Sea Otter Classic 2018

[Dave Benjamin]

  The 2018 Sea Otter would be my 7th in a row, having first raced when my son, Carson, was a Freshman in high school.  It would also be my third race on the current course which covers about 28 miles and over 3500 feet of elevation gain.   Two years ago was maybe my best Cat 1 Sea Otter, coming in 5th in the 50-54 race with time of 2:11.  Last year was pretty much the opposite result.  A lack of training and a short warm up led me to a 2:19 time and 15th out of 17 riders.  This year I felt more fit, but had not done any specific training, so I was a little nervous to see how things shook out. I have aged up to 55-59 this year, so maybe....

  This is my first season riding a full suspension bike and I love it!  It is a Trek Superfly SL, a mashup of Carson's old rear triangle, a warranty replaced front triangle, new Fox suspension and a Shimano drive train.  Shiloh at Acme Bikes did an amazing job setting up all the random parts for me.    I ran a Bontrager XR3 2.2 in front with an XR1 2.2 in back. 

  Determined to get in a good warm up, I arrived at the venue at 6:45 and was riding by 7:00.  After watching the 15-18 Juniors blast off at 7:30, I continued my warm up with fellow Redwood parent/coach and Thirsty Bear rider Duane Coughlan. After watching teammates Mark Ingwersen start his 45-49 race and Greg Alsterlind, along with Duane start the 50-54 race, it was show time.  I took my customary position at the back of the 22 man field and did a quick scan of the competition.  I could see Marc Kirburg and Mike Warren a couple rows up.  Both are super strong dudes that I've been racing with for at least five years now.  The plan was to stay with Mike up the first climb and see how it went once we hit the pavement at the bottom of the first descent.  The race track start is nice as it shakes out everyone into a long pace line.  We took our half lap around the race track and broke off to the dirt at the bottom of the Cork Screw.  Once on the first dirt climb, it was on!  About 2/3 the field jumped ahead, with Mike gapping me by 20 yards before the long descent.  I got to the bottom of the hill, onto the first paved section and had no one to hang with in front and didn't see anyone behind for at least 20 yards.  I thought, here we go again, but I managed to catch up to one rider leading up the winding single track.  We kind of worked together for a couple miles after I convinced him we could actually go faster together.  He was skeptical, but we did catch another rider and that made him a believer.  The race was pretty clean for me, even doing a pretty good run down the "sand waterfall".  I kept pushing the pace on the single track, as I seemed to catch or gap riders.  After coming out to the long fire road climb back toward the venue at about mile 23, my legs started feeling pretty tired and I realized this is where my lack of long endurance training may have shown.  As the pitch increased, I started going backwards, as three riders from my group passed me before the descent on Hurl Hill.  The last climb out was complete survival mode, spinning the easiest gear possible to keep the wheels turning.  Luckily no one else caught up and I finished with a time of 2:15:24, good for 12th place.  I was hoping to beat my 2:11 time from two years ago, but was happy to improve on last year's time.  

Great job by all the Acme riders!