Hi all. I'm following up on Drew's suggestion to add a little more color to his Sea Otter post. First, shocking as it will be to any of you who have actually raced there, the weather was awesome! Almost too awesome -- mid 70's to mid 80-'s feels warm the day after you've driven to the airport in a snow storm!
Michele raced her first expert (now Cat 1) race and podiumed! That's a hard act to follow for this husband. I didn't fare as well, dropping to 6th from my 4th place finish last year, and missing the podium by 20 seconds. It didn't improve my chances when during my pre-ride I washed out on my file tread (Oriflamme) rear tire on a pretty fast descent, causing me to crash, sprain my thumb, pick up some nice ankle-to-hip road rash, and bend my derailleur. Yes, Drew, I tried to bend it back (the derailleur, not the thumb) and had the Titus guys try too, but I guess there's only so much realigning you can do... As for the thumb, I shifted w/my palm. A frustrating 19 miles.
I did hear somebody yell, "Hey, Chipotle!" when I rode through the vendor booths, and thought, "Cool, we're a known commodity." But then I realized it was Gouge! It was good to see him though (and he scored me some beer glasses).
Sea Otter has been a pilgrimage of mine for 7 years, largely because it originally fell on my birthday. But now it's just a habit...and a chance to reconnect w/old SoCal racing buddies and do my IMBA Chair duties. While it's very early for us from a CO MTB race schedule standpoint, when the weather cooperates Monterey is beautiful and it can make for a great vacation, even for non-racing family members.
--John
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