Jay Richards

This is a rare post with no photos. Sunday Sea Otter was cross country racing action. Jake's race was at 8am so a 6amish departure from the hotel room was in order and checking the camera for the sd card was not top of the list.

Rolled into the race site and got a start level parking spot compared to the upper level parking spot the day before. (Lots of fences, bridges, and gates to pass through/go around so as close to the start as possible was nice). Found a good spot to park in the shade which was key with forecasted highs in the hills in the mid 90's.

Jake raced in the 17-18 Cat 1 (formerly JR X) even though he is 15 and racing age at 16. Didn't matter really as they put the 15-18 JR racers at the same start time and all of them doing 2 laps of the 19 mile loop that featured 3600ft of climbing per lap for 7200ft of climbing on the day!

The start featured a nice rollout on the race track which allowed for good selection. Once Jake was out of sight, I did not see him again until 1 hour and 28 minutes later. When Jake came through the feed, he commented "long lap".

Jake finished his race in 3 hours and 17 minutes. He placed 19th in the 17-18 category and would of been 4th in the 15-16 category. Right after the race, he said the last lap was the least fun he had ever had in a race and the climbing at the end was brutal. It was pretty toasty at the end of the race with temps easily in the 80's at that point. Later on once he recovered he said the course was fun and enjoyed the start but some intense climbing.

After his race I cleaned up the bike he used since I was going to use it in my race. It was a lot of sitting around in the same spot and finally was race time. Kept the warm up short since I knew it was going to be hot, long day and figured best to keep cool as long as possible. With the temps reaching the mid 90's, the shortened the Pro races by 6 miles for the men and one full lap for the women.

There were 145 riders in the PRO race. I lined up at the back and wasn't too worried about getting farther up the field. Not having a ton of miles under the belt and the fact it was April 19th, I was going in to the race just to start out slower and hopefully move my way up. The start/first part of the race was sweet and best part of the race. The rollout on the race track was crazy fast but felt effortless riding in the huge group.

Once we climbed up a bit and got on the trail, it was a 3 mileish descent, rolling along open ridges before cutting in to some sweeping sagebrush singletrack. At the top of the ridge looking down and seeing a 100+ riders was the coolest part of the race. Took a half second to reflect and thought it was completely awesome to have the opportunity to experience this.

Not having pre-ridden the loop, didn't know what was to come but after descending what seemed forever, I knew there was going to be some serious climbing to get back up to the top. The course was fun with punchy and sustained climbs and some wicked descending. Jake gave the best advice saying to pump the whoops and not catch air and he was right. There were guys catching air, landing, not on the right line and eating it on the side of the trail. Managed to stay upright the entire race with no mechanicals so that was all good.

End of the first lap, I was feeling pretty good and moved up some spots. Ends up a lot of the guys I passed dropped out which is a bit disappointing considering most of the guys racing have been living in southern climes and have quite a few miles under their belt. Having said that, the results by Peariso, Bender and Jenna are impressive and they did awsesome in the mid 90 degree temps. TJ Woodruff, dealing with a slow leak probably had one of his better races in his career finishing 22nd. Nicely done.

The second lap I came a bit unglued and think the heat was having a toll. I carried two large bottles and drank all I could and took all the water I could in the feeds. Big thanks to Chris's wife Michelle for hanging around in the feed for the second lap and long day in the sun. I stuck it out though and caught and passed a few riders on the long last climb including MINHYUG JUNG from Japan who I battled with the second half of the race, back and forth. Speaking of foreign riders, lined up next to a guy from northern Mexico who had been to Sayulita so that was neat. Riding full sus was awesome and definitely planning on racing that ride most of the races in the Midwest.

After the race, drove back to the hotel and clearly was feeling the heat from the day. Had no appetite and gave Jake a scare when I fell to the floor. Just keep the liquids going and cool rags with the fan blowing to recover from the day. Finally, 3 hours later felt okay to get something to eat. Packed up the bikes and woke up next morning at 4am to catch flight home.

After some time to reflect on the race, Jake and I agreed it was great expereince. Jake wasn't discouraged by his result knowing most of those guys he had been racing against had 3-4 months of riding under their belt and the Cali boys have been racing in the hs scene which is huge down there. Having raced the course, I was impressed he slugged it out and just finished. It is nothing like you see in the Midwest and for JR riders to be racing near and over 3 hours is just insane. When are they going to figure it out this is not helping youth development. You look at the times from the JR X races in the 90's and the times are around a hour. Anyways, there is no faking it on that course other than coasting on the one pavement descent. Thankfully Jake has a good head on seeing the big picture and is ready to rip it up the rest of the year. My placing wasn't anything to write home about but I was happy with the result and glad I slugged it out to the finish and get some good training. Doing a race like that, is a good motivator and brings the level of training up a notch.

Felt great to come home to the family, and peace and quiet of the country.