Sea Otter Wrap

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Back home, travel weary, little tired and sore. Still processing the events of the weekend. Happy to have gotten that first race effort in, and also to have gone on a nice pre-ride Saturday am, with Gary Fisher himself.

Saturday’s am ride was for the Subaru VIP, Headed out with Travis, Gary Fisher and a small group of riders. It was a little cold and cool in the early am and we hit the demo course. I wish they would’ve ran the race over that section, it was a blast with the swoopy downhills and shorter climbs. It was a nice short ride, and it was cool to chat and thank Mr. Fisher for supporting us and putting out kick-ass bikes.

Gary Rockin the Cape on the Group Ride

After the ride, I skipped over to the Vholdr tent and snagged a camera to pre-ride the course again and get some shots. It took 2 attempts, I actually washed out on a high speed corner and smashed up the camera. They were real cool about it, hooked me up with another one and I headed out for another go. I’ve yet to fully process the video and edit it. Hopefully will get to it this afternoon and post it.

While I guess it usually rains at Sea Otter, but this year it will be known for its high winds. Several Tents were taken down, and it was a brutal sandstorm in the expo area.

RaceDay:
Conditions were a little chillier, but the sun was shining. The course starts out on the race track, and has quite a bit of open road before the first section of singletrack. This kept the mad dash for the holeshot down, but meant the pace was super high as they tried to split the group on the climbs. I managed to just sit comfortably in the middle of the group and grab on for the ride. I hit the first long singletrack climb and dropped anchor. The legs weren’t willing. Someone forgot to tell me I was racing and putting in 2-3 hours a day ripping the trails isn’t the best thing for race day form. Oh well, I was having fun.

I pulled a few spots back on the sandy descents and across the top of the course, but suffered in the wind and the long open climb back to the start. I started to feel a little bit better, then I heard a little rattle on the bike. I thought maybe I broke a spoke, but ended up the chainring bolts had worked loose. Thus the middle and chainrings weren’t really usable. I sat up and did what I could, rode into the feedzone looking for another set of tools, as I needed 2 allens to fix the rings. No one had anything, I spent about 15-20 minutes trying to figure out what to do. I managed to get one bolt tight and decided I would just take off and ride the course and have some fun.

I took it down a notch on the climbs, but kept ripping up the singletrack, I had to handle the chainrings tenderly. Throwing down power caused the chain to jump off and I bashed my knee a few times on the bar. I managed to finish, 58 of 59 finishers. But, it’s all good; I got to ride my bike in California and that’s all that matters to me