Sea Otter Classic

[Wilson Perry]

The Sea Otter Classic is four fun amazing days of just bikes. Before the festival I did a fun ride in Santa Cruz with my friend who flew down from Utah for the event. On the ride the dirt was good and the trials where perfect which set the tone for a great weekend. We rented a condo in Marina this year which was lovely because we had space for all of our bikes. We went with 6 other people so there where a lot of bikes, but we had plenty of space to keep them in. Checking out the festival was really fun, having so many booths with so many products, it’s awesome to nerd out on bike stuff. Also watching professional and really elite level mountain biking was really exciting and entertaining. Watching a fellow teammate, Jim Hewett, race in the Pro XC was especially wild and fun to watch.

On Saturday, I raced Downhill Cat 2 and I got one pre-ride in of the course the day of the event. The downhill course is a basically just a fun, fast, rowdy jump line. My race kit was a denim jacket with the sleeves cut off along with some jeans that were cut mid way down my thighs. The fresh kit got a lot of attention which was fun, and it was surprisingly comfortable (Levis factory race team 2018?). Whenever I pull up to the start line my nerves always kicks in and I get butterflies in my stomach, but I’ve come to love that feeling...sitting in the start tent, 3.. 2...1..GO! It was a full on sprint for the next couple of minutes. Coming by the main jump line I couldn’t even hear the hecklers I was just focused on riding my bike. All I heard was my dad yell “GO WILSON” which was pretty cool. My race run felt really good and clean, until my chain fell off on the last jump line. This was a bummer because this also happened last year in the downhill race. Overall, I don’t think the chain falling off affected my run a lot because I still cleared all the jumps, I just couldn’t sprint to the finished. I ended up finishing 15th in Cat 2 15-16 men, and I was fairly happy with that result. After the race, I walked around the venue in all my denim glory-getting a lot of funny looks and comments on my tan lines. After the festival we went to an Italian restaurant for a carbo load for my race on Sunday.

Stress is one word I could use to describe my race morning. Racing at 7:30am was new for me because most of my races start in the afternoon and I had to adjust my pre-race routine. I woke up at about 5:55am, got dressed in my race kit, and ate as much oatmeal as I could fit in my face. I put my bike on the truck, lubed my chain, and was ready to go. Rounding up 6 people that early was tough, and so we ended up running later then we probably should have. It was 6:50am and we were half hour away from the venue. We parked as close as we could to the start. I grabbed all my crap on and rushed to get to the start line hoping that I’d get there in time. When I got to the start they said they’re launching the Cat 1 15-16 and 17-18 in 5 minutes which was a surprise because I thought I was just starting with my age group 15-16 so it was going to be a huge start group. We were launching in 5 minutes so I got in a 30 second sprint and that was my “warm up.” I got in the start group was was about 3 lines off the start so a got a decent spot at the lineup. When the start went off it was a full-on sprint. Luckily there we no pile ups which was good considering a group that large. I was in the middle of the pack that was and an arrow form with Dillon Fryer, who would end up winning for the 17-18 boys in the front. As I was getting on the dusty fire road, the pack started to thin out, then we dropped back down into a road that had a low layer a fog hanging over it. Going along that road we could see some carnage and riders standing on the side of the road who had crashed. The group was quiet and with the low fog it felt eerie passing the fallen bikers and with the silence of the group. As I was getting onto the single track, I was leading a group of about 10. We slowly started dropping people and by the time we got off the single track there now were 5 in the group. Back on the fire road, I dropped back to the rear of the pack because it was flat and I figured I could use a draft on this 30 mile course. That ended up to be a really good choice because we caught up to one kid who took  needed to hit a medical tent which made all the other riders ahead of me follow him and turn off course. There was only one rider behind me who took the correct turn. The rest of the kids who I rode with, I never saw again, except for one kid from SoCal Endurance, but he came back much later in the race. I came up to some riders from Reno Devo who where in the 17-18s so we worked together on the fire roads drafting and in a little pack line of three. We were working together for awhile until we got to this gnarly sandy uphill where we all had to get off our bikes and run. I just about died there and lost them. Then, at the top of that uphill there was a long sandy downhill. The two riders in front of me got ahead, and I was behind a single speed. It was really hard and a dangerous spot to pass, so I stuck behind him for a bit. After a passed him, I was by myself. It’s hard to keep the pace up when you’re all alone. Fortunately, I caught up to other groups and kept making my way up. I got back in a group of three with a Reno Devo, and SoCal endurance kid. We were all together until the final fire road climb. Me and the SoCal endurance racer left and broke away. About a mile after that, the kid from SoCal attacked, and I couldn’t match him, and he pulled ahead. We then got onto one of my high school race courses but in reverse. I was alone for that section and all the way to the finish, still sprinted into the finish because it’s always fun to sprint. After the race, I talked to my friend Sebastian Dow, a Bear Development racer, and other racing friends about how we did and felt about the race. It seemed like everyone had a good clean race and had a fun time. After my race I went to the festival, walked around, and checked out booths. Then we drove home, and that was the close to one of my favorite weekends of the year, The Sea Otter Classic.