My last day at Sea Otter consisted of watching the Cat 2 XC race (cheering Tim on), expo-ing or festival-ing all day, watching the PRO Short Track XC races, catching a couple runs of the PRO Dual Slalom finals, and catching the end of the PRO/1/2 Road Race.
Tim started off on his journey around the 19-mile XC course at about 8:00am...many more entrants for the Cat 2 races. Looked like about 35 or so in Tim's age group. He wrapped up the race in about 1h50min, coming in around 20th or so. Good result for him.
Ran into a friend from K-State - Aaron Elwell - who was racing PRO out here this weekend. He was lined up for short track that afternoon, and the XC race on Sunday. We checked out the expo booths the rest of the morning.
Stopped by the Native Eyewear booth for a chat...pretty sweet glasses. Check 'em out. Scored a set of the Grind shades, which I wore for the rest of the day instead of the Oakleys. Very glad I had them...the larger format and polarized lenses were much needed being in the sun all day.
Specialized booth had a SHIV time trial bike there for everyone to see. Man, that bike's doing 40mph standing still. Also stopped by their mechanic pit - bikes for Lene Byberg, Conrad Stoltz, Todd Wells, Christoph Sauser, and Burry Stander were all hanging there, getting worked on. Pretty sweet to see the tools of the pros. Also stopped by their mountain bike booth, and chatted with their western region director of somethin' or other. He suggested I pick up an Easton EC90 seatpost for my Stumpy - he said their freeride guys are riding it (so its plenty strong), and it take a lot of the bite out of the trail on a hardtail. I'll take him up on it...
Also stopped by Turner Bicycles booth - Dave Turner had his Fluxes, 5.Spots, and Sultans out there for test rides. In all sorts of colors. You want a custom bike that isn't truly a 'one-off'? Give Turner a call.Other fun things I saw:
Crank Brothers was doing full pedal rebuilds - for FREE - but they were returning Saturday's pedals on Sunday, so no good for me.
Yeti Bikes debuted their new 29er hardtail. Sweet looking ride...one that a lot of people have been clamoring about. So did Orbea and Cannondale, for that matter.
Lizard Skins had their etching/engraving equipment on-site to customize lock-on grip rings. Purely Custom did as well...that's all they do. Custom headset caps, spacers, lock-on rings, etc.
Mafia Racing had the Pabst tent set up. Yay.
Cytomax had a "refreshment station" set up - with all the Muscle Milk protein shakes or Cytomax ready-to-drink you could stand. Ice cold. Yum...stopped by there probably half a dozen times.
Pedro's was sponsoring the bike wash station - which I took advantage of - by stocking the place with Green Fizz bike wash, Oranj Peelz degreaser, and GO! lube.
On to the PRO XC races: I figured I'd watch Aaron race in the men's short track, as well as catch the women's short track beforehand.
Wow - these guys and gals are FAST.
Women's race saw a split of four off the front, with Georgia Gould putting it to the other three with four laps to go, soloing away for the win.
Got to see Brian Lopes rip down the dual slalom course...let me tell you, he don't suck. Also saw the Bissell road team dominate the Elite Road Race, with Paul Mach winning in a solo effort. There were some bunch sprints...talk about uncorking a sprint. 40 miles an hour on a flat is pretty impressive.
Also got to check out a few other riding events - dirt pump track, dual trials, and the like. Got completely fried - my scalp is sunburnt for crying out loud - and went back to the hotel to pack up the bike and get ready to head home.
Fun weekend. Great venue, great weather, great time. Would I do it again? Sure. Next year?
Training starts tomorrow...:)
good to see you. ill be out your way for the bulk of July. we ate at that same italian restaurant in Monterey on the bay, been there every year, not bad. i recognize the view. also had a double double on the way home.
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