And another Sea Otter is in the books

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I’ll rock the full report in the next few days, but briefly:

MUD: Heavy rains turned DS, DH and 4X practice into something other than mountain biking. Lots of sliding. Lots of flopping over handlebars. Lots of scootering with your feet. Not mountain biking — more like sliding-flopping-scootering.

The dual slalom was as rutted and gnarly as a World Cup downhill, or maybe a motocross track. It was just crazy. The flat downhill is a tough pedal on a dry day — in this muck it was a grunt and a push and maybe a run too. Mountain cross was beautifully designed, but sticky and sloooooowwwwwwwww. Riders needed power. Spectators needed patience.

LOPES: He won the slalom and mountain cross in typical Lopes fashion. In case anyone’s wondering, he said he’d quit racing for a million dollars. So that leaves everyone with some choices: 1) Step it up. 2) Wait for Lopes to get old and feeble. 3) Pitch in some cash, throw the guy a banquet and send him on his way.

GRAVES: Could have ridden the downhill course, ridden a rodeo bull then still won. Awesome. Not to mention third in mountain cross.

ALL THE CHARACTERS: It was great seeing everyone. We all struggled with the weather and course conditions, but — hey — it’s mountain biking, and it’s just plain fun.

Details at eleven …

5 replies
  2. leelikesbikes says:

    SLALOM
    Jon qualified 32nd and raced some guy names Lopes in the first round. You know how that goes!

    Bobbi struggled with the mud (she’s only been in MTBs for a couple seasons) and didn’t qualify.

    MOUNTAIN CROSS
    Jon qualified 14th. Sweet. Made it through the first round. He was leading the second round when he blew out of his pedal. Game over.

    Bobbi qualified 3rd! So awesome. She made it to the small final and got I think 5th overall. She was stoked. “Now I know I can hang with these girls. I’m in there.”

  3. Keith says:

    The mud was fun! I missed out on racing Slalom due to not presigning, but my girl and I did the XC race on our Tandem. We had a great time! We won the sprint to the first turn but then faded out and finished 9th. By Sunday the XC course was in great shape there were still a coulple of mud holes that we were not able to ride, but it didnt’ stop us from trying.

    How did the new Sprinter Van work out?

  4. Andrew says:

    The mud was kind of fun, even if it was hard to ride in. It was my first race ever (DH beginner males 15-18) and I came in midpack: 63rd out of 140. I’m now hooked on downhill racing! Darn you Sea Beaver! Were you at the premiere of Roam, Lee? That was awesome too.

  5. Chris/Scrub says:

    Hey Lee, It was good to see you out there camping/riding. I didn’t get too much riding done not that I could anyways, slaving away in the RideSFO booth all weekend and having a “good time”. Have a safe trip back home. Lates, C

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