Hello, hello, hello.....What have I been doing now??
A week after Redlands finished and I am now recovering from the sea Otter Classic MTB stage race. A brilliant race run over three days as follows, Friday- time trial. A five-mile lap with 700ft of climbing. Saturday- Dirt crit. Field is split in two by TT results and then two heats are run off, 1st slower half for time only then second heat, faster one, for bonus time and prizes. 3/4mile lap with 100ft climbing each lap- 7 in all (women 6). Sunday is the XC race, two 18mile laps with over 2,400ft climbing per lap on some of the best singletrack I've raced. We drove down to Monterey on Thursday afternoon leaving enough time to pre-ride the time trial course and get everything ready for the race, only it kind of went a bit awry when I had a bit of a coming together with the stone baked earth on a set of doubles built in the closing stages of the circuit.
Last year they were fine to jump and I made up time by jumping them but this year they had been ramped up a bit and were a bit more of a challenge which as it happens I failed to meet and after soaring gracefully through the air I teetered on the front wheel thinking, u-oh face plants gonna hurt, somehow I managed to spring backwards off the back and landed on my butt. Oww. A large graze on my cheek! A shredded pair of shorts was a minor problem; the pain in my coccyx (tail bone/end of spine) was more of a worry. I spent the night sat on a bag of ice - nice!
FRIDAY
Friday was an all-out solo effort, which ended up just under 20mins. Liam did best in 15th @ 0.59.00 behind winner Bart Brentjens time- 18.09.60. I was 30th @ 1.34.30, Tim was 40th @ 1.49.90 and Jody 50th @ 2.07.10. A cracking start with very competitive times.
SATURDAY, dirt crit day.
With yesterdays good times putting us all in the 2nd faster heat it was time for action once more and at 12.30 the fastest 20mins of my life past by.
Sheer pandemonium as nigh on 50 riders thundered round the tight, dusty, and rough as hell lap.
By half way a small group of 8 had separated slightly off the front and by the end Fillip Meirhaeghe won from Brentjens and Cadel Evans.
Liam was 7th, Jody was 19th, I was 25th, and Tim was 37th all in the blink of an eye. It really was a blur.
I rode the 30mins back to the hotel then went on for another hour along the Monterey bay which is famous for Cyprus trees and of course Sea Otters. This all contributing to the greater goal of a good ride at the first World Cup in Napa in two weeks time.
SUNDAY, XC.
Rain the previous evening had me wondering about tyre choice but on waking to blue skies and a good 70degrees it soon blew thoughts of the sandy ground having changed. Liam and I rode to the course as a nice warm up while the others got a lift. On arriving at the Trek tent in the expo area a little relaxation time before a short warm up and race start at 1pm.
Being at the Trek tent is cool cause this year they have Roland Green (silver at 2000 worlds)and Alison Sydor (multi world champ) on their books which means we get to hang out with them - excellent.
The race started on the famous Laguna Seca motor race circuit before heading off into the hills, Liam and I got great starts in the front 20 up with the hitters. We had a bit of a worrying moment when we got stuck behind the camera motorbike going down some singletrack, minor irritation. It was dusty as a Sahara sand storm with minimum visability so the wheel in front was the only guide to the trail but soon we were out into the open and nailing it across rolling grass fields which was rough as a railroad putting those on full suspension steeds at an advantage. My carbon hardtail was bouncing everywhere while others were pedalling smoothly away from me - a real advantage. The next part of the race went down some ace singletrack, fast and swooping through the trees felt like being in Star Wars...cool. The race developed with the strongmen taking a few minutes advantage through the end of the first lap. I made up a few places on the second lap but the rough course was taking its toll on my injured coccyx and caused enough power loss to make the end off the race a suffering session.
As it finished Roland Green (on his full suspension Trek Fuel!) won a tight sprint from Bart Brentjens and Bas Vandooren. Liam was 10th, very impressive, I was 22nd, very pleased and very sore, Jody finished 37th after a first lap crash gave him a buckled wheel for the race and Tim did not finish.
So on my reckoning Britain is going to be up for kicking some foreign butt this year and getting ourselves back to the top of the sport where we were with David baker, Tim Gould and Gary Foord. The improvements can only be put down to the lottery funding which has enabled us to train professionally all winter and do the big races that make you better.
I am gonna gingerly sit on my bum for a coupla days to recover from Sea Otter and then prepare for Napa World Cup 1 in two weeks time.
Till then Big doubles, ........no troubles....!!!
Wilko
