If there is one race I remember the most the past 25 years, it would have to be the Sea Otter cross country race in Monterey, CA held at the Seguna Race track . Jake and I made the trek out there in 2009. It sticks out the most because it was probably one of the hardest and definitely the longest races we did.
Pro Short Track 2009
It was crazy for Jake considering he was 15 at that time and he was in the saddle for almost 3 and a half hours, racing 30 some miles climbing nearly 7500ft in the Junior Expert race. I raced in the Pro race later in the day where the temp flirted with 100 degrees under a hot dry wind. Instead of trying to remember everything, here is a post from short track and here is a post from the cross country.
Jake racing at Sea Otter 2009
What I didn’t mention in the cc post was back at the hotel I passed out and was moments from going in the ambulance. Not a fun moment for Jake as he had to call 911. Before the ambulance came, I came to and called it off. I was suffering from heat exhaustion most likely and possible the first symptoms of Lyme. Not sure. Either way I slowly took in liquids in effort to recover proper.
Yours truly rying to hang on in the short track
Every year I check the results to see the finishing times for the Pros and Junior races which is now called Cat 1. This year was no difference as the massive cycling event wrapped up yesterday with almost every type of competition. There was even cyclocross racing this year. Todd Wells, racing with a new team after a long time sponsorship with Specialized, won the mens Pro cross country to maybe even his own surprise. He represented one of the half dozen 40+ riders in the field of 156 riders taking the sprint over three other riders at the age of 41. His finishing time was 1 hour, 23 minutes. There would only be 64 riders to record a time, all of those riders finishing 10 minutes or less behind Wells. The course was a much shorter lap resulting in more lapped riders with almost 100 riders getting pulled. Quite the contrast from 2009 when I was able to finish just under 3 hours despite getting absolutely pitted. In comparison, I would of been pulled in this years version. I was glad to have finished and record the result but in honestly I think I would of preferred the shorter laps and race and try not to get pulled, similar to the short track.
When looking at the Junior results, this year, the finishing time was 1 hour 49 minutes 36 seconds as MATTHEW TRACEY-COO of Oakland, CA crossed the line first. The last junior finisher recorded a time right around 2 and a half hours. A long time for a junior rider. I still don’t get why the junior races are so long and makes no sense to be longer than the Pro races. I didn’t go really deep in comparing results from 2009 Junior race to the Pro race of this year to see how many racers had made the jump up to Pro but as far as I can tell, the only one was RUSSELL FINSTERWALD of Colorado Springs, CO.
The high school racing scene has a good thing going keeping the races short and interest high. Racing shorter makes for faster kids for those that have interest in continuing on. My opinion is fast racing makes fast racers….slow racing make slow racers! It’s great to see the momentum and growth in high school mountain biking, similar to HS Nordic skiing in Minnesota the past 5-7 years.
Expo area 2009 Sea Otter
You could say the Sea Otter was on the bucket list of races to do but I really have no desire to go back. There are so many cool events across the country that hopefully some day I can cross off a handful of them. The Sea Otter course wasn’t something to write home about, it was the atmosphere, the expo area that is something worth checking out.
Keep the wheels moving...
4 comments:
What has happened to the coverage of cross country mt bike racing? None of the cycling websites barely have mention of the winners let alone race recaps. And one has to look high and low for a photo or two. The lack of sponsorship is one thing but the lack of coverage from the cycling websites is truly strange. It all seems to be about Euro Pro stuff now.
Also, I agree about short racing for juniors. The Minnesota middle school mountain bikers raced for 25 minutes last fall. Short and fast and all out!
-Wallace
Thanks for the comment Wallace. Yeah, the coverage isn't like it use to be. I think the declining numbers at the National races hasn't helped either.
It will be interesting to see the affect of HS racing in 5-10 years.
Seems like race coverage now focuses more on Enduro, probably at the expense of XC. Or, at least there is more digital (web) coverage of enduro than XC. It's a more easily "digestible" sport to cover than XC. I don't know which sport has more participation, however.
I share your question/observation Jay: will be very interesting to see if there's a participation effect from HS MTB racing in the next 5-10 years.
I've been beating the drum of shorter MTB races for several years. Minn HS racing has gotten it right, in my opinion. Same for CX racing.
-Sandberg
John,
Always good to hear from you. I think another reason why the coverage has lacked is social media. Now riders can post their result with a short recap almost right after the race. Making it more challenging for writers to come up with something fresh. But I agree, enduro is more "digestible".
As said before, keeping xc mtb races a bit shorter is good with so many marathon and epic etc. options available.
One more comment on HS racing, like all school sports now, the specializing and focus on just one sport is pretty crazy actually. Hopefully this doesn't happen to mtbing.
See you on the trail!
Jay
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