Everything is bigger and better in America so they like to tell you here. When it comes to the Sea Otter they are speaking the truth. Thousands of cyclists are here to race road, mtb, downhill and trials ranging from Euro pro teams to Billie Bob and his downhill rig and pickup truck. All in the same place on the same weekend. The 'main' event is the Sea Otter 4 day stage race for men and women pro and cat 1&2. Smiley couldn't get a ride in a team for the race so he was slumming it with the amateurs. After seeing the Saturday stage I don't think he was all that unhappy at missing it.
The Sea Otter weekend is in Monterey half way between LA and San Francisco. Monterey is a big tourist town and it also has a car race circuit near by - Laguna Seca. So this is another tourist experience from Monterey with full city support. The road racing starts on Thursday with a 4 day pro-am stage race. All the amateur road races are early Saturday and a circuit race using the hilly car race circuit on Sunday. The mountain biking follows a similar format - pro stage race with amateur racing. Saturday the downhill, slalom, short circuit, etc is spread all over the place.
Smiley picks me up on the Thursday afternoon and we battle the 100 miles of traffic through Silicon Valley to Monterey. We descend from the last mountain and there on the coast in front of us is Monterey. Right next to it is a large range of hills, I tell Smiley that is where Laguna is - right at the top and we will be climbing those bloody hills more than a few times tomorrow.
We are racing at 8.00 am the next morning so it reminds me of racing in my 20's, going to bike races the night before along with all the other would be race winners. Our hotel is the same as the Trek mountain bike team. As we go out to dinner we pass the mechanic washing the bikes, they are all 'top secret' prototypes but he doesn't seem bothered that a couple of New Zealanders have a good look. We start talking to him and it turns out he went out to the Wellington world cup a few years ago, all he can remember about Wellington is that the beer was real good.
We get up at some ungodly hour to avoid the traffic up the hill to the race track and the long queues to pick up your number. Laguna is amazing, most of the track and all of the pit area is in a bowl at the top of a huge hill. We miss the traffic but not the long line to get numbers, Smiley and I find some race official with nothing to do and persuade him to give us our race numbers without waiting in the 100+ person line. Smiley is racing the 30+ race. I entered and payed via the race website (this is the tech capital of the world) but it wouldn't let me enter the same race as Smiley. I had to enter my age group race 35+, I figured there would be a host of fast ex-pros anyway so it would be hard enough.
All the punter races like ours start early so the pro race 2nd stage can get under way at midday. The course is apparently brutal with 2500ft of climbing per lap - yikes I can hardly wait. Smiley's race starts with a full 120 up field, this is the big race for the early season in the US so the races are filled with riders from everywhere. His race also has a few pros that aren't riding the stage race. All the races are 3 laps and 120km.
I'm up next with lots of old boys all with very expensive equipment. A serious carbon fest, Colnago C40's are so passe here - sorry Backy. The race starts leisurely, we do a bit of the race track which is cool as the last time I was here was to watch Aaron Slight riding the World Superbikes. The race starts proper on the first climb out of the track what is next is a longish descent where a few guys plaster themselves into the ditches on either side of the road. I just don't think I have ridden anywhere where people crash so often for so little reason. Pretty soon we are on the 'small' hill - its long and I need the 23 from the bottom, it doesn't help that I am feeling terrible, I tell myself that I will soon start to feel better. Why do we bike riders tell lies to ourselves? Because it makes you feel better at the time.
The next 20km is up and down - no flat at all. Finally we turn onto the road back up the hill to the race course, it goes up in a series of steps with the 23 getting another workout. The legs still feel crap.
Start another lap the descent this time is hilarious, it has 3!! ambulances on it. All the cat 3's 4's 5's have been through behind us and tried to out do one another to see who could crash the best. This time I'm in serious trouble on the small steep hill. The bunch splits and 8-10 guys go clear I grovel on the back of the 2nd group. That is the way it stays for the rest of the lap, our group of 10 gets close to the front group but never that close. We start the next lap with and stay together until the last climb and then they all decide that 11th place is worth killing themselves for.
There are plenty of attacks, but everyone is stuffed so nothing goes anywhere. Finally we are at the top and this huge guy who was a pro for Motorola takes a flyer in his 11, its impressive, so impressive that everyone feels compelled to chase him. We do an amazingly dangerous zigzag through concrete blocks and jagged retaining steel to get onto the race track. Mr 11 gets caught just as they ease up. I arrive from the back at the same time and take an almighty flyer myself just for a laugh. I go through the hairpin flat out and wait and hope for the sound of bikes scrapping on the pavement - which I hear alright, 4 guys go down in a heap. I didn't think that a field of yanks could get through that corner without someone falling off. Only problem is what I thought was 200m to go is in fact 800m, oh well just have to wear it. Five or so guys come past near the line but I don't really care. I felt shit all day and they only pay down to 8th anyway such is the attitude of the part time bike rider.
Smiley has a much better race and tears his bunch to pieces. He does a lap out on his own, but gets caught. He leads out the sprint in the same way I did. He gets 8th but on the whole and is pretty pleased with himself. Especially so when Franky Van Haasen-brouke from Navigators comes up to the car afterwards and says that he was the strongest there by far and had 2 teams getting together to chase him down for the whole race.
So that was the racing done with. Now for the most important task of the day - finding a double expresso. The whole of the infield of the track has been transformed into a tent village with every bike manufacturer you can think of represented. Plus all manner of small bikeshop, titanium jewellers, lycra jumpsuit makers represented also. As we wander around looking at the latest carbon this or that it dawns on us just how serious these guys are and how big the market and therefore money is.
We find the espresso place which is great as we were getting bored. We finally stumble on something interesting, a manufacturer of wheels called Lew based in Las Vegas of all places. They are amazingly light, like both wheels weighing the same as one normal front wheel!! They also are amazingly expensive $2500 US!! What was funny was watching a very large wealthy guy buying the lightest set they make. The guy selling them was trying desperately to say delicately that he was too heavy to safely ride these wheels. The big guy was having none of it, he wanted them and that was that, he pulled out about $5000 in cash, counts out the money and got no further argument from the Lew guy.
We get over to the Gary Fisher truck (which is huge) and look for Mary Grigson. Mary is originally from Carterton and I remember her doing a lot of riding on the road and mountain bike before she got into the AIS scheme. She is a big time mountainbike pro now. She was expecting us, but was out riding the road bike. We go back a few times but keep missing one another, we eventually caught up with her at the Napa round of the world cup a few weeks later.
Enough of looking at bikes, the pro mens and womens stage 2 has started so we walk up to the hill and sit down and watch some real suffering. If you have to watch bike racing, a place where most people are in agony is the best place for it. By the 2nd lap the field in both races has blown apart, Trent Klasna attacks in front of us in the big ring while the bunch behind are struggling up this nasty little hill as best they can. Nathan Dalberg is riding well and keeps trucking on, he finishes well up there. Klasna and Saturn kick US Postal and Mercury's butt with a very impressive display of strength. Smiley agrees it looked really hard but he still wished he could have got a ride anyway.
In the truck and off we go, leaving 8000 people to finish their events for the day and get into tomorrow. The Sea Otter - big and mighty impressive.
