Sea Otter Classic - Super D

Yeah!!!! Gimme that thing!


I didn't know ones head could do that. Must be the yoga.....


So I may have pulled it off today race wise but that wasn't without pulling a big rookie move before the race. Even though I have been coming to the Sea Otter Classic for 7 years or so, I completely misjudged how long it would take to...........

get to the venue in CA traffic
park up on the hill which seemed as far away as Idaho from the venue
get into my stuff
walk down the hill to the venue (bike was at Cannondale)
navigate past all the kids, people, crowds that were forming human walls inside the venue...

so that I could actually get to the SoBe - Cannondale tent so I could actually warm up so I could actually race my bike effectively.

So, yeah. I royally screwed that one up making it 11:40am (I wanted to be on the bike at 11:30 for the 1pm race start) when I finally got to Cannondale. Once ready to roll, literally, it was 12:20 and THEN I get told that there is a separate # for the Super D competition. Am I supposed to osmose this information or what because it didn't?? Why I am getting this info NOW and not before? Oh well.

I head to registration for the 2nd time in 2 days to fill out another form and get my Super D race plate. Sweet. Now my hour warm up is looking like it is going to be cut in half pretty much. Hmmm. Haven't dealt with THAT one before. Usually I am off by 5 or 10 minutes max if I am going to be off AT ALL. Lame and its my dumb fault too. So now I am grumpy, annoyed, in a hurry to get ready for my race and trying to be polite to everyone that wants to chat as I try to just warm up already!!! Could I have cut it any closer? Well yeah but not really. Good lord.

So now my head is getting in the way with things but I tell myself, if you got it, you got it and you needn't worry about missing HALF your warm up (eeeeeek!!!!! - HALF). Ok, put that out of my head and tell myself you feel good, no.......you feel great! This is fine, no everything is fine and everything will be fine I keep telling myself. What a head game.

And it worked. 5th place!!! It should have been better than that but I will save that for tomorrow's Short Track (think positive right?) where I will not be doing this (yes, I admit that was me years ago in the Sea Otter Short Track Race):



How did todays race go down? Like this: La mans mass start of Pro Women with me in front of the runners (wow, what? geez, maybe cyclocross this winter had something to do with that one) as we ran toward our bikes. Hop on and and let the games begin as we big ring it up some small hills and down large ones while jocking for position at a high high high rate of speed. Yikes!! We were going so fast I am not even sure that pre-ride helped one bit a few days ago. It was all a blur as tactics became more of the focus. And oh boy did I hit one of those crazy side ways ruts at such a high speed that I could feel the bike go left, then right and re settle under me.....thank heavens. That was a scary moment but the Michelin Dry 2, 2.3 I had on the front tire saved my race with its solid stability.

Here is a picture taken right after the Super D and the race report from the race too.

Is this SoBe - Cannondale sweatshirt too big you think?



3 HOURS later of hanging out at the venue trying not to freeze, taking pictures, doing interviews, etc. the podium presentation FINALLY took place and I got my 5th place medal. And once I did, I threw it in my bag and was gone in a flash from the venue. No one was gonna stop me then! It had been too long of a day and we have more racing tomorrow to get ready for.