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