I raced the Sea Otter Classic this year after a hiatus last year. My Cat 2 singlespeed field was about 45 deep and I managed a 7th place finish, 7 minutes off 1st. I think the bummer was we were the second wave to roll after the tandems. Once we hit the singletrack, I was stuck behind several tandems and watched the leading pack disappear. Such a downer.
The rest of the race I just settled into my own rhythm and pushed to the finish by myself. See you next year. Tailwinds!
Jeff and I took on a big one the other day. Check out the write up:
Took a 4th place today at the US Cup Bonelli race. I got there early enough to get in a course pre-ride and good thing I did, they changed it up to be more technical than the past races. Pretty large field of 18 other singlespeed freaks lined up, and we went hard from the start. Kind of bummer they started us as the last Cat 2 field, so I had a lot of traffic to work through, and the tight singletrack made it impossible to cleanly pass people on hard climbs. First lap down and I was in 4th … chased 3rd around on the second lap, and passed him in the back section on the flowy singletrack. Came though for the final 3rd lap with a big gap, and crashed hard at an off camber loose turn downhill portion. Caught my breath and assessed the damage with about 10 other riders passing me, but no singlespeeders. Took it easy on the second half of the lap and got caught by 3rd on the final 1/4 mile … I figured I could catch him on the gassy section to the finish but with 3 other riders between us, he created a gap. Came through for 4th and a podium. Cheers!
Did my first SF Sprint Classic this past weekend. A long, fast road ride through some amazing NorCal backroads from Berkeley to Patterson. I wish I could sum it up in fewer words, but the route should really give you an idea of the difficulty level. It was a perfect, beautiful day and the company of friends could not have been any better. We pushed a good pace from start to finish and had no mechanicals. Definitely a good day. I cannot wait to do this again, hopefully with some dirt mixed into the route next time.
