And another Sea Otter is in the books

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 …