Day 1 – The Drive & Setup
Well it was quite the drive. We packed up Al’s RV and headed onto the highway at 7.30am to arrive in Laguna Seca near Monterrey and the location of the Sea Otter Classic a bit after 2. After spending a considerable about of time we managed to shoe-horn the 29 foot RV onto the small amount of flat space our campsite provided. There was room for the 3 tents to be setup on the grass down the slope a little so it was all good.
We headed down to the registration area to pick up our number plates for all the respective races we were doing. I could glimpse over the fences and see the vast number of stalls and shows from all the vendors but restrained the urge to look. Instead I went and setup my new Crossmax wheels with No Tubes with both a UST and non UST tire using Al’s air compressor and guidance. It was to be my first experience running tubeless tires.
Al, I and Katrina headed out to ride the Super D course. I kinda wanted to do the race but restrained myself due to the high entry fee for a 6 minute race. It was fun though. Smooth and fast with big drifting fire road corners. There was also a huge flock of sheep around too. The area looked and smelt like the foothills of Canterbury. We also hit up some of the single-track near the campsite.
Day 2 – Vendors and Pre-Ride
After a super cold night in the tent, it got close to freezing I spent the morning and early afternoon hanging out in the Vendor area. It was massive with heaps and heaps of bling to look at and buy of course. Heaps of wicked people to talk too and chew the phat with. Bikes galore and all ‘us’ bikers were in heaven. I spent a good half hour hanging out with Kieran Bennett and his new X-Fusion Team. He’s a real cool guy and he spotted me with my Kiwi cap and VORB Shirt when I was ogling his new Intense Tracer rig. Pretty dam sweet ride and that proves how the DH course really is not a full on course when the top guys are running smaller bikes like Kieran. I also had some custom Lizard Skin Peaty Grips engraved with my own name and in anodized red to match the rest of my bike. Pretty mean.
That afternoon Al and I headed out to pre-ride the XC course. It is a 19 mile loop (30.5km) with 3300ft (1000m) of climbing and we had to race 2 laps on Sunday morning. Al was doing the Pro Single Speed and I was doing the Cat 1 category, the same as all my other races. As it turned out we were out there not long after the beginner race began. So for the next 2 hrs we were chilling behind slower people before we had the chance to break loose and ‘shred some gnar’ for a few breif moments. Right at the start of this lap though I was ripping down a hill, one that Al did 45mph (75kph) on in the race (I had no speedo) and hit the ‘G’ out at the bottom. I got bucked right at the same time I thought my new rear wheel had blown itself to smithereens. I was not happy. Anyway after almost eating the dirt at some stupid speed I managed to not crash and be laughed at by all the beginners that were were flying past. Turns out with 35psi in the rear tire I managed to roll it off the rim and ‘burp’ air out of it. Anyhow we were back on the track after a couple of mins thanks to CO2 canisters and 40psi back there now.
I had heard bad things about the course. Let me tell you I was impressed. Heaps of Singletrack and then fun double track and not that much fire road. Super sandy bits, blown out corners, steep techy climbs, fast fast patches, wicked flowy single-track through trees and a series of 3 fire-road climbs right at the end (called the 3 b@tches) before you finished the race on the raceway itself at the start finish line.
That night we headed into Monterrey to have a great dinner at “The Brew Pub” before we went to the North American Premier of Clay Porters new film called “The Tipping Point”. It was good but more of a documentary. We spotted Sam Hill, Minnar, and The Atherton’s all in the audience. Gee introduced the film.
Day 3 – Chillin and Dual Slalom
Today after riding a good distance the day before I wanted to let the legs recuperate so I spent much of the day at the vendors in the hot, hot sun. They had a whole demo area setup with pump track, jumps Etc. So I tried out an Intense Tracer and a GT Sanction. Pretty fun times but I nearly stacked it big time in front of all the little pinners since the brakes were all on back to front North American Style. Had some good gelatos and looked at more and more bike bling.
That evening I watched the Dual Slalom finals. It was great fun. Lots of action all the time with 2 riders coming down the hillside at a time trying to beat the other to the bottom via jumps, berms, pedaling sections and some mean as cornering speed. Sam Hill in the end won it pretty easily beating out Gee in the Semis. Rando was out there cranking his Trance X and was very competitive. Pretty cool to see for a 40yr old. Seeing these guys hit the tight corners so fast is awesome. Sam Hill really has upped his game with pedaling this year but he really can corner in a different league like always.
That night I had an early night. It was warm as hell and the sleeping bag was too hot in the tent this time, a huge change from the first night thats for sure.
Day 4 – Race Day
Well it was finally here. After watching thousands of others, some world class racing in their own disciplines from DH to XC to Dual Slalom to the road races and crits my race was here. I started at 8.15am and lined up on the Laguna Seca start/finish line with about 40-50 other guys in the Cat 1(expert) class in my 25-29yr old age group. We spent the first mile tearing around the raceway before hitting the dirt. The pace was pretty intense and the top guys on the first big hill started to get away. They were still just insight not too much ahead of me for the first 20 mins however. I settled into my work and got stuck behind someone in the first tight single-track section. I saw two people had crashed already as we went by. It was loose and tight in there with many blind corners and blown out outside lips of the track with numerous trees to get in your way.
Anyhow I settled into my work and felt pretty good actually. One of the first downhills was this sandy double track thing. It seriously was like surfing. Keep off the front brake and use your legs and weight to steer via the back wheel. People were falling off all over the show. It was all good fun apart from all the sand flying over the already dry drive chain. At the halfway mark of the lap they had a water/cytomax stop. I was handed a bottle of water and continued onwards getting a gel down. It was getting real hot now and I was as always sweating like a tap. More climbing and a small chat to a Pro SS suffering on the steep grades I was really having a good time. There was a cool ridge section with small pinch climbs over red rock and fast little decents. Some big smiles along here till a half mile pavement climb which was steep though I felt pretty strong and was pretty sure I would start catching people.
A short decent and onto the 3 b%tches. They were not too long but kinda steep and demoralizing as its all open and you can see what’s coming. A guy in my Cat caught me and we started to chat. Turns out he was one of the guys that crashed at the start, it also turns out he won it last year. Ha. So the fact I hung with him right till the top of the last b$tch meant I felt pretty good. He also said when I asked that there was another water stop at the start/finish line (start of the 2nd lap). Hearing this and the fact it was roasting I finished my liquids. Well this was a mistake though in the end it would not have made any difference.
After ripping down the speedway I knew from a distance there was no water here. I was not too happy bout this. So I was now running dry for the next 10 miles and it was getting real hot. Well into the 80s (28c+). Anyway after 5 miles I could feel the muscles saying that if I push too hard then they would cramp. Finally got to the midway point. I grabbed a bottle of water and cytomax and slammed them into the cages. I then got a gel down and to my horror when I was already round the corner and up a hill I noticed that the bottle of water was half full. How pointless is that? Giving racers a half full bottle. Well the damage was done. I had stopped sweating all together and for me that’s a big deal. The next 10 miles to the end got harder and harder. I pushed on the downs and cruised on the ups and dreamt about water, well actually Fresh-Up.
Finally passed over the finish line in 3hrs 2 mins. A total distance of 61km with 2000m of climbing and good for 12th out of 31 finishes and a bunch of DNFs. It was a great course and I wish that I had worked out the liquid situation better as I was only 5 mins down on 7th. I was well down on the top few people though. Like the other races so far they would do very well in the Pro Class. My goal was top 10 so I was not too far off and hope that I can pull a top 5 at one of the smaller races. My laps times were about 1hr 24min and then it blew out to 1hr 38 mins which shows how I died towards the end.
All up a great long weekend. A great event and any bikers of any type should check out Sea Otter oneday given the chance.
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