Sea Otter Classic '09

Wow, what a weekend! Sea Otter always seems to go by in a blur. Last year we arrived in the early afternoon on Thursday, did some DH runs, did a XC pre-ride, and prepped for a full day Friday. I felt like I didn't see anything, hang out with anyone, and it was just a busy non-stop whirlwind!

This year wasn't much different! We took off Thursday around 10 to head north so we'd be there Friday morning in time for the Pro rider meeting at noon. This was my first ever UCI race, so I didn't want to miss any info.

Fuel for the drive



I packed a LOT



SKINS!



Herbie



On the way up we stopped at Rock N Road Cyclery in Anaheim Hills to pick up a few last minute items. I wound up getting a hat and socks in addition to a tire, chain, and some other random parts for the weekend. We wound up running into Chuck and after a long pit stop of ours he caught up and remained our caravan buddy for the day!







We got to the venue just in time on Thursday to pick up our registration packets and have dinner with DenMother, Roger, Mark, Chuck, and a few others at the Black Bear Diner? I had a good steak!

Friday we slept in a tad, got to the venue around 9:30 or so, and took our time seeing the sights. Well, I somehow missed the new Specialized 29ers all weekend, but other than that we saw a lot!

We stopped by Specy early on so they could take a look at my suspension and make sure it was race ready!



Hit up Crankbrothers - they had their killer new wheelsets on display and a ton of racers rolling around on them all weekend! - Ergon - with some new grips and all the packs - Nema - lifestyle wear, bike shorts and jerseys, gloves, socks - SRAM - they had some BLINGing new colored parts out; stoked to see the red! I also highly enjoyed hanging out at the Clif Bar booth trying out their samples of new flavors (the white chocolate macadamia? is KILLER) and snacking on Builder Bars (those and Luna bars are my go-to easy food right now) and also stopped by Simbree for some amazing granola and energy bites! If you haven't checked this stuff out, definitely hit up the site. Organic, and it is sooo good you probably won't even save it for snacking on the bike! The Cocoa Almond Cherry granola is awesome in vanilla yogurt!









After we cruised around a bunch we hit up the Pro meeting. Not many people showed up! I know a lot weren't in town yet, and many others were working vendor booths. Found out a bit about the feed/tech zones and the anti-doping control info (totally new to me!) and it was over pretty quickly. Time to for lunch after that!

I had planned to do some course recon around lunchtime, but someone said beginners were going off at 1pm. Then I heard 2pm. I didn't want to get in the way of anyone's race, so we wound up holding off on riding until almost 5. :eek:

Lunch (it was the same all weekend!)



Eventually after cruising around the venue for another few hours we hit up the course with Christina (ex-DH champ and also raced XC!). She was keeping up with me no problem on a much heavier bike ;) Was fun to follow her lines down the hills!







She's back at it racing XC this year and doing really well! Despite our late pre-ride she still finished 2nd the next morning!!

Eventually it was dinner time! We stayed in Monterey last year also, but never made it past the hotel. This year was my first time seeing the water up here!





Sight-seeing



I had fully "moved in" to the hotel...



We didn't eat home cooked dinners, but everything else I had covered!

The micro-fridge was awesome!



Traci racing downhill!! Braaap!



Julia on her way to her first ever Sea Otter Classic podium!



Sweet SRAM parts



The new Intense 9-5-1 DH bike complete with the Crankbrothers DH wheels! Pimp!



I almost want to race DH again!

It was already almost lunch time after we cruised the venue for a bit, so it was SNACK time before our openers

I was in such a hurry to down this delish dish I didn't get a shot of it mixed up.



Self-portrait



Justin working an interval



Justin spent the afternoon prepping the bikes while I chilled in the shade... then he took me back to the hotel to prep bottles and bags and he headed back to the venue to drop off about 3 loads of gear at the Sho-Air RV for the next morning.

Eventually (way later than I'd hoped!) we got out to a nice dinner on the Wharf at Cafe Fina. Great service and food. I got my salmon and rice, and we shared a spectacular dessert!

We got to bed kind of late for our 5 am wake-up call, but no worries!

Sunday started early; we got to the venue at daybreak and just before 7 headed in to see if Sam was up yet at the RV. He wasn't out and about, so Justin cruised around and I sat and enjoyed the calm morning.




Justin got his warm-up on and we headed over to his start around 8 am. It was HOT already.



On the line



I sat back down for awhile after he took off, and eventually headed out on Laguna Seca's race course to do his lap 2 feed. I cheered on the SSers and fast kids, and then came Justin solidly in the top 5 of his field! He was looking strong, but I knew he had missed a feed mid-lap. I handed him what I had left of my small bottle, and gave him his normal feed bottle, and then it was off to sit in the A/C some more!

Sam was really cool answering my thousand inane questions about racing, and Colt from Cycling Dirt showed up for a bit to do some interviews with the guys and update his site. Check it out for all kinds of race coverage!

It started to get a bit more hectic as the pro start was coming up in just about 2.5 hours. Scott announced that the race was changing a bit - men would do 1.5 laps, and women just 1. I was actually pretty stoked on that! It was hot out!

Eventually I went over to the start/finish to try to see Justin come in. Trevor and James were both done, and he had been in front of them at the feed zone. Hmm. He came in about a minute later and did not look good. He had cramped really bad on course after he lost his only bottle about 15 mintues in to lap 1.

He couldn't really spin, so we went back to the RV where he laid in the shade and tried to massage out the cramps. Being the awesome supporter he is, he still managed to get changed out of his race clothes, get in some food and got right to work on my bike and a few others and helping get about 25 bottles packed up for the far feed zone. I tried to sit down out of the way as the rest of the Sho-Air/Specialized team arrived, and then it was time for Justin and John to head out to the feed zone.

The guys all got suited up, and I followed "suit". Most went out to warm-up on the tarmac, but I used my trainer in the shade. HR was HIGH for warm-up, but I stuck to it and headed to the start/finish just as the pro men took off.

After a short spin call-ups were happening. Thanks a TON to Trish for the umbrella! It was nice to have a little bit of shade at the start. Some of the women on the front line had cold bottles of water they were dumping in their shoes and down their backs, and that definitely looked like it was a good idea! I didn't have any extra, so pretended my feet weren't on fire! It was scorching hot on the line.

We took off in a blur and I felt pretty good on the road course. I was holding decent position onto the dirt, and pretty sure I was still top 10 on the first singletrack descent. I started having some GI problems and I think I was really over-heated, so started to go backwards. Tried to hold what pace I could and eventually forced myself to drink and take in some gel. Next time in the heat - water only! Had problems getting the Cytomax down.

My skin and brain were on fire for the early part of the lap. The singletrack was brutal. No air what-so-ever other than the hot baking oven feeling. The descents didn't offer any relief.

I picked up some water in the feedzone, and eventually felt like I was coming back to life.

Catherine Vipond of Norco Factory and Kathy Sherwin from Kenda/Tomac passed me and I decided I was NOT going to lose them. Kathy and I fell off from Catherine a bit eventually, and on the pavement climb I went around Kathy feeling pretty good. I rode the following descent like it was a downhill race and hammered it out from there. I started feeling pretty good on the fire road climb out, but man was it windy! Just tried to hold a good pace. I was reeling in riders, but had no idea who they were up ahead.

Once I turned off on the last singletrack I decided to just grin and enjoy it! This was my first Pro Sea Otter race, first UCI race, and the largest field I'd EVER raced in! I had no idea where I was at placing-wise, but I knew it had to be top-20. I was stoked to just be feeling better and able to put in some efforts again. At the final turn before the tarmac finish I saw it was Catherine in front of me. She saw me also and hammered up the short climb, and I was in pursuit. She turned onto the pavement ahead of me, and I cranked as hard as I could for most of the descent. Ran out of legs, gears, and room and backed off a tad when I saw no one was directly behind me.

All in all, was really happy with the race. I was able to learn a few things and generally had a good time. It was brutal out there, and after seeing Krista taken away in an ambulance I was happy to just be alive and able to stand up. Seriously scary.

I did a short spin with Catherine and Catharine Pendrel, and eventually it was time to grab my recovery drink.

I brain-farted and didn't think to call Justin, who was still down at the far feed zone for Max, Manny, and Sid. He and John didn't know Sam had had a mechanical and had to call it a day.

Got back to the hotel finally around 6pm and had a beer!



Team dinner in downtown Monterey Sunday night was a blast and great food to boot (more salmon and rice!). Specialized showed up a bit after us, so we were "hanging" with World Champ Sauser, Conrad Stolz, T Wells, and the rest of the gang! Super cool.

Monday morning we headed back into town and while we couldn't find breakfast on the Wharf, got some decent grub near downtown before heading down "THE" 1.















Overall - great weekend. We saw some cool stuff, got to hang out with some great people, picked up some good Simbree, and generally had fun. I couldn't have done it without Justin's support. He made sure my bike was working flawlessly, totally clean and ready to go, and that I was well-taken care of. Not only that, but in addition to dealing with me and helping me out, doing the feeds for some of the Pro men, and carting around gear for 2 days, he also raced TWO full laps on the course Sunday morning! No rest for the wicked. He makes it all possible.

Economy stimulation and sweetness squared

Post-race.

I consider myself super lucky that last year in the parking lot of the Keyesville Classic Justin went over and introduced himself to the couple that had a 26" Niner FS bike and a Titus on their roof rack. He single-handedly talked Heidi and her cannons into racing the All-Mountain category, as we all were (Steph, Dan, Justin, and me). Michael raced also.

Michael is an amazing photographer. He has taken photographs of a lot of great athlete's, and in a lot of killer locations. Check out his website to see his work:

Michael Darter

Michael seriously knows how to set up a shot; from trail side pics on a social ride to standing at the finish line of a race, this guy has it going on. He was gracious enough to send over a few pics from Sagebrush that he took. I was speechless. So. Sweet.




We owed big-time on taxes this year, but we still went out and purchased a few non-essential items yesterday: adult-sized coffee pot, and I got some new shoes.

I have shoes for years. Honestly. My shoes don't wear out. I buy shoes a few times a year, but they last forever. My fave tennies are old Adidas shoes that I've probably had since just after college. I think I had them before I moved to Murrieta. They are really dirty and no amount of bleach and soap will clean them, and they're pretty broken down. I have a newer pair of tennies that are shockingly white, and I'm always afraid to wear them to the trail/races cause they'll get super dirty!

So, it was time for some new shoes anyway...



I realized this morning they perfectly matched one of my Twin Six shirts. I'm wearing the winning combo today



Digging the shoes. They're comfy and shouldn't get too dirty this weekend ;)

Here's my new coffee pot



It was on sale! We were leery about paying full price (it was really expensive and no coffee grinder), but it was the only one we found after stopping at two stores that had the built in coffee filter and didn't seem like it would fall apart after one use (some of them were really poorly constructed). I wanted to have the 1-4 cup brew setting since we usually only have 4 cups in the morning. I brewed up 8 today and it was GONE. Justin had two cups while breakfast was overflowing on the stove and I gave him about a cup for the road. Made it a bit too strong, though! Oops!

Weekend Wrap-Up

Wound up being a somewhat interesting weekend. Emails went back and forth throughout Friday as we tried to figure out a ride plan for higher elevations with somewhat inclement weather in store.

The forecast actually called for clearing and a tad warmer on Saturday, despite rain on Friday. A few of us agreed we'd head up to Idyllwild on Saturday morning to do some course recon for a race coming up in a few weeks. We got about 1/4 of the way up the hill and the cars with a few inches to have a foot of snow on their roofs started heading down. We should've turned around (Robert did!). We kept going. I was begging the drizzle at least to stop. The truck was screaming its ICE warning as we got to Mountain Center, and down at Hurkey the ground was damp, and while it wasn't remotely warm out, the temps weren't too bad.

The four of us (Luke, Eric, Justin and I) stood around and tried to formulate a plan. We were all dedicated to the ride, so we figured we'd head out and see what conditions were like.



Nothing too bad climbing up the course, but once we got over to Keen Camp climb it was drizzling again a bit, and the water hitting my face descending through the meadow was frigid. I kept changing my mind about continuing on or turning down Exfoliator. We continued up May Valley. The climb wasn't too bad. The dirt sucked our tires in, and made it feel slow. We got up to the singletrack turn-off and there was snow on the ground. It was raining, so temps weren't below freezing, but it definitely wasn't warm.



We started descending and I soon realized I couldn't continue without putting on my jacket. I was already soaked and muddy, and couldn't see through my glasses. I got moving again and my hands were so cold I had to stop to change out my gloves from the Cyclone's to the Sub-Zero's. Fingers were still freezing, but they weren't getting too much worse.

The boys were stopped waiting and Justin said we were heading down the trail. Off we went. We were all cold.

Luke decided to continue up the climb and finish out the course while Eric, Justin and I took off down Coyote Run and got back to the parking lot stat.

I felt better once I got into some dry clothes. Wasn't really the type of ride I'd been looking for. Too short and too much slow riding for it to be useful for my weekend ride, and too many efforts put in early on trying to stay warm and keep the boys visible that it wasn't easy enough for my easy day. D'oh!

I spent the afternoon cleaning up for a friendly get together planned for Sunday, and Justin and Luke headed down to the spring party at Beyond for burgers, brats, beer, and some warranty stuff. They got in a fast ride in the evening before heading back up north.

Sunday Justin and I slept in, I made a huge pot of oats, and we took our time getting suited up for a run at Daley. The lot was pretty empty (for a Sunday) when we showed up, but lots of trail runners out!

I was happy to NOT need multiple layers



My new shades! Stoked I finally was able to USE them!





We got in some efforts on the climbs, rested on the descents, and generally had a nice ride.



Stopped off at the store on the way home to pick up provisions and then it was food time.



Charressa's bomb salad (I was the only one that ate some!)



Half of dinner



Other than Justin, I was the only one that finished my burger and had corn! And sweet potatoes, and salad.

I can put away the food, let me tell you. Of course, I didn't feel so good for many hours post-binge, but hey…sometimes you gotta eat yourself sick.

Good weekend overall. Just missed not watching Paris-Roubaix. Hopefully we'll get to watch a bit of it this week.

XXC Mag

Jason just released Issue One of XXC Mag online!





Check it out! It looks pretty awesome.

Photo Shoot - flying new colors

Yesterday I was supposed to hit the dirt for an easy spin. It was pretty easy, but I did a lot of stopping and starting and going back and stopping again. Justin was nice enough to play photographer instead of getting in a ride of his own.











Sorry to disappoint, Matt... the Wiens and Lucca kits probably won't be my go-to training gear every other day :)

Take… "2"?

After the massive effort last Sunday at Fontana I took Monday off (as usual - it's my "errand" day) and decided since it was mid-cycle to do a bit longer of a ride on Tuesday, but with less intense efforts. I felt KILLER out on the bike. I hadn't had a training day like that in a long time. Wasn't pushing hard at all, but just really enjoying pedaling. Unfortunately Justin did not feel so great. We wound up a tad shy of 2 hours, with some easy efforts.

I was going to take Wednesday as it came, just get out on the bike at lunch and see how I felt... Well, I put in an effort and didn't feel horrible; did a 3min effort and then backed off a tad. So, I kept it going with efforts and recoveries the entire way. Solid hour! Still feeling pretty good.

Thursday we planned on heading out to our local easy mountain bike loop. I was planning on taking it easy, but Justin was out for redemption after a week of feeling the race efforts, the crash recovery, and tons of poison oak. He and Luke sped off, and I spun slowly behind, far far out of sight. It was pretty cold.



I took a right where I thought the boys may have gone, but I wasn't sure. Wasn't up for a steep climb, so I just stood around listening to the silence to see if I could hear them coming the other way…eventually I heard some tire skids and around the bend they came.



I chased Luke and Justin down with Ben from Troupe hot on my wheels. He asked if this was our "slow" pace! I was like, "I'm working like crazy!" I fell way off after that since my legs were feeling it and not happy. No reason to put myself in a hole! I was out for a cruise. Made the boys wait for me a bit, but that's okay. HR was ridiculously low every time I stopped pedaling uphill.

Friday was a short regen spin in the morning. Good thing, too, cause right after work it was off for a family/friend dinner and we didn't get home until almost 10. Spent the next 2 hours or so packing up for our first race weekend away from home! I had been up just after 5 on Friday morning, so by midnight I was a zombie. It's a wonder I didn't forget anything imperative.

Saturday we slept in til about 7 and I got to work making us some delish oatmeal. We got on the road shortly after, and before 11 were down at the venue for Sagebrush Safari.



We met up with Steph and Dan, and it had been a LONG time. We did a ride with them around New Year's, but they had been our prime riding buddies last year, and it was a much needed reunion!





We hung out on the flats chilling, but once I hit a higher HR I decided to just go for some sweet spot riding up the hill. The course was marked, so I just kept following the pavement up and up. I looked back and didn't see anyone for awhile.



Justin was putting in the chase

Mt. Pinos in the distance. We gotta climb up THAT??



The group catching up



Techy



Look fast - unsuccessful



Hike-a-bike!



I'm just glad that I spent so much time hiking LAST weekend that my calves and shins were fully ready for the task! :)

I was fully enjoying the course. The descents were SO fun! I wasn't sure how it would play out on race day, but I was having a blast on the pre-ride.

I hit the hills again once we got down off the fire road and put in another easy effort back up to Four Corners.

I knew I wouldn't like this on race day!



I set off up Pinos in a solo attempt and got in some hard efforts on the steeper sections. I was thoroughly enjoying the climb and the views were spectactular. Got up to the top and took a short break to eat what little calories I had (definitely under packed on liquid and food!)



Shortly after the pack rolled up!



We rode with a few other guys, and finally met Adam from the Gary Fisher 29er crew! We chatted a bit on the way back up to Four Corners (again?!) about Joy's adventures in Costa Rica!

Once back together we made a run down the final singletrack. It was nice and sandy and dusty! Still a blast.

We hammered out the pavement and made it back to the venue in time for some lunch on the rocks before heading to the in-law's for dinner and bed.

I didn't feel like I was really recovering as well as I could've been (tons of walking and standing, and hydrating), but we had a killer dinner of grilled salmon and ahi, salad, and brown rice. It was SO good. There was hardly anything left over! We all destroyed the food.

I sat with my feet elevated for a bit, and off to bed we went.

I'd crashed UPHILL on Saturday, so my somewhat "twisted" ankle bugged me all night, and my legs definitely felt the efforts from the previous day on Sunday morning. I made some extra oatmeal goodies, we packed up and headed south for the race site. It was packed already and we got there before 8:30!

I tried to stay out of the wind and seated, but did a bit of walking around. Everyone was pretty spread out, but chatted with a few people and hung out in the truck to keep dust-free and warm.

We got suited up pretty early and cruised around a little, and headed out for a warm-up. We made it about halfway up to Four Corners and Justin needed to do some adjustments, and my legs just weren't feeling like any further efforts were going to help.

Got everything suited up and off we headed to the line!

The Pro men took off in a cloud of dust, and we took off shortly after.

I had no idea what to expect when we hit the tarmac. I thought maybe the group would stay in a nice peloton so we could work together on the flats in the wind. Pua had other ideas! She sped off like a freight train and the rest of us wound up strung out behind her single file. I don't know about anyone else, but it was all I could do to just hang on to Krista's wheel in front of me. I thought I'd be blown by the time we hit the ascent. Pua attacked off the front as soon as the road turned up, and I went around a few people and was sitting in 2nd. Pua had already made a gap too big to close. There were men in front of me, and people behind, but no one going a similar speed, so I climbed into the wind up to Four Corners solo. I had a small gap on Amanda, Kathy, Natasha, and Zephanie, but they weren't letting the gap grow at all! I hoped to make up some time on the singletrack, but when I hit the slickrock climb they were right there!

I continued to put in efforts on the super fun descent that followed, and generally forgot I was racing I was having so much fun. A train of men rolled through, but I had no chance of hanging on! They were smoking. I don't think I touched the brakes on the fire road descent, but shortly after we hit a false flat and the hike a bike loomed in front of me. I saw Pua picking her way through the men's field ahead, so I knew the women behind me would see me also! Continued moving at all times and putting in efforts where I could.

I got to the top and solo'd that. Once I got to the turn to go downhill I was faced with a massive headwind! Going downhill is not usually so slow and laborious! Put in a lot of time solo, and eventually down on the false flat looked back and saw a big group of guys coming my way. I had no hopes of latching on to the first few, but tried to draft wherever I could!

The climb up to Four Corners was fairly painful. Lots of wind and no relief. I grabbed a fresh bottle (though my initial one was less than half empty!) from Business Darter who is a highly coveted pit man and definitely stands atop the pit guy podium at every event he is at! Not only did he hand me my bottle mid-climb, but he also was snapping shots whilest mid-hand off. That takes skill!

I wasn't much looking forward to climbing up to Mt. Pinos, but made the best of it. I looked back on the big switchback and saw a LOT of riders. I saw a few red jerseys in there as well and knew the Pro women were chasing me down! Pua was out of sight! I put in a few efforts thinking the top was much closer than it actually was, and suffered all the way to the top! It was sweet relief with we turned on to the fire road descent. I was hoping to recover a bit in order to have some energy for the last ascent up to Four Corners.

There was a LOT more traffic this time around with the other categories out on their shorter loop. Lots of traffic on the final descent, but I had a good time just trying to hang on.

I spent the final flat back to the finish line begging my legs to hold on to 2nd place. I hit the dirt and heard "just one more mile!" I hoped he was kidding, but when I saw the motorhomes in the distance I knew I had a LONG way to go!

Pushed it the entire way and was stoked to finish 2nd behind Pua! 3-6 came in not too much later! It was all really close! The Pro women definitely pushed my limits a ton this past weekend, and I was ecstatic to place where I did.

I was a bit out sorts after crossing the line, so half spun around in a daze, waiting for Justin. I cheered on a few people, wandered around, and Sarah was awesome for letting me know Justin was fine, but he'd stopped to help out an injured rider.

We took our time getting dressed and stayed for about 98% of podiums to cheer on Vu and Matt









After that I was done with the wind and the sun and we took off. We snacked on some Clif/Luna bars and then Justin had the brilliant idea to stop at Rita's in El Cajon. What! I was full already!

We split a burrito anyway (3rd meal since the finish!)



The ride home



No post-race beers or candy for me this time!

Killer weekend overall. No complaints. Sho-Air is putting on a killer race series for us here in CA and I can't wait to head up to Sea Otter in a few weeks!

It's not May, but I've got about a "month" of mayhem coming up pretty soon! 3 race weekends in a row. I decided already I'm taking the day after Idyllwild off! Course, I will have to do some cheering for the Super D!

Until next time...