Sea Otter 2012 Pro XC

[Jim Hewett]

So this year the Pro XC race at Sea Otter dispensed with the 5-7 lap format.  Instead, we did one 20 mile lap.  With the amount of fireroad, I knew it would be fast.  The record high temps forecasted for Saturday made me thankful that I would be out there less than one and a half hours.

I've never really had a great race at Sea Otter.  This year I was coming off of a lot of local wins and in a decent peak period.  I took it easy for a couple of days prior and went down on Friday with my wife Lauren and our 3 year old son, Simon.  It was very sunny and hot on Friday and I opted to not race the short track.  Instead, I was able to cheer for Simon at his first race ever.  He towered over the other three year old racers, and his training wheel-less 16" bike gave him quite the edge over their scoot bikes.  The race lasted all of 30 seconds, but everyone had fun and got medals.  He actually returned the following day and raced with the 5 year olds, which was a little more fair.

I tried to stay out of the sun and prerode the course a little late in the evening.  It was SO much nicer out there at 6:30pm than at 1:00pm.  I returned to the hotel and hit the hot tub before turning in.

It was cool on Saturday morning, but quickly began to heat up in the sun.  By 12:00, we were all cooking at the start line.  I drank a lot before the start and took a GU Roctane gel 45 minutes before and 5 minutes before.  I planned to carry one big water bottle with cold GU Brew and maybe suplement that with a bottle handup half-way through the course.

There were 89 Pro racers at the start.  Most of the fast national pros, a few world cup racers, and almost all of the local NorCal guys:  Tony Smith, Will Curtis, Max Houtzager, Garret Gibson, Clint Claasen, Kevin Smallman, Michael Hosey, Menso de Jong, and more.  I said HI to Chuck Jenkins, who had beaten me in two of the three events at The Keyesville Classic and won the All Mountain there.

My Highball was getting more dialed.  I had installed a World Cup SID XX 29" fork and Bontrager 29.1 tires (2.00"), which I had inflated to 26psi front and rear.  I was running a 26/39 chainring combo and 11-32 rear nine speed cassette.  The bike weighed 19lbs 5oz and was definitely not going to be an excuse for a bad result.

The gun went off and it was the usual deadly MTB peleton around the track.  I probably entered the bottleneck before the first fireroad climbing in the back half of the field.  We climbed for a bit, still on the gas, and I looked down to see a super high heart rate.  My max is 180, but in this heat I was seeing 183 more than I wanted to.  Alas, there was no time to take it easy and reel people in later.

We started the long fireroad descent and everyone moved to the smooth line on the left.  There was a lot of dust, which made it hard to see, but I just took the rutted lines on the right and passed quite a few riders.  It was here that my bottle bounced out of the cage - a potentially fatal problem in this heat.  Of course, I was going 25+ mph and there was no way I was going to stop and go back for it.  Immediately I longed for a drink and started looking forward to the feed zone at the halfway point.

We hit the very steep climb and some racers that had gone out too hard dismounted.  I stayed on the bike and passed more people here, then back to some rolling fireroad before the singletrack began.  I went into the singletrack behind Garret Gibson, and we were both behind another racer that was letting a gap open to the racers ahead of him.  This is where you lose contact with the people ahead, and on such a short race it is not easy to make it up.  Some distance was closed once we began climbing again.  We hit the ridge and things were starting to stretch out a little.  More singletrack descending and climbing, and I found myself flying down some rutted waterbar singletrack behind Zach Valdez.  This was a section I had not pre-ridden and I was following his line when he went down in front of me.  I tried to avoid running over his bike and crashed pretty hard.  I got up quickly and realized right away that damage had been done.  As I pedalled on, I shifted into an easier gear and almost sent the derailleur into the spokes.  My hanger had been bent in the fall and I surmised that I could only use gears 4-8.  Luckily I had two rings in the front and I could continue, but I found myself pushing a harder gear than I would have liked on many occasions.  Oh, well.

My mouth was getting pretty dry from all of the heavy breathing, and I envied the riders around me drinking from their bottles.  Brian Butler, a NorCal racer that was spectating, gave me a half full bottle on a climb, which helped a lot.  I drank a little and downed another Roctane.  It's all a bit of a blur, but I remember seeing Anastasio Flores and Menso.  Chuck Jenkins was just behind me for awhile in some singletrack.  About 45 minutes in we got to the feed zone and Tony's dad Paul handed me a bottle before we started climbing in the singletrack again.  I fell off a bit here, pushing a hard gear and occasionally having shifting issues.  Tim Allen and a couple others caught and passed me and I clawed my way back to them.  More unfamiliar singletrack led to the fireroad climbs out.  I was definitely suffering, but I still had something left.  I bridged up to Tim Allen and rode his wheel a bit before coming around to take my turn.  We caught a Kona rider and passed him, and I attacked pretty hard on the climbs.  I really had to dig deep, but knowing how close we were to the end helped.  I caught Clint Claasen and broke away from him on the final climb.  I tried to keep it safe but fast on the last singletrack descent and I hit the pavement downhill with good separation between the guy in front of me and Clint behind me.  I put my head down, dropped into the hardest gear my bike could manage with the bent hanger, and gave it everything I had.  I rolled across the line in 1:24:07 and 37th place.

My best result and race at Sea Otter so far!

[Carl Sanders]

Nice effort Jim -- way to keep the pressure on despite bike and hydration issues!

[Adam Nuyens]

Old report, but news to me. good account...I felt like I was out there with you. good racing, Jim!