Sea Otter is a great event. Its one of the biggest bike show/races in the country. About 60,000 peole were out there enjoying the festivals in Monterey. I had a chnace to go to it his year for my first time. What a great time I had there. Lots of vendors giving away free stuff and watching the various races were awesome. The XC course itself is one of the fastest course I have ever done. Its mostly singletrack that goes 18 miles around the Laguna Seca Raceway. There are some fireroads in this course but it was barely noticable. The course went by as if it were a blur. We arrived in Salinas to our hotel to rest from the 5 hour drive up. Also figuring in the 4 hours spent at Cal Poly SLO checking out the open house. The bikes were unloaded and we started to unpack our bags to get ourselves situtated. We rested for the latter part of friday. Then came saturday where we would go to the event. We were only about a 30 min drive away so staying in Salinas wasnt bad. As soon as we got to the event, the sight was awe inspiring. Nestled in the valley of the Fort Ord area was the biggest cycling gathering I have witnessed. There were tents from the vendors and hundreds of people enjoying the festivals. Today we would check out the vendors and pre ride the 18 mile course. The shots below are from the pre-ride Starting the Sea Otter Course Enjoying the ST and Scenery The group way ahead of us The infamous "hurl hill" climb Brother heading downhill, Salinas in the background The long grind home Now sunday rolled in and it was time for the race. My class, Jr Beg 17-18 didnt start until 10:00 am. So I had a chance to see the sport riders take off and also chill. It was a cold morning too. There were clouds and also the winds were blowing. A cold way to start the race. Warming up Enjoying my time before the start Moving up to the start line And we're off So I had a great time on the course. There were lots of people there and most of them seem to be liking it. Of course one we got the long grind home it was different. My legs began to cramp up on the long climb. I was glad for the water that I had left and that got rid of it very quickly. The last mile of the race was done on the race track so that lead to very fast sprinting. I managed to pull 9th place out of the 28 riders out there. A time of 1.47.50 A great race/event and im hoping to do it again next year!
