Sea Otter Cat 3 Road Race

Finishin in 2nd

Team Swift 1, 2

The final day of Sea otter, the adventure was coming to a bitter close. At least the wind chill outside decided so. The race was early, about 8 I think, and the weather was freezing. We all met at my hotel and had a good breakfast. Then put on all of our warm clothes to go freeze in the cold of windy Laguna Seca. Our warm up was putting warming cream on our legs while having the heater blasting in the car.

We shivered over to the start line and got to start with our thermal jackets because my dad was driving the follow vehicle and we would be able to drop them off with him during the race. What luck, a lot of other guys were standing there with just jerseys. We rolled out for a neutral start and you could feel the shivering of the pack as we descended. We hit the first climb and that warmed it up for everyone. The pace wasn’t too bad, but the roads out in Fort Ord are this old crummy concrete that seems to suck in the wheels. There is just no rolling of the tires and my legs felt crummy.

On the second lap I was sweating like crazy and Ethan offered to drop our jackets at the car. That was awesome, Ethan had been an awesome teammate to me the past few days. The race rolled on with a few non-threatening breaks. One break got rather large and Ryan got into it for safe keeping, but it got brought back in. One lap up the climb, I went to the front to see if I could find my legs, being on the front of a climb can have the effect sometimes. I set a good tempo, but never could find my legs.

I told Ryan how crummy I felt and with how he had been racing the past few days, I was sure that he could win this thing. I did not want him wasting himself for me if I could not put out the win. So I told him not to put out a crazy lead-out on the final climb, because that probably would have dropped me and then all of our options would close.

The field was all together, what was left of it, heading down the final descent. I sat in very good position. I knew exactly where to be even if I did not have the legs. I could see how the race would play out, and with my smarts I thought I could hang on for a podium if I was lucky. I did not have the legs to follow any hard attacks, but I knew I could suffer up a climb with anyone. So we started the climb and I was about 5th wheel. I would not have to do any work, but would be ready in case something happened. The group started to break up and I just sat. Eventually a few attacks sort of eased off the front. Then Ryan chased onto them. I tried to get on his wheel, but the gap that he had gone through had closed and I didn’t have much acceleration. I thought about going and then we hit a super hard headwind….on the climb…ouch. So I sat tucked in waiting for an opportunity. At 1K sign I went for it. I accelerated past the few guys that were off the front so that they couldn’t jump onto my wheel. Soon enough all that was in front of me was Ryan. With 500 meters to go the kid put in a hard effort and I never made it up to him. 1, 2 in the race. A good day for Team Swift.

Sea Otter Circuit Race

Big Junior field

Taking off

Ethan back after a rough early season

He's the best draft

A little happier today with my result

Podium

Ethan is back! The three of us went out for a warm up and rode up the steep climbs around the Laguna Seca raceway. It was awesome to have my teammate back. We returned to the circuit a bit early to watch our coach finish her race. We stood next to the finish to watch the sprint, and today, coach didn’t have it. Looked like she gave up a little early, but sometimes you just don’t have the legs. The girl that beat her went crazy yelling, that was funny.

Lined up next to the familiar faces. Legs were feeling alright. It was great to see my teammate there, knowing that I would not have to fight it alone. Then we set out. Ethan took right to the front as I sat in to evaluate how everything was feeling. Seemed like last year this race was super painful from the gun. We were going just as fast this year, but a year later, stronger and feeling good.

The race went by with the constant attacks. Everything seemed to break up relatively quickly. One break with a Davis rider got dangerous and Ethan was willing to chase that down, that was awesome, I really appreciated it. Then it was just the Taylor show I guess. He attacked a ton of times and we were left chasing him down. It was a smart tactic by him, and stupid of the rest of the field not to catch the hang of. He would be on the front then move way over so that was no one was on his wheel and then he would attack. I don’t know. But eventually one stuck. I chased like crazy on the climb, but then the pace slowed on the flats, and well, I couldn’t do all the chasing, and we were left racing for second. As we hit the climb on the final lap I was happy to hang with the front group over the top, I had put out a lot in the chase; I wanted to win and did not have much left. I saw Bryan behind me, and knowing his tactic for sprinting, or at least I thought that’s what he was sitting back their, I stayed with him so that I would not have to do any work in the final mile. Turns out Bryan was totally toasted and was hanging on the back for dear life. Well we went into the final turn already spinning out with a strong tailwind. A couple guys jumped, it was early, then behind me Bryan went and I jumped on his wheel. Then Rock Racing’s Finneran drifted into Bryan and the door was wide open for me. I took advantage for the win of the field sprint, and 2nd in the race. I was happy. I had raced as hard as I could and had nothing left. Taylor was too strong and I had put in a nice sprint that I was happy with.