The Otter that Lives By the Sea

Sea Otter Classic, the ultimate kick off to the cycling season (at least from an industry standpoint). The Mazda raceway, located just inland on Monterey, California has been the host for more years than I have been alive. The stomping grounds would be the desert brush terrain surrounding the racetrack and extending into the large cannons. It was an exciting time for me as I have heard about the ‘Sea Otter’ for years but never been able to go. It is massive. The expo is huge. There are races of all disciplines going off ever hour. Everyone who is anyone in the cycling industry is there – including the Norco Factory Team.

Downtown Monterey

I arrived with the intentions of racing hard and giving people a run for their money. However, the fatigue that Redlands had installed within me had other plans. The short track would prove ok, but no where near what I was hoping for, on the other hand, the cross country race wouldn't go nearly as well as I had planned. This race is a different one, that's for sure. There would only be two laps raced – two very large laps with very minimalist terrain. The most technical thing would be the fast gravel double track. It was wild…

The short track would be simple: hit hard from the start, don't let up. I got a reasonable start, but still had spots to make up. The course was interesting with more than half of it on pavement and the rest of it loose sand/gravel. There were some good tactical areas with some tight turns and elbows out. There was a fair amount of pushing and shoving in the beginning of the race, which I found extremely amusing. As the end became nearer I attacked the group I was with but was unable to get clear. Finishing up 19^th, well, it’ll take more than that to ruin my day at Sea Otter. Although, I was sad I didn't really get to test out my new RS1 Rock Shock since it remained locked out for the majority of the race.

Driving Along the Coast

The cross country event, I don't even want to really talk about it. There isn’t much to touch on; we climbed single track, descended double track or road and raced for over 2 hours. Legs weren’t really there, I wasn't super pleased with my result but I had fun on my new bike. I will mention that I enjoyed my medium (650B) Stans wheels. Wait?! Gasp?! Peter Disera is riding 650B? But maybe, just maybe, he’s riding both! Gasp! More to come on this exciting development.

All in all Sea Otter was a blast. It was exciting to go around and talk to some of the sponsors face to face. Thanks to Kenda and Stans NoTubes for being such supporters and including their athletes in their development process. It was cool to be a part of such an incredible experience.

Ok, but enough with business, now lets play. There was a Norco Factory Team photo shoot scheduled for early Monday morning after Sea Otter. The idea was to get some cool riding photos on bikes that are neat during the sunrise. Unfortunately (or fortunately?) the fog rolled in and this original idea was scrapped for a better idea. We made our way up to Los Gatos, just north of Santa Cruz, where MTBR was having their post Sea Otter industry ride. Norco joined in on this and we had an incredible time and I didn't think I could get any better until…we reached the brand new “Flow” trail. This is a rad trail. After talking to some of the volunteers at the post ride tailgate party I learned that the 10+ minute, berm, jump, manicured downhill took just about a year to build and over 6000 man hours. It is a piece of art. The berms are perfect, the rollers and jumps just right. You can ride it as fast as you like, or at a comfortable pace, it is fun either way. Incredible and hats off to all the volunteers and trailsmiths that made it happen!

BERMS

MTBR Crew

Redlands Classic

Redlands Classic would be my second race with H&R Block Pro Cycling. The five-day stage race would push this team of 7 to their limits. Most of the crew had been broken in at San Dimas a week and a half before. However, for Bailey this would be his first test. The weather was looking good, the legs were turning well, it was going to be a good hard week.

For myself the week started off stressfully. I got sick on Saturday and only had until Wednesday to get better before the racing began. I got out for a little ride on Tuesday but besides that I would be starting Redlands cold. It would prove to be a little test racing on antibiotics.

Crit - Stage 4

The first stage would prove to be harder than I thought. The 250m wall took a gnarly bite out of my legs each lap. The rest of the course was fast and exciting. I was sliding backwards near the end until my terrible positioning started to work against me. Without my punch on the climb the rest of the course was spent chasing and closing gaps. On the last lap there was no more holding the wheel, I got popped out the back with a few others. We rolled around and made it up the wall once more to finish. Stage one was complete and H&R Block’s Adam DeVos was sitting top 10 GC.

My First Road Crash - Doing Alright

For the second day we made a little trip up to Big Bear Mountain. Well, it was quite a trip up to 8400 feet. We raced the Individual Time Trial just under 7000 feet on a tight course. The TT would prove to be a challenge for many since it was at altitude. Most of the team was told to take it easy and save our legs for the wild day that would be stage 3. I was thankful for this since day one proved to be more difficult than I had anticipated and I was still trying to get over being sick.

Getting in a good warm up before stage 5

Stage 3 was the going to be a big boy. It was the Oak Glen day. We would ride the 20 km circuit five times before turning up Oak Glen road and finishing with a 9km climb. My job was to help Adam stay near the front before the turn up the climb. The circuit proved to be difficult with a long dragging climb and some nifty descents. I was feeling pretty decent today, but covering moves and trying to make breakaways happen was starting to take its toll on my legs. Coming around on the last lap it was time to shine. The boys of H&R Block moved up to the front showing off their sweat covered Norco Tactics. It was a little drag race up the climb on the circuit the last time. Most teams had trains of some sort lined up to position their top GC contenders. I lasted as long as I could until the pace picked up once more. My legs had had enough and couldn’t turn over. I cracked. I was shot out the back of the group very quickly. I would then join the other dropped riders and cruise to the top. We needed to still ride fast enough to make the time cut. It was a day of pain. I had to urge my legs each pedal stroke to just make it up the climb. Decent day at the office I must say.

Crits are chaos

The day of speed was to come on the fourth day. This was the day of the downtown Redlands crit. I enjoy crits because they are fast, lots of corners and serve mountain bikers pretty well. From the start I knew this was going to be a fast and dangerous one. There were over 150 races starting on a 1-mile circuit and a total of 9 corners. This was going to be an interesting race. There were lots of attacks in the first couple minutes however the pace was so high it didn't seem like anything was going to stick. The pace began to let up just a little bit and I realized the breakaway was going to go soon. I moved to the front, followed some wheels and before I knew it I was in a group of 6 with 10m over the pack. We just made it clear but with the help of the corners we extended that gap and established a lead. It was now time to settle in for the next hour of racing. Out of the group of 6 we had some very strong veterans and some younger guys. I was able to test out everyone with some of the intermediate sprints and cash primes. In total I won $500 in cash primes. However, when it really came down to it, I was lacking in the intermediate sprints. This would prove unfortunate, as those points could’ve boosted my overall standing in the point general classification. With about 7 laps remaining in the race the pack was chasing hard. We were all getting really tired and a small, but deadly, mistake was made. I rounded turn one, having to change my line slightly as the rider in front of me shifted left slightly, this caused my to hit the small reflector on the road. Unexpectedly and very quickly I was on the ground. My front wheel had skipped out and I lost a lot of skin off of my arm and leg. The bike had no significant damage so I jumped up quickly and made my way to the pits for my free lap. Making it there just in time to get back in with the breakaway and I was back in the race with 5 laps to go. The pack was breathing down our necks and it was getting heated. Coming up to the finish it was important to keep the pressure on but also get in the right position and conserve. I made a tactical error and didn't attack into turn 7. I was going to wait until the sprint coming out of turn 9, however, the chicane of turns 7, 8 and 9 proved that a strong rider could lead the whole thing out and still take the win. With this, fatigue and the pain of my road rash, I ended up getting 5^th. The pack finished just behind us. It was unreal that we stayed away. Next up was getting the tarmac brushed out of my arm and then sleeping on my left side only.

Bailey and I get way too into animated discussions

The last stage was going to be insanely hard. In addition I only got about 5 hours of sleep from the road rash waking me up. Getting fresh wrapping from medical at the start I would be hitting it hard from the gun. The stage started and finished with laps of the previous nights’ crit course. The thing was that there were sprint points at the start/finish on the first two laps. With the amount of points I had made from being in the breakaway on stage 4, I could potentially move up to a podium position with these two laps. I had to get going from the gun. We would hit two short crit laps with points on the line and then turn and climb over 10km to the sunset loop. We would do 12 laps of this sunset loop before descending back down to the crit again, finishing off with 5 laps on the crit loop. I missed the first sprint only getting 1 point, however I won the second one and claimed 7 points. This would not be enough to move me up to a podium spot for GC, I would remain in 4^th only three points behind 3^rd. The rest of the race would be painful. My legs were not there. My body was sore and my skin stinging. I lasted 5 of the 12 laps before dropping out and getting a pro-rated time.

Cracked on Stage 5

Overall, I was not super pleased with my performance on the last day, however, considering the situation I am quite pleased with the way I raced. Overcoming my first road crash will be a big one. I am looking forward to the next time I touch the road bike with H&R Block Pro Cycling at Joe Martin Stage Race. It is a good one and I can't wait to rip it up.