Sea Otter is a major cycling event in Monterey, CA. An interesting combo of mountain and road racing. I was hesitant to do the race because I've fallen a bit out of shape in the last 2-3 weeks, but the opportunity to ride on the track at Laguna Seca was too awesome to pass up, so I did late registration and figured I would just try to sit on and enjoy myself.

As it turns out, an major circuit race is not the place to "enjoy yourself." For one thing, it was cold and MAD windy. Not so much of a problem when I was with the group, but by the time I got dropped on lap 5 of 7 it became miserable. Very strange to be in a race where drafting strategy is nearly as important as having the power in your own legs. In triathlon drafting is a dirty word, but road racing it's necessary. My speed dropped 2.5mph after I got dropped even though my power only went down maybe 10 watts avg.

Dropping through the famous "corkscrew" at 30mph was sick. That part was really fun. I kept considering abandoning as I came across the start/finish line for laps 5,6 & 7, but there was a pretty good crowd and they were still cheering me on, so I kept cranking. The race was only 50 minutes, and by the end I was sort of just considering it a hard training ride and wanted to keep going another couple laps!

Results aren't up yet, but I suspect I was DFL among finishers. I did get caught right at the end by the 35+ masters group that started 5mins back from me, but I didn't get lapped by my own group, which forces you out of the race. Oh well, DFL is better than DNF, and it was a good experience. If you've never tried your hand at road racing, it's a rush.

http://trail.motionbased.com/trail/episode/view.do?episodePk.pkValue=543...

-Grant-