Sea Otter - The Race

So our race start was scheduled at 7:30. Monterey is 45-50 minutes from Santa Cruz, and Ashleigh's parents live 15-20 minutes from there. Which means we woke up at 4:30 to get there and set up on time. I started out driving and made it about 25 minutes before I started zonking. Thanks Dan for driving the rest of the way.

The race started a little late due to the Gran Fondo that took off right before us. That was good because it gave me more time to warm up on my favorite section of racetrack in the world, the backside of the Laguna Seca Speedway.

The race started out on the speedway just before turn 5, and was run in reverse. I'm sure it was quite the sight watching 65 single speeders spin up to 22 mph on the track. Luckily I took Racer's advice and was running a monster 34x18 gear, which was perfect for most the race but I sure was angry at Racer on the steep climbs. It paid off though and I was able to make some good moves.

I got on to the dirt in third and was maintaining a 5-10 second gap on 2nd until we hit these turns with sand traps - deep sections of sand right behind blind corners. I eased up, reminding myself that one place wasn't worth missing the rest of the year for. He got up to a minute ahead of me, but I was able to pull him in on the last climb - a 4 mile long fire-road along a ridge with beautiful green views all around. I caught him at the peak of the last climb. After that it was a short descent, a bridge crossing across the racetrack, and 1.5 mile of uncut trail in the middle of the raceway. This section I'm sure was put on the course just to frustrate single speeders, all of us whom couldn't hold enough momentum due to the bumpy grass. Pushing a bike in front of hundreds of people .5 miles from the finish sure makes you feel good.

So, I ended up 2nd, which was great. Dan won his race with a time about 5 minutes faster than mine, but he had gears. Wimp.

They had a podium girl and she asked if she could give me a kiss when she handed me my medal. I said no way. They were doing awards for all the mtb classes plus a road race which meant 10-12 classes, 5 places deep. Would you want a kiss from someone who had kissed at least 50 faces in the last 10 minutes. Well, Dan sure did. I've never seen a grin so big as when he got his podium kiss.

So that was that. A few hours at the expo, where we saw all the cool new bike toys, and a relaxing afternoon at home. And an awesome dinner by Ash's parents.

Oh, and the 13 hour drive home was pretty sweet too.