Sea Otter Road Race

Well I just got back from Colorado the night before and had to cruise down to Monterey. I was off the bike for a few days and this morning during the warm-up it felt like I was pedaling squares. The legs did feel decent though and I was ready for the important sea otter races. It was a bit chilly this morning and the field was a good size. I was a bit disappointed with the course map that I saw as I noticed that we were not going up “the wall” this year, but it turns out we did have a good climb that we got to go up. I sat in through the first 5 miles then when we got to the climb I got up into good position and started to drill it. It definitely felt good to watch many people suffering behind me. I did not drop many, but I could see that they were hurting. Through the flats I sat in and on the hills I drilled it through the first lap. On the back side I made a hard attack and I got a good gap that I held up through the hill, at the top a few people caught me and we started a little paceline, but the field caught us. Then on the third lap I rode a good tempo up the long climb and Bryan and I got a gap that we held for a bit. Then along the flat Bryan and I were off the front a bit. I sat up and got back in the group while Bryan attacked. No one chased and he got a good lead. The group did not chasing too hard until that long climb and there Grant Van Horn made a super hard attack and I was trying to grab onto his wheel, but was unable and started some tempo with Major Motion. Grant bridged up to Bryan and they ended up staying off the front. I got into good position and Team Spine led the group up the final climb while I sat 3rd wheel. They were keeping a good tempo, and I was hurting a bit but I noticed that the group was getting split up. Then there was a slight attack and there was just a group of 4 of us left. I had nothing for the sprint once again and ended up in 6th I had thought. It ended up that one of the guys did not pass rollout so I ended up on the podium, which is cool at Sea Otter.