Sea Otter
Sea Otter was this past weekend and in typical fashion the weather was a factor. I arrived Thur. night and the word was that it was cold and windy for that first day or practice I missed, so I was not too bummed at missing it.
Friday morning DH practice was good. No windy, warm, and dry. The course was pretty rough from the prior years mud fest which has been baking for a year.
Saturday morning was DS practice, qualifiying, and racing. All was good until qualifiying started and that was when the storm decided to pound down. I was one of the first 10 to go off and I had a pretty good run. The storm got so bad that they stopped the qualifiying and delayed it for an hour.
Second try at qualifiying and it started again, but this time not as bad, so they finished the field of qualifiying by making everyone do just one run. I had a pretty good run with the exception of on little problem with my chain getting stuck in between my last cog and my frame, causing me to coast the last 50 or so feet to the finish line. I ended up 2nd in qualifiying, but think I would have been first if that had not happened.
I made it through my first two rounds pretty easy, and then in my quarter final I was up against my teammate Bryn. He was riding good and on the first run towards the bottom when I was trying to open up a bit of a gap pedaling, my problem happened again and Bryn got a .5 second lead on me.
Next run against Bryn I felt great and had a good one going with a slight lead and then for a third time I had the same mechanical which earased any chance of advancing to the next round. 5th was my final result for the day in DS. Not what I was hoping for. Mick Hanah went on to take the win.
DH was Sunday and the course was perfect after the rain on Sat. I did 3 runs in the morning and the traction was awsome. By the time we actually raced it had completely dried out, as if it had never rained, making the course very fast, but not quit as good as it was in the morning. My run was pretty good, only a couple of small mistakes. The biggest mistake I made was not pedaling hard enough. I thought it would have been way more tiring, but at the finish line I was still fresh and barely breathing. I think I ended up 11th or 12th with Rennie taking the win. Well, lesson learned... got to pedal harder next time. Who knows, maybe my fitness is better than I thought right now. That's what the Sea Otter is for... gauging your fitness!
So, the courses were good this year, both the dh and ds. Would like to see more jumps on the DS and a better start gate for the DS also. At least some chicken wire down on the start pad so EVERY person is not doing a burn out on the start. Spectators were WAY down for the DS. I am sure part of it had to do with the weather. There is just so much going on at this event there is no way you can check it all out. A bit of an overload if you ask me. Raod races, mtb races of every discipline, bmx races, free ride shows, dirt jump comps, skills clinics, kids races, etc. Great place to hold an event though. Too bad we couldn't do this race in May or June?
Posted by Brian on April 16, 2007 12:21 PM