Sea Otter Classic - mountain bike stage race,  Monterey C.A.  USA Thursday 21st March 2002 - Fatboy Criterium, Cannery Row. The Sea Otter Classic started this year with a downtown criterium, on mountain bikes with slick tyres.  This used the same circuit as the road races used later in the day. After racing at Redlands last week on road bikes it was good to be back on our mountain bikes. The funny thing was my first race on my new Giant XTC full-suspension bike was on tarmac! I had my Marzocchi' Marathon forks locked out and skinny slicks fitted - the race was fast, but it was good to be competitive with the other mtber. At Redlands Rowland Green was going for the win, here back on his mountain bike he was brought back down to mortal level. A group of five riders managed to escape the pack, with only one big team represented (Volvo-Cannondale) with Kashi Luchs. It was allowed to dangle out front. Everyone was expecting the group to be pulled in by Trek and Gary Fisher teams as the race got nearer the finish. This did not  happen... the five stayed clear and the bunch split as the final pressure was applied with four laps to go. This "pressure" can be seen on my pulse trace.   Tomorrow is a mountain bike off-road timetrail at Luguna Seca recreation area, the same place they  have the great SuperBike racing, except we are in the hill and free of tarmac. To the top of page

 

Friday 22nd March 2002 - Off-road timetrial, Luguna Seca. It was an early start today with both the women's and men's mtb timetrail at Luguna Seca this morning. The course comprised of a short climb followed by a long singletrack descent before dragging back up still on singletrack. The last part of the climb was steep, then you crested the hill, dropped a little before climbing up the side of the "corkscrew".  Then over a couple of bmx style jumps just prior to crossing the finishline. It was a typical cross-country lap length, about 20 minutes. In the women's event Caroline Alexander won the women's event by two seconds from the current World Champion Alison Dunlap. If there had not been time bonuses in the criterium yesterday she would now be leading. Results don't seem to be a priority here as the list I have seen is probably incorrect. I believe Bart Brentjens won, all the Brits did reasonable times with most of us on the first page of results. After racing the timetrial we rode one lap of Sunday's cross-country stage (when we do two). It will take about one hour to race around but today it was more like one and a half.  There are many races/events going on over the Sea Otter Classic festival. The cross-country course follows the same route as the fun ride. It is good seeing "FUN RIDE" next to "XC COURSE"!   mtb timetrail result (23/03/02) 1st Bart Brentjens Giant 17:51   2nd Rowland Green Trek   @ 0:11 3rd Seamus McGrarth Haro   @ 0:14 11th Liam Killeen Gary Fisher   @ 0:52 15th Oli Beckingsale GB   @ 1:11 22nd Tim Morley GB   @ 1:22 24th Barrie Clarke GB   @ 1:26 27th Jody Crawford GB   @ 1:29 38th Phil Dixon GB   @ 1:40 47th Tinker Juarez Volvo-Cannondale   @ 1:54 50th Marc Gullickson Mongoose   @ 2:01

To the top of page Saturday 23rd March 2002 - Off-road dirt criterium, Luguna Seca. Today might have been short (about 18 minutes) but it was flat out from the gun. Actually the race started before the gun was fired, it was a race to the startline. Everyone was waiting for the top riders to be called forward, once the leaders are called it is a charge to fill the rest of the line. With such a short event, seven laps around a short mtb circuit gridding was crucial, somehow Tim Morley and I managed to get on the front row! It was the wrong side, the low side of the line, but still the front row. The gun fired and the charge was off. I had an ok start, just off of the top group for the first two laps. Gaps began to open, you could see how different riders attacked the hills. Some rode steady-hard all the way up and others made a big charge on the steep pitch. Down the bmx jumps before starting another lap. With two laps to go I was beginning to feel  it. A couple passed my on the steep pitch, but I re-passed one of them as they were lying on the ground after the tabletop jump. I think I scraped a top 20. In the women's event Caroline set most of the pace, reducing the group to 6 at the end. She crossed the line in 4th, as she was passed on the charge for the line.

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Sunday 24th March 2002 - The big one - 36 miles, 2 lap cross-country, Luguna Seca. This is the event that mattered. This is the type of event that all the training is for, a real cross-country stage that was 36 miles long over two laps. The total time would be the normal 2:15 to 2:30 hours. With two big laps it made it a bit more special. At the end of each lap we did almost a complete lap of the Raceway before heading out again for the country. So what happened.... I had an okay start in the top 20 as we reached the singletrack. We used the same descent as the start of the timetrial once we hit the first climb two groups in front of me had already formed. I could see Rowland Green, Bart Brentjens, Filip Meirhaeghe and Ryder Hesjedal amongst a couple of others in the front group. The second group had two Giant riders, Rune Hoydahl, Christophe Dupouey, along with three or four others. My group had Todd Wells, Andreas Hestler, Liam Killeen and I. We were chasing all of the first lap. We actually caught the back of the second group on a steep dismount climb, but they seemed to disappear as soon as they appear. After all the singletrack there was a long firetrack climb back up to the Raceway road circuit. This was probably 2 miles long and it kicked up towards the end. On the circuit of the tarmac we were caught by a group with Phil Dixon, Christophe Sauser, and three or four others. After the climb that was used on the timetrial the group thinned to Liam, Phil, Sauser, a couple of others and I. This further thinned when we reach the next climb and with a quarter of a lap to go there was just Liam, Sauser and I. I just managed to hold on up the firetrack climb and hit the long ride around the raceway to the finish. They had not managed to shack me off so I sprinted, finishing 11th. I was pleased, I had had a good race. In the women's race Caroline won the XC stage and ended up finishing 2nd overall. Infact she had the shortest time overall but there were time bonuses on the two other stages that Caroline did not win. Sue Thomas did a good ride too to finish 8th. Follow this link to some good pictures of us Brits racing at Sea Otter by Paul Robinson Results: SEA OTTER CLASSIC, Monterey, CA March 21-24 Mountain-Bike Stage Race Cross Country Men 1. Roland Green (Can), Trek-Volkswagen, 36 miles, at 2:12:20 2. Bart Brentjens (Nl), Giant, at 0:46 3. Filip Meirhaeghe (B), Specialized, at 2:12 4. Ryder Hesjedal (Can), Subaru-Gary Fisher, at 2:13 5. Geoff Kabush (Can), Kona, at 3:26 6. Paul Rowney (Aus), Yeti-Pear Izumi, at 3:26 7. Rune Hoydahl (N), Giant, at 3:49 8. Mathieu Toulouse (Can), Gears, at 4:26 9. Chris Sheppard (Can), Haro-Lee Dungarees, at 4:27 10. Christophe Dupouey (F), Giant, at 4:27 11. Barrie Clarke (GB), British National, at 5:31 12. Christophe Sauser (Sui), Volvo-Cannondale, at 5:32 13. Liam Killeen (GB), Subaru-Gary Fisher, at 5:33 14. Adrian Bonilla (CR), Café de Costa Rica-Pizza Hut, at 5:47 15. Phil Dixon (GB), British National, at 6:31   Final Overall Standings 1. Green, 3:32:32 2. Brentjens, at 0:38 3. Hesjedal, at 2:18 4. Meirhaeghe, at 3:17 5. Hoydahl, at 5:06 6. Kabush, at 5:15 7. Toulouse, at 6:03 8. Sheppard, at 6:08 9. Adrian Bonilla (CR), Café de Costa Rica-Pizza Hut, at 7:05 10. Liam Killeen (GB), Subaru-Gary Fisher, at 7:36 11. Christophe Dupouey (F), Giant 12. Barrie Clarke (GB), British National full mens XC results Women 1. Caroline Alexander (GB), British National, 36 miles in 2:37:34 2. Alison Dunlap, Luna Chix, at 0:02 3. Barbara Blatter (Swi), Specialized, 0:16 4. Alison Sydor (Can), Trek-Volkswagen, at 5:38 5. Chrissy Redden (Can), Subaru-Gary Fisher, s.t. 6. Jimena Florit (Arg), RLX-Polo Sport, at 5:39 7. Susan Haywood, Trek-Volkswagen, at 7:45 8. Sue Thomas (GB) British National, at 9:21 9. Mary Grigson (Aus), Subaru-Gary Fisher, at 10:12 9. Mary McConneloug, Jamba Juice, s.t. Final Overall Standings 1. Dunlap, 4:02:30 2. Alexander, at 0:29 3. Blatter, at 1:05 4. Sydor, at 6:01 5. Redden, at 6:07 6. Florit, at 6:31 7. Haywood, at 9:29 8. Grigson, at 12:05 9. Thomas, at 12:26 10. Lanie Mason, Cane Creek, at 13:06 (written 24/03/02)

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