RR: Sea Otter Classic 2009

Catching this thread a little late. I raced Cat 3 Cyldes. First time I've ever raced with such a big field of Clydes (41 of us). Some strong looking riders out there. Tall and thin. I lined up right at the front and took off pretty fast at the beginning leading the pack through the first couple of turns on the lagun seca race course. That was pretty cool. Was wishing I was in a race car when the course turned up hill and about 15 guys swamped me. Everyone was pretty pumped at the beginning. Probably my fault for taking off so fast. It was like a road race with everyone drafting. Once we got on the dirt and everyone started to settle down I started catching some of the riders. Coming down that first long fire road I almost ate it bad on the bump at the bottom. Don't know how but I saved it. Would not have been pretty as I was probably doing 35 mph at that point.

Kept hammering. Cleared all the climbs the whole race and road everything in middle on my 29'er. Started catching a lot of riders. Keep in mind there were 500 riders on the course in front. So I was catching all the slow ones. Passing 4-5 riders at a time on the single track climbs. It was fun. Only fell once in some loose sand but got up really fast and kept going. At the on the long fire road climb legs started to cramp a bit so back off. Man, that last climb is a long one. Just keeps going and going. Not hard, just long.

Anyways, I was pretty excited to come in 3rd place out of 41 with a time of 1:49:13 having never ridden the course before. I think I was more cautious then I needed to be with all the sand warnings. A few bad spots but the best was great. All in all a fun day.