope. Go too slow, and you land on the more tilted, sketchy part of the slope (which is where Heim crashed); hit it fast (as I had in practice) and you carry air to a better landing zone and maintain speed to the next section. During the race I had to roll the jump after scrubbing all my run up speed, or else I would have landed on his back. Then, after cranking back up to his rear tire, I asked to pass and he moved over... momentarily. As soon as I got along side him, he decided he was going to bang bars and shoulders with me the last twisty 200 yds to the finish, over 3 sets of jumps no less! We actually locked bars for a second just before the final double, nearly causing us both to crash, and forcing me to take a weird line over the jump. WTF! Just minutes before, while waiting to start, he and I even talked about what we would do if I happened to catch him, and he said to simply call out and he would move over. I suppose he got caught up in the desire to protect his position, but as he was already 20 seconds behind me, he was out of the race. Oye.

All told, I probably lost 5 or 6 seconds with him alone. I might have been on the podium in 5th if not for him. Of course, there now are some really skilled guys in the 40-49 age group and they thoroughly dominated. In fact, initial results showed a 3-way tie for 2nd place until it was decided to the 100th of a second.

All in all, it was good to recut my teeth and get a little race confidence going. I have a race in Santa Barbara this coming weekend, so I'm now primed and feeling much better than I did a week ago.

Race Report by Keith White

Ode to Hike a Bike

The day started in the usual way. Not by the alarm going off, but me looking at the clock to see it's that time. A sleepless night surely will not help my cause. I tune the radio in to hear the familiar voice of Harry O' talking about some environmental or political issue. I'm at Laguna Seca by 7:00 and parked by 7:15. First stop the pungent green closets. Second stop registration. I'm back to the car and ready to warm up by 7:45. I make it to the starting line only to find myself wondering where all the TWW folks are. As I look around I notice with some amount of horror...these guys are old! Wholly crap I must be in the wrong group...nope, it's the right group. Why does everyone look so much older than I do(hey, I have to keep some kind of hope). I finally see Rich on the far side of the group, so at least there's two of us.

As we take off, I don't try to hammer since I know I'm not in top 10 shape. About 20 seconds in Rich passes with a comment about being old and slow. I feel a bit led legged so I just laugh and let him go(secretely I'm plotting to catch him later). We enter the single track and I'm reminded why it's good to hammer at the start. I always forget roadies aren't so good on dirt. As we crawl along the single track I wonder if there will be the rider jam at the 5 foot uphill. Nope, first year in a few it didn't happen.

Slowed through most of the single track, I look forward to Hurl Hill. I get to pass a few people there and Rich is only at the top of the steep section when I'm at the bottom, so not too far back. I don't put the hammer down since I'd read the course changes make the course go right after hurl hill...turns out it's after a good section of the downhill fire road. Oh well. We get into some new section of the course which is nice, I like new. On the other hand I have no idea what to expect so I don't pull out all the stops.

Soon we're over to the goat trail. Some dude goes down right in the middle of the tough little climb blocking the whole trail until he untangles himself, but never bothers to let anyone bye. From then all the way to the lake was a stroll. Couldn't pass most places and the guys were poking. I emerged by the feed station completely refreshed. Took a drink from the station(the only thing I drank the whole race) and tried to regain some of my lost time.

Up the single track to where you take a left to hit the hike-a-bike, I just glance that way and nod my respect. I used to love that hike. Then into some new downhill trail with "scary ruts and sandy steeps". I enter behind some dude who obviously took the advice seriously. So, I take a worse line and blaze by. I had to do it again once or twice just to show the SoCal roadies what we do up here. Then more and more single track kept coming. It was great to ride new trails like that. I started to wonder if the 3 bitches were in the course still.

I caught up to Dave Mc and said Hey. I was chasing some dude in a yellow and black jersey. As we dodged back and forth I was leading through a fast section and he advised me as he passed through the thick sand that you just have to think surfing. He pulled back into my line and I headed out into the sand telling him I got the idea and passed and stayed out there in the sand. Soon we hit the 3 beeotches. People were walking and grannying up. Middle ring and go is my motto. Unfortunately I hit the 3rd one and drifted off to the left. Too loose to keep going I had to push. Down the other side to the singletrack. Again I'm stuck behind people who need to ride more dirt. The dude in front of me crashes on a turn and I barely avoid him.

I hit the long climb out and crank up the pace. I start the draft and pass routine. I feel pretty good at the top and didn't take an breaks on the climb so I finally got into race mode. As we dump out onto the track I shift to the big ring only to have my chain drop off on the outside...luckily I just shifted over and with a little finesse I was able to get the chain back on. The group I was with had pulled away but I was in hot pursuit. As I start to pick them off, there are only 2 others in front on that little bit of a climb. One dude starts to scream like it's going to help him. Strangely enough he manages to power over the hill and stay ahead. So, I crank away not letting him out of striking distance. As we round the last corner I've got 30 yards to make up. I push, he pushes. I'm closing, he senses me coming. He gets up and starts to scream again. Well that does it, I can't stand that and now I must beat him. With just 50 yards to go I catch the screamer and put him down to finish a good bike length ahead.

46th with a time of 1:41:40(or something like that) in the Sport 40-44 class.

Good training ride, I hope to be just a bit better this coming weekend.

I miss the Hike-a-Bike, but love the single track.

Keith

Race Report by Kathleen Meyer

I won a custom single-speed frame last June in the drawing at the Cascade Cream Puff 100 mtb race. It arrived the day my cast on my ankle came off. Building hadn't been a priority. I couldn't imagine I'd be able to ride one on a small hill much less something more. Not very energized to sign-up to race at the Sea Otter, I kept putting it off. All the parts together for my single-speed but there were issues with the rear wheel tensioner. The ones Jeff had and another set I later bought weren't going to work. I ran into Don Persons (he runs the CCP), he had traveled down from Oregon. When I explained my issues with the bike, he said let's go and came up to the TWW campsite to get a first hand look. He explained that I could use the hub as is and get the right tensioner later. Despite the questioning remarks from those close to me, I went back to the expo and signed up for the beginner/sport single-speed race.

I figured to take this race as a ride to check out the bike. I had this beautiful new Fox fork with a remote lock-out. Not sure if it was properly adjusted for me, I started out hesitant on the downhills. I walked Hurl Hill (saving my legs) and the first and third sister. The people riding in this class were awesome. So relaxed, helpful and encouraging. Riding with Jeff's gearing (32 x 17) I had to work more than I was accustomed. I learned on the Goat Trail not to brake as much, no big gear to pull me out of the corner and accelerate me forward. The fork was fantastic!!! Climbing up the 2nd sister with another single-speed, we both howled with pleasure as we crested it. In sync we both agreed that wasn't going to happen on the third sister.

There can't be anything better than trying something new, something that intimidates you and then finish feeling good. That final push to the top of the climb I heard loud yelling voices cheering me on and then looked over to see Ligaya and Phillip joining in louder than the rest. It was fun to hear the replies from the crowd when I called out to her that "this is #*&!ing hard". Actually it wasn't near as bad as I expected. The other racers made my day. I could ride with them any time. I am looking forward to getting the fork set properly and trying the bike some more. If you see a pink single-speed with white the white lettering "Coconino" -say hi!

Kathleen

PS gotta say thanks to Jeff who put the bike together despite his misgivings that I was asking for trouble.

Race Report by Jenny Impey

The Sea Otter was a great time! Got to chat with and thank some of our sponsors in their booths, who were all very cool. Had a blast watching the wild Big Jump Invitational (but was puzzled as to why I didn't get MY invite). Got a picture taken with Alison Dunlap as she was cooling down after winning the mtb short track: Me (to Alison meekly): "Can I take your picture?" Alison: "Sure, can someone take one of us together?" So as Paul is taking our picture, Alison has her arm draped around me and I ask (like a big fat dummy), "How did you do on the short track?" Alison: (duh!) I won. I think a little of her mojo rubbed off on me, because I was very surprised to get a podium finish. My goal was to get in the top 10 (after placing 13th last year), but I never imagined in the top 5.

Felt good as we were off, though I always struggle on the track climb. Had a great time on the singletrack making the way to hurl hill, thanks to my rockin' new Fox FX80! Totally fun! I was feeling good until hitting the endless bottlenecks in the sandy sections- Sport women went after the beginner men and all the juniors, so there were endless streams of people seemingly barely moving. Very frustrating since the sand is sucking all my energy anyway, then here comes Mr. ThisIsTheOnlyRideAndRaceI'llDoAllYear (and the 5 friends he's racing with) and I have to venture out into the deep sand to pass (doh!). Don't get me wrong, it's great that they are out racing, but give us ladies some credit and start them later, puleez!! It was great to see fellow TWW'ers at the top of the climb before sprinting to the finish line. I grabbed 5th in Sport Women 30-34, very surprised to get a podium. It was great to see so many Team Wrong Way'ers out there loving the sport of mountain biking (as well as a few roadies)! Next stop: NVDC!!

-Jenny

Race Report by Isaias Job

TWW had and awesome showing even though a few of the regular faces were not present! I'm still kinda bummed that we didn't do the booty shot for the group photo...I mean come on, the short's wrong way symbol simply begs to be photographed ;-)

Jenny - Congrats on the podium finish, that's awesome and well deserved. However, a podium at the Otter means your more ready for the expert class than you think! Come on, I need some more TWWers out there suffering with me ;-)

Kat - You're know officially one of those crazy SSers!

Dave McCrimmon - The base training will pay off....you will gain endurance at price of power, but eventually the power will come. Stay strong my brutha!

Keith - I think it's time to dust off the SS.

Frank Walden - As they say, You Da Man! A well deserved podium finish!

Loren "The Kid" Thomas - Finished with at time faster than Frank. Impressive. Congrats and we'll see you in the expert class!

Jerry Brown - Ditto!

Last and certainly least, my race report....

The start was exciting, but not as never racking as I expected racing as an expert at the SOC would be. It's pretty cool to know that we are on the course at the same time as the pros! I hammered off the start and maintained my midpack status, I swung out to the right of the pack and tried to pass I came up on the guys in front of me so fast that I buzzed somebody's tire and almost took myself out. By this time the pavement finally starts turning up towards the dirt, man I didn't realize the experts started so far back on the pavement. By this time my legs are on fire, but I keep at it and alternate between sitting and standing to keep moving forward.

Man oh man, how I wish I had more power in my legs so that I could have hit the singletrack before all the roadies! I mean seriously, my technical skills are pretty rusty from all the road riding I did this winter, but the speed of these experts was so slow that I swear I was back in the beginner class. Finally we hit the fireroad and beginning climing again, I hammer up the fireroad and pass a few people, but I arrive at the second single track and am bottle-necked even worse....argh, how I wish I had a faster start.

Now the single track turns downhill and on the section where I am normally flying, I'm now moving at only a moderate pace because of the congestion. In an act of frustration, I start to choose some not so ideal lines to pass a few people. Anyway we end up going up hurl hill and I'm surprised to find that even some of the experts don't ride up it very well.

Any how, shortly after the hike-a-bike reroute I begin to feel what I think is my chain skipping. I continue through the sandy section after the hike-a-bike reroute and it seems that my chain is skipping on the cogs. I pull over because it is so bad. I check the chain and derailleur and all looks ok. I continue on and at some point the skipping is so bad that I pull over again and now I realize, I've heard this skipping noise before. Yup, sure enough, I busted the ratcheting mechanism in the rear hub...ahhh. I'm cussing up a storm and at least 20 people come flying buy me. In desparation I hammer on the pedals as hard as I can and get no engagement from my rear hub. I shout a few more obsenities and huck my bike into the bushes as the reality of the situation settles in....I will be walking out of this race....damn, my first DNF!

Man, it was a long, long, long walk out. On the bright side, I must have had about 10 or so experts ask me if I was OK or if I needed anything. When I asked them if they had an extra hub they would just chuckle and say sorry not on me man.

It sucks to have to DNF at such a big race, but hey, this is only the beginning of the race season. I'm pretty confident that I would have achieved my goal of finishing mid-pack.

I'll be missing the NVDC, but will be doing a 2-man team at the 24HRs of Temecula. See you at the Central Coast MTB finals on May 2nd. The finals will end with a bang, a keg and a band!

Cheers,

Isaias

Race Report by David Ambrose

All I can say is, wow everybody! What a great friggin' weekend! We had an awesome TWW showing. We were all over the place, scattered throughout the classes and categories. Everywhere we went, there was a TWW jersey to see somewhere.

Erin, Kit (father-in-law) and I headed out to the 'Otter early Saturday morning to meet up with with everyone else back at Camp TWW. After pitching camp and socializing a bit, Isaias and I went for another preride (sheez, how many laps have we done on the Otter course in last 2 months?). I'm glad we prerode it again the day before the XC races as the course was ripped up compared to the previous weekend. Dusty and loose where before it had been hard-packed. I hoped for rain at some point Saturday night but no such luck. No matter - the course was a blast and the race was a ton of fun!

Sunday morning I woke up to an empty camp around 6am to get ready for the day. After my usual prerace liquid breakfast and a round of "good morning's" I was geared up and heading to the track.

I'm not too keen on trainers - they bore me out of my mind so I try to avoid them if at all possible. Fortunately, with the early sport start time I could warm up on the course and track. So 3 and a half laps around Laguna Seca track was the perfect little spin to get my legs pumping, and I was feeling great by the time I packed into the start area with Lloyd and Loren.

8:10am and the whistle sounds. Hammering from the get-go I sprint for the singletrack and make it to the dirt within the top 30 - sweet... everything is going as planned so far.

I can't believe how good I'm feeling at this point. Even after the sprint my heart rate is under control, I'm not winded, and feeling great. I had been concerned about this particular race because my training has been pretty much shot to shite this past month from injury and over-training burn-out.

Around and around we go, fighting for good passes as we make our way to Hurl Hill. Just before Hurl Hill, Loren rides up alongside me... with not a single bead of sweat. As he easily passes me he states, "I'm just going to take it easy and save myself for the long climb at the end"... and proceeds to double my own pace and drops me like a sack of rocks. By the time I reached the top of HH, I could see him blasting down the fireroad to the newly added singletrack and I never saw him again. About that same time a firetruck/ambulance is coming down the road with its sirens blaring - uh oh. Later, I heard that a couple guys behind me went down hard. Rumor has it that they biffed on the same whoop that caught Erin on the preride last week... but they didn't walk away so well. A shattered jaw on one and a broken collar bone with another? Something like that. Yikes!

Everything went great the entire lap - no crashes, no biffs, dabs, crunches, bonking or anything else. A brief cramp at the bottom of the Grind was the only thing that happened to hinder my progress. Although that 30 second cramp did get to me and intimidate me into taking a slower pace up the final climb where about a dozen people passed me. D'oh! I needed a good slap upside my head. I should have pushed... I should have big-ringed it and dealt with possible cramps. I know, I know. And I've been mentally slapping myself for it since.

My goal for this race was to breach the top 30. I didn't make that goal, coming in 43rd at 1:37. I can't help but feel I could have done better - could have pushed harder. Shoulda, coulda, woulda -- whatever! Doesn't matter, because I didn't. ;) But that doesn't stop me from being stoked with 43rd - the best, by far, that I've placed at the Sea Otter in the 3 years I've raced it. I'm very happy with my result even if I feel I should have done better. Live and learn.

Honestly, I wish I could add something excited to the race report but the ride was smooth, everything went well, I saw no crashes, did not crash myself, no misshifts, no chainsuck, no bad lines - it was a great race and a load of fun!

And that's what it's all about.

Congratulations to everyone, for finishing well - or for some of us (like myself), just for finishing. It was a blast! Oh yeah, baby!!! I can't wait until the NAPA VALLEY DIRT CLASSIC this next weekend! WO0T!!!

--

David Ambrose

Race Report by "Downtown" Julie Brown

I always wonder if the Otter is going to be live up to the build up every year, and every year it surpasses it. It's just such a great weekend.

Did not miss standing around in the rain all day Saturday like we did last year. This year I course marshaled at the Dual Shalom, which was really cool. Those guys are crazy and there was a fair share of gnarly crashes. I particularly liked the guy racing in a three piece suit. He had the mad skills to get away with it. The only bad thing about course marshaling was it started to really bug my cranky knee. Standing uphill apparently doesn't work well for my bum knee and I was pretty much limping around like an old mare by lunch time. Ended up at Camp TWW begging anti-inflammatories and ice. Then I decided to bag working the rest of the day and just enjoy watching the crazy downhillers. TWW was well represented at the downhill and kicked bootay.

Race Day. My first year racing Sport. I've done well in beginners, placing top 10 both years I've raced, but I was really nervous about racing Sport. Figured I needed to start hard and get in front. But, I ended up starting in midpack because I didn't realize they started all age groups at once. My first mistake. I was able to pass a fair amount of ladies on the fire road and then my saddle bag broke, slid down and kept rubbing on my back tire. This was going to be a long race. Finally jumped off and threw it in the grass.

The rest of the race was just a total blast. Not having as many beginners around was awesome. No bottlenecks at Hurl Hill, not too many people walking at the beginning, but lots of beginner men and Jr. Olympics walking everywhere by halfway. I ended up right behind one kid in a deep sandy uphill section because it was the only good line and he proceeded to just stop and quit right in front of me. He probably wasn't too happy when someone as old as his mother crashes into him and then let's out a motherly "F-bomb" to boot! Yeah, I felt like a total loser. Got back on the bike, apologized profusely and got the heck out of there.

Loved the new sketchy downhill section. It wasn't too bad by the time we got out there so I was able to pick a not great line and still make it down to the bottom with only one F-bomb. Got to work on that potty mouth!

Because of my sore knee I couldn't kick it into overdrive and had to stay in my middle ring. I didn't have the fastest race possible but it was really fun, I rode it well and ended up with a 9th place finish. My goal was to finish in the top 20 so I was happy, though I know it could have been better.

Thanks to all the TWWers out there yelling at us. It was really cool to look up when you hit the final track lap and see Henthorn hanging from some girder and yelling down.

A special shout out to the other TWW chickies -- Kirsten, Jenny and Kathleen (you too Erin). Great job ladies. We represented on the podium and off!

Race Report by Loren Thomas

Sea Otter Classic-April 2004

My first ever mountain bike race was the Sea Otter Classic in 2000. I placed 10th in the beginner class and I remember Gin telling me how impressive a top ten finish was at the Otter. Only at the Otter are the categories 10 times larger than most of the races I have ever done. In years past as a Sport racer, I have managed 40th place. With that in mind and having been out most of last season with various injuries, I made top 40 my goal.

After pre-riding the course the prior weekend, I decided that my hardtail with a semi-slick in the rear and a WTB NanoRaptor up front would be the right setup for the hard-packed conditions. Race Day: Sunday 6am I crawl out of my sleeping bag to discover a beautiful clear morning. By 7:30am I was ready to start warming up. About 7:55am I line up in the Sport 30-34 staging area. I had given quite a bit of thought to my race strategy over the past week and decided that since I would not have a chance in the top 10 that I would let the lead pack take off with out me. I figured I needed the energy for the long climb home.

POP! We are off. I immediately sit down and relax as about 60 riders sprint off into the distance. Around the first corner I maintain my pace and pass about half of them as they downshift, legs burning and out of breath. Lloyd lets me go first into the single track where I quickly get tired of following the slow pokes then safely pass two. I keep the same easy pace and occasionally pass a rider when I have the chance. I see Ambrose ahead of me as I slowly close the gap. At Hurl Hill, I decide to use a little excess energy and hammer up in the middle ring, earning a cheer from the spectators. I see a rider up ahead and push to catch his draft on the long fireroad. We pulled along at a decent pace, but I got bored and decided to go out on my own. Into the next single track I just pace behind a few guys, recovering a little. I continue on at my easily maintainable pace passing two guys in the new rutted downhill section. Finally at the far back of the course, I begin to feel like my legs are warmed up, but I still take it easy. Up the three sisters in my middle ring. I tried to pass four guys in the loose stuff on the last sister but the semi-slick would have not part of it. It was all I could do to maintain traction and settle back in behind them. Next thing I know, I’m at the last single track wondering if I should have been pushing a little harder earlier in the race. My legs felt great as the rider behind me howled in excitement at the good pace we were all setting through that last fun section. The long climb home begins and I am happy to have the guy in front of me setting a respectable pace. The two of us were making our way through the sea of fatigued legs. He began to back off, so I jumped ahead and told him to hop into my draft. That lasted for about two minutes before two more joined in and over took me. I still had enough to hop in the train. The four of us pushed hard to the top where I jumped behind the lead guy. He did some silly swerving maneuver apparently an attempt to drop me, but there was no way he would get that lucky. I looked back at the four following us and decided to just hang second in line and wait for someone else to make a move. Rounding the second to the last corner, I heard someone coming fast from behind. I shifted, jumped out of the saddle and gained enough speed to hop behind him as he passed. Two more were able to stay with us, but two got dropped. Big ring at near top speed, the four of us charged the finish. Fifty yards to go, the two behind me jump out to the right and make a mad sprint for the finish. I jumped out to the left side and desperately try to catch up to them. We were three wide, full speed across the finish. It was so close that I couldn’t call it, but the little timing chip calculated my time to be faster my hundredths of a second! I finished 10th out of 143 racers with a time of 1:30:55.8! Way better than my wildest expectations. I guess slow and steady can work afterall……

Race Report by Jerry Cherra

Date: April 18th
Race: Expert 30-34
Field: 75-100+
Result: 11th

A little disappointed with the result, but I was very happy with how I rode. I felt I was strong enough to make the podium and had I done a couple things different I believe I could have. My first goal was to be the first guy to the singletrack. Unfortunately, I misjudged the distance from the start line to the top of the hill. Consequently, I lead out too early and didn't have enough anaerobic endurance to make it to the dirt first. I wound up somewhere in the top 20-30 riders of the 2 age groups (they started the 30-34 and the 35-39 together). Luckily I only experienced about a 5 second log jam at the tires to get out onto the course. This still gave the lead 5-10 guys an opportunity to put time into me. It was single file, pass where you could until just before hurl hill and then it started to break apart. Unfortunately, I spent too much time behind people on the singletrack which allowed the leaders to keep putting time into me. Once the congestion started to subside I was able to start reeling guys in. By that time we had to start working through the Expert 19-29 and the Pro women who had all started 5 and 10 minutes ahead of us. Every time I would pass somebody I had to look at their number to see if they were in my race or not. It was really hard to guess where I was at in the field. All I could do was spot somebody in the distance and work on reeling them in hoping they were in my race and then move on to the next rider. Overall, I rode the course pretty clean. There were two times when I had to dismount and run on the first lap. The first was on one of the short steep climbs which was crowded with people stalled half way up blocking all of the few rideable lines. The second was one of the big sand pits with the same thing. People who dabbed clogging the whole thing up. By the second lap I had broken away from all the chaos and cleaned the whole lap. I was really happy with how I rode all of the singletrack. I mopped people up on that stuff...on a hard tail nonetheless.

All in all I had a great race and had a lot of fun. The course wasn't what I would consider ideal with all the sand, but I loved how long the race was. 40 miles and 3 hrs with 5,200 ft of climbing is a pretty epic XC race anywhere. The other thing that I messed up on was tires. I was running Hutchinson scorpion UST which got me through the day. However, I found out yesterday just how heavy those things are...800 grams each!!! Needless to say when I put on some WTB Epicwolfs today I lightened my bike a pound and a half. That weight savings could have given me at least 10 minutes back on my time which would have put me on the podium. Oh well, that's part of the learning process. I'll have a shot at redemption at Infineon.

Thanks for reading...see you at the Napa Valley Dirt Classic

Jerry

Race Report by Lloyd Ranola

I went out too fast and blew up.

... will elaborate after I get over my demoralization... :-P

Race Report by Frank "Iron Otter" Walden

Sea Otter 2004, 4 days, 3 races, 2 very tired legs, 1 great time.

This is the year I decided to try road racing in addition to DH and XC. What was I thinking?

Kyle and I got there Thursday to set up camp and hit DH practice. My first run down the course sparked my enthusiasm since they added some cool things to the course, more jumps, drops, chicanes, and sandy sections. I ended up getting 6 runs in and was feeling pretty good.

Friday was the road race. Since this was my first road race I wasn’t sure what to expect. Jeff was very helpful with advice about what to do. We all line up and go off at the start. Much to my surprise everyone just casually pedaled down the raceway, it was like a weekend ride. Oh was that about to change! I stayed near the front the entire first lap but on the second time up the Wall I got stuck behind a slower group.

At the top I was 100 feet off the front group and I set out to catch them….bad idea. I spent the next lap and half towing several other riders around the course in no man’s land between the 1st and 2nd group.

I was determined to get back on the front group! By lap 4 I was running out of steam and the whole group I had in tow politely pulled out and left me there to die. I put everything I had into the last lap and the long climb back up to the raceway ending up in 63rd of 100 finishers. Lesson learned. I went back to the trailer and drank a recovery drink and slept for two hours. At 5PM Kyle woke me up to go to the last hour of DH practice where I got a few more runs in.

Saturday morning we went up and did one DH practice run and then hung out for 5 hours till time for the race run. I warmed up on the trainer for 30 minutes before my race run trying to get some strength back in my legs. My race run started out great, fast out of the gate, railed the first turn carrying good speed into the first double, clear the second double, up the face of the 3rd jump…..Uh Oh…too much speed. Up in the air I went and over jumped the landing, slammed down to the ground, crap! This is not how it was supposed to be. I get up and tried several times to get the cables unwrapped. Run up the face of the jump and hop back on to try and finish….no DNF for me! I cleaned the rest of the course beautifully, which would have been a great run had I not made the mistake at the top. Finished 11/20 in the Expert 40-49 class, 20 seconds off the leader.

Sunday I woke up at 5AM and wondered where my legs were. As soon as I stood up believe me I knew where they were! I started taking Advil 3 at a time every hour till race time. I spent 20 minutes on the trainer beside the raceway trying to get the blood flowing and energize my legs.

The gun goes off and I shoot for the front only to have my legs tell me NO WAY! I made my way up the raceway trying to get in gear but everyone was passing me. Finally by the time we made it into the dirt I was feeling like I could hammer down a little and started passing people back on the way to the singletrack. The rest of the race went well, no crashes, or major hindrances other than the normal conga lines in the twisty singletrack I kept swapping places back and forth with another guy in my class that kept me motivated to push on. On the climb out I settled into a pace that I could sustain and motored by the endless procession of tired riders. On to the track there was two groups of Clydesdales that were close together. I followed one guy till the 200m mark and swung out to contest the finish. I passed all of them in the last 50 feet much to my enjoyment…and surprise. Talking at the finish line they all thought that I had won, turns out they were the lead group for the under 40 Sport class. I ended up 5th in the Expert class with a time of 1:38:57. I am officially tired now!

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