Sea Otter Pro XC Race

[Jim Hewett]

I started the weekend with the short track race on Friday.  Around 70 guys racing on a course that takes under 2 minutes per lap is a recipe for failure if you are not in the front 20.  Of course, there was the usual pileup in the first turn and then the single file conga line until you get pulled.  I lasted 5 of the 20+ laps.  The postitive thing was that I achieved a very high average heartrate - 170 bpm for 10 minutes.  I have not been able to achieve this in training or racing for weeks, so I was encouraged about my chances for Saturday's XC race.

My son Simon experienced his first Sea Otter and we hung out most of the day Friday.  He watched the jumpers, ate ice cream, and spent a lot of time in all four bouncy houses.  It was a lot of fun, but I did not get to preride the XC course and maybe spent too much time in the sun.  Even when the temps are cool at Sea Otter, there is not much shade!

I chose to stay inside as much as possible Saturday morning, and ended up doing a lap of the course while the women were still racing.  No big surprises, other than they had removed the only sorta technical part of last year's course.  They had already done away with the 2 laps of the long course for Pro racers.  Starting last year, we began racing a more "olympic" style course that involves more, smaller laps closer to the infield.  This format creates a more spectator friendly Pro race, but obviously lacks the epic feel of the 40 mile course the Cat 1 racers "enjoy".  Due to the UCI categorization of the race, the organizers have moved even further toward the UCI enforced Olympic ideal;  now the course is under 4 miles per lap and we do 8 laps.   At least 1/4 of the course was pavement, with a little dirt climbing, a little fireroad climbing, and a very small stretch of sandy, rolling, downhill singletrack.  Obviously fastrolling tires and roady-style drafting tactics were in order.

I got a pretty good callup, I think about 50th out of 112, and we were off.  Everyone wants to get to the singletrack first and avoid the bottleneck, but nobody really wants to be in front.  The pace of the leaders slowed after the intitial show of power for the spectators at the start line and everyone packed into a wide peleton of mountain bikers.  I avoided one crash, then barely missed another.  I had to get off of the bike at a backup where a sharp, chicane-like turn took us onto the short track course in reverse.  I felt pretty good about my position (40s?) and the group I was riding with.   I had already come up with a rough plan - go as hard as I dared for the first 5 laps to avoid getting pulled for falling behind the leaders more than 20%, and then see how I felt.  My strengths were on the climbs, but there were stretches of flatter terrain with a decent headwind.  It would be key to ride with a group on the pavement and the flat fireroad sections.  My tactics would be suck a wheel around the pavement, gain a spot or two on the short track course and subsequent dirt climbs, try to be with someone on the fast fireroad over to the fireroad climb where I might gain another spot or two, then sit in on the flat fireroad over to the high-speed singletrack descent, trying to turn it on a little to gain a position or two before descending.  Then it was back to the pavement and do it again.

For the first lap I felt pretty strong.  I went back and forth with a few guys, but for the most part I gained positions.  Same with the second lap and the third.  I took a couple of turns in the wind on the pavement, but tried to ride a little more conservatively.  My heartrate was up where I wanted it to be and my lap times were good (around 13.5 minutes).  On the fourth and fifth laps, I started to fall  little behind and found myself playing catchup on the pavement.  Though I never came out of the big ring for the entire race, I had one instance of chainsuck that twisted my front derailer and bent the cage.  After that, I had chainrub in all gears.  This proved annoying, but not mechanically disastrous.  I learned after the race that if I had shifted into the smaller ring at any time it would not have made the shift back up.

I slowly fell off of the group I was with on the sixth lap and I was scooped up by some chasers.  I rode with them, but eventually found myself on the back of this group as well.  I started the eighth and last lap by myself, pretty much out of the hunt, but at least I knew I would not be pulled.  I think I rode that last lap in over 15.5 minutes, having lost my spunk and also the urgency of riding with a group.  I didn't see anyone behind me, and thought I must have been the last rider to not be pulled.  After looking at the results, I think there were a few more behind me to make the final lap cut.  I never totally cracked, but I had slowed in the last few laps by a minute a lap or so.  I sprinted over the finish line, relieved to be done and happy enough with my performance.

I learned later that I finished 58th.  My finish time was 1 hr and 55 minutes, 15 minutes behind the winner.  Not a breakout race, but maybe my best Sea Otter yet?  I actually had a good time and felt powerful for much of the race.  It helped to have a lot of people cheering for me on the course!  I averaged around 16 mph, with an average heartrate in the high 160s.

Maybe time for a little break, and an assessment of my later season goals.  Maybe I'll actually be fit for Downieville this year?