Look Ma! I’m racing pro! Sea Otter 4/6/06

STAGE ONE: SUPER CROSS Thursday, April 6, 2006

The Sea Otter Classic is considered one of the top mountain bike stage races in the world, attracting top pro competition from numerous countries. The Super Cross event was the first stage of the four day stage race. It was a five lap/60 minute race on a 5-mile, half-dirt, half-road circuit which started and finished on Laguna Seca raceway. The best part was that I raced with the top pro women mountain bike racers, including Gunn-Rita Dahle-Flesja, 2 time world champion and Olympic gold medalist from Norway.

For my first world class event I wanted to be early to get the lay of the land, find where start lines were going to be, parking, etc. Although I arrived the day before the race to check in and to give myself plenty of time to spare, it was frustrating. Registration was being run like a bank – a lot of people milling about but only one person who was taking customers. It took a half an hour to get to the front to find out that they still did not have number plates ready. Sigh. When I arrived back at the registration booth several hours later the promoters had just finished using a sharpie marker to finish making the numbers. Classy.

As I have mentioned in previous posts, pre-riding a race course is key to creating my race strategy. However, the previous 48 hours of inclement weather made for a muddy, murky, messy and uninviting race course. Still, I needed to understand the terrain. I decided to take a slow lap on the course and came back to the car to finish my warm-up with a mud covered bike. Stephen, my hubby, was not too pleased. He takes very good care of me at races-drives me to races, helps me get my gear together and makes sure that everything is in working order. It was a mad dash to get the bike clean so I could warm-up and get to the start line on time.

Arriving at the start line was a little overwhelming; probably because I could not find a gate to get through the Laguna Seca raceway fence. Finally, I worked my way around to line up with the largest pro mountain bike field I have ever raced in: 69 women. There were a lot of familiar faces from the local California race scene and I felt at home.

At the whistle we were off up the raceway’s pavement climb to the top of the corkscrew. I stayed right in the middle of the pack to get the best drafting action. Although these women are pro mountain bikers, they race on the road like beginners. They do not have very good pack skills and some even wrecked before we hit the first dirt section of the course. Luckily, I made it through unscathed and was in the top half of the group for the first lap.

On the second lap, I found out that my legs were not cooperating. I had pushed it hard through the muddy sections, powering through everything. The course did not allow for any places to rest. The only breaks were on the paved sections and that was if I could find a wheel to draft behind. Needless to say, my legs decided they were in overdrive. I had to pull back a bit and lost a few places.

By the third lap I was able to reacclimatize to the race. I kept pushing myself hard to take bigger risks and more challenging lines through the thick sloppy mud. It paid off. I was able to reclaim a few spots that I had lost on the second lap. I kept hearing the race announcer shouting over the loud speaker how Gunn-Rita was getting faster with each lap. All I kept thinking was that I was not going to get lapped.

For the fourth lap I picked up the pace even more. I knew I had to if I did not want Gunn-Rita to lap me. Her lapping me would mean I was going to get pulled from the race and get a time penalty. I hit the muddy downhill section with force only to get sucked into a rut that I had to work even harder to pedal my way out of to the pavement. (See the picture of my muddy backside.) A couple of the women I was right with until that section were able to pull ahead and create gap. It was time to dig deep into the reserves to get back on their wheels. Once we hit the pavement, I was right with them again. I figured it was a good time to wipe some of the mud off my face, but there was so much mud all over my gloves and sleeves, there was not a clean spot of cloth in sight. Taking a drink out of my water bottle was also out of the question.

I crossed the start/finish line for my fifth lap with a sigh of relief. There was no way I was going to get pulled from the race now. We cruised up the corkscrew for one last jaunt through the mud. It may have been one of my better laps. I was relaxed knowing that I was still in the race and that it was almost over. I muscled through the mud and pushed my way back to the last pavement section to the finish. There were two riders ahead of me, my teammate Chrissy and someone else. I put my head down to try and catch them. With no wheels around me to draft off of, I was on my own, dangling in the wind. I finally made it to the finish-just a few seconds from catching the two ahead of me, finishing in 47th place for the day.

Today I learned that even though mud is not that bad to race in, it sure is hard to clean off. Take a look at the pictures at the finish line. I am surprised that my transponder relayed my time. What is more surprising is that I burned through my brake pads and had to have them replaced. Thank you SRAM neutral support for getting my bike back in working order!