Sea Otter Classic

Last weekend was the Sea Otter Classic, a 4-day cycling festival in California. I raced this 7 years ago (yikes) back when we lived in Bako- we had just moved from Michigan and I had never ridden a real hill. I had no clue what I was in for...but I still managed to finish 20th out of 40. I've been wanting to do this race again for years but never got around to it.

Eric and I arrived in San Fran on Thursday night and spent all of Friday at the event. We checked out the vendor booths and tried to win some free stuff (with only marginal success). I had to get in a ride so I thought I'd check out the course. Well, after asking literally 20 people I still couldn't figure out where it started so I just rode the bike demo trail instead. The terrain was completely different than what we have in Seattle- it was all hardpack and sand. Where's the mud? And the roots? What's with the hot sun and all this dust? After the ride my confidence plummeted...I was not really prepared for these conditions. Ugh. Later that evening we attended a bike industry VIP dinner (oooohh) and went to bed relatively early. .

On Saturday we woke up to clouds and cool temps. Yea! A lot of the racers were complaining but this was the kind of weather I'm used to. I put in quick warmup and then we headed over to the start line. A lot of the girls had their winter gear on- someone was even wearing a fleece balaclava! I peeled off 3 layers and stood freezing in my shorts, knowing I'd warm up as soon as I started riding. The race began with an unceremonious "Go!" from the MC and we took off down the racetrack. I stayed near the front and drafted off a couple girls until we hit the fire roads, then tried to pass as many as possible to avoid a bottleneck at the singletrack. Looking back I was in the top five the nearly the whole race, but didn't know it since I've never seen these girls before and didn't recognize their jerseys. I was in 3rd but then I skidded out on a loose corner and was passed by a couple girls who were right behind me. I regained my balance but they had already pressed ahead and put a few of the slower men in between us. Several times during the race I got stuck behind slow guys and yelled at them to let me pass. This is hard to do when you're already out of breath! It was very frustrating.

The last three miles were brutal partly due to the strong crosswinds but mostly due to the elevation gain. At the top I could see the racetrack and knew I was almost finished. Thank GOD. But wait, out of nowhere comes this girl who flies past me like I'm standing still. Damn! I tried to catch her but I had absolutely nothing left. After 19 miles and over 2000' in elevation gain I rolled across the finish line in 6th (out of 24). I'm pretty pleased with my finish, but also bummed because I was only one spot away from podium. There's always next year!

After the race we headed to the coast for some mcuh-needed sun and beautiful scenery.




More photos can be found here!