Race Report: Sea Otter Classic RR-Chris Hawley

• Name of race: Sea Otter Classic, Monterey, CA
• Category you raced: Road Race Cat 5- Masters 35/45
• Date of race: 4/16/2010
• Distance: 47 miles
• Place: 10th out 35
• One line recap of the course: Great event with 8,500 total participants. 4700 feet of climbing in the road race. Starts on Laguna Seca raceway which is fun to ride on!


Race recap:

The race starts on Laguna Seca Race track which is smooth as silk! After ½ a lap on the race track, we veered off onto an 8 mile loop that we did 6 times. The start of the loop begins with a 7-13% grade climb for 1 mile. This splintered the group, though I think everyone came back together on the first few laps. As the race wore on, that darn hill kept looming in my mind…how many more times do we have to do this, and who put this in here? I think by about the 4th lap, I wasn’t able to hang with the lead group of about 8-10 riders and couldn’t seem to see them on the curvy, though not too technical, 1-2 mile downhill. I eventually caught up to 2 riders and we were able to work together to pass a bunch of folks who were getting lapped (some in our race, some in other divisions). After finishing the circuits they wave you away from the big hill and direct you to another road. My legs were very pleased that we avoided THE Hill again until they realized we were starting a 2 mile uphill finish. I think I was going 9 mph up the hill and one of the riders I was with surged ahead at about 10 mph. Couldn’t stay with him. The other guy in our group, I think, was going about 7 mph, Sayonara baby! I’m sure for spectators it was like watching snails race. Fun times, though. About 4700 feet of climbing for the 47 mile version. Finished 10th and was happy with that.