Sea Otter Classic

The Sea Otter Classic went off in fine fashion this year. We arrived on Thursday and set up camp near the DH course. This was to be the first year of camping at the Otter in my 4 years of attendance...It was not as rough as I expected. Thanks to Wes' Sports Chalet employment, we had ourselves a pretty legit tent and stove which took the edge off the rugged wilderness.

After a particularly rough drive by our standards; which consisted of leaving Orange county at about midnight, taking an unexpected detour off the 5 to the 91 to the 405 back to the 5, finding Tyrone Thomas' credit card, nearly running out of gas because Wes insisted on finding the cheapest petro possible and Hank urinating on the streets of Inglewood. After all of that, we finally arrived at the carnival that was Sea Otter 2007.

Upon arriving at 5:30 am we proceeded to the "camping check-in" which to our surprise was open and kickin'! After being identified as "The No Friends guy" at the check in by some stranger that swore I was from Portland we went up to the 'ground to scope a spot. Hank was keen on a spot that contained no flat ground whatsoever. So I, being the voice of reason, decided on a spot that had a bit better geography for our brown colored North Face tent.

Practice came and went. I was surprised I made it through unscathed in spite of the lack of sleep and my lack of skills. The course was the same as previous years with only a small section after the hip jump/road that was new. This eliminated some pedaling but not very much. There was also a small new section after the big table top near

the top of the course that shot up over a small log and into a 7 foot long rock garden. One thing that was very noticeable, especially for the first couple of days of practice was the ruts left in the dirt from the previous years "mud bog" of a course. All the big boys were out and practicing. Standouts included Rennie, Peat, Kovarick, Hill and the always stylish Cedric Gracia.

Friday's practice went off same as Thursday, with the course becoming more tame and worn in. We got our new team jerseys which I think are quite fresh. Also got the chance to walk around the pits and check out all the new bling. I got to visit and meet many people which is always good. Caught up with G to the Z (Sean Mclendon) and we did some rounds in the pits. Griz had just been hooked up by Troy Lee designs and SRAM so we were walkin' around the pits with plenty of swag which got people's attention. We decided to go up to the Spank's trailer (Griz's dad) to work on our bikes and to get rad with all the fresh gear.

Hung out with Bradical (Oien) at his super factory ODI-Southridge pit. I'm totally stoked that Brad has been given this great sponsorship, I'm sure we will be seeing him dancing on the box at many races this year and ultimately see him compete for the title of JR world champion at Fort William later this year. To the right is a photo of Kyle Adams being followed closely by Brad, both on the ODI-Southridge team.

Saturday. "Well, it just would not be Sea Otter if there was not any rain now would it?" I have heard that phrase so many times in the last 4 days that it makes me sick. Out of nowhere it decides to rain on Saturday, I mean RAIN. I woke up on Sat morning to the sound of rain hitting the walls of the tent, I thought forsure the tent would be destroyed by mid-day but I was wrong. The damn thing held up to the hurricane that pounded it all day, I think it was the brown color that did it.

By the looks of all the rain I thought the course would be absolutely destroyed. Hank, Wes and I went on a night hike on the DH course to assess the damage. With a propane lantern and muscle milk in hand we poached the course on foot. To our surprise the course seemed un-changed from the previous days even though it had rained a bunch that day. We walked back to camp and prepared for the next day.

The weather Sunday proved to be much better than the day before. We (Hank and I)readied ourselves for the race. Two practice runs then it was back to the top to check our seed times.

Hank had a seed time of just under 20 minutes while I went off at a lazy 41 minutes after the first pro. The field was HUGE and jam-packed with all of the world's best riders. The time came for my run and "lucky" for me, Ross Milan was behind me. Ross is a super strong racer who would no doubt be fast on this course...I would do my best not to get passed by him. I wished him good luck, he did the same and I lined myself up on the box. The start lady gave me the speech: "six beeps, leave on the sixth beep." The sixth beep went off and I propelled myself out of the start box. Immediately, I felt the weight of the hundreds of eyes looking at me hurl myself down the hill. First corner, dialed, onto the rhythm section. Smooth, over the step up to the berm, pinned. While in the berm I heard a loud "VIAVA LA MEXICO!!" I knew it was bradical. Over the small rollers, unclip. I was nearing the big table extremely fast and panicked, I smashed the table and could not get clipped in. I could hear people in the crowd yelling "come on ALF", I finally got clipped in right before the log jump. Over the rock garden and up the short sprint on the way to the S-turns, nice. Out of the S-turns and an eruption of noise was heard as I hit the step down and tucked the windy speed section to the uphill. Down the steeps and crossed the road. At this point I was almost completely spent, which is not good. Tried my best to pedal the whole second half of the course but it proved futile. Crossed the finish line with a time of 2:30 which at the end of the day would be almost 15 seconds slower than Rennie.

2007 Sea Otter is in the books, now it is time for the real racing to begin...Well, with the exception of Fontana!!

*all photos on this page by MerrrJig except for the small one taken from the ODI booth. www.MtbphotO.com