Anyone racing Sea Otter this year?
And remember, no drop bars allowed in the Cross Country XC races the year. Which is ironic because the gravel race used to be the exact same course. 
But anyways… for those going whatcha racing or looking forward to at the festival?
I’ll be there doing the 60 mile course on Friday drop bar of course. How about you? Mountain bike course?
Fuego XL for me.
I hope they don’t go ahead with the plan to put the gravel course down 50 North.
XL or Gravel 60. Haven’t decided yet. The trail is really overgrown and the tics are really bad. Might do gravel to avoid it. 
That is nuts.
Where’d you hear that? It’s not in the course map and not discussed at the course briefing.
That’s a relief.
I’m doing the 60 mile gravel. Hopefully, I don’t blow up on the first and second climbs!
Just be sure to leave something in the tank for the lookout climb at the end!
For those that have done the gravel race in the last couple of years, I believe the start is the same climbing on the track and onto the first dirt sections. Is that first effort pretty much all out for all the age groupers? Also, if you did this, did you line up early to get in the front, or start at the back/midway and try to move up?
The year I did it, we lined up early a few rows back (but not super early) by age groups. The track is wide, so if moving up is the goal it is pretty easy to do. When the pack hits the steep part the hill before you turn onto the dirt it really slows down and you can power to the front if that is where you want to be. The real craziness starts on the first downhill.
If you haven’t gone down Oil Well Road at speed I strongly recommend pre-riding it. It is fast and loose. People crashed hard in my wave as they came in corners way too hot. The year I did it the fog was so thick you couldn’t see anything either which didn’t help. Personally it’s a long race… it’s not worth the 30 seconds to risk crashing out the first few miles, but that’s me.
same. last year the initial descent was a bit scary because of the speeds people were going at and with the limited visibility. wearing sunglasses also made it harder to see because of the mist fogging it up
Thanks for the info. I always like to start up front if I can. Knowing that there is a lot of room to move on the track to get there is good info. That first downhill sounds a bit scary so I will not worry about being first to the turn. Even though I consider myself a good bike handler there’s something about very fast descents on gravel that keeps me in check almost all the time.
It turns out that Thank Gravel It’s Friday & Canyon is doing a shake-out pre-ride on Thursday at 3PM Ride Out at Sea Otter Classic with Canyon — Thank Gravel It’s Friday. That will be my recon session for this race as I haven’t had a chance to recon the course.
Nobody asked but I’ll be running 45mm Vittoria T 70’s. I think these will do the job pretty well for all the different surface types.
I’ve been cyber-stalking age grouper’s Strava files from last year, and it seems like lots of people blow themselves up on the first lap. I plan to just let everyone go ahead and stick to my power targets.
Going up Barloy, Barloy Spur & Lookout is a lot of work. 2x 3x even more so.
We’ve had some rain over the past few days and course conditions have improved. There’s still sand, loose corners and ruts in places but it’s generally better and less dusty.
Course signs are up, well except for the ones that already blew down but I’m sure they’ll fix that. I did the northern end of the course and the route is as expected (no 50!). The straight ahead signs are super clear - big orange arrow and the words “GRAVEL RACE” The turn left/turn right look different. They are reused from a couple of years back and say “GRAVILA” in a smaller font.
Also, the Fuego XL signs use the same color arrows so watch out for that at course crossings!. Otherwise you could go down 50 by mistake!
Thanks for the course updates. It was raining hard this morning on the peninsula…if it rained hard there too I imagine the ruts have opened up a bit.
The rain was not very hard and the ruts did not change much over the last week. However, there are some ruts on Oil Well Road to watch out for. Also, a deep hole near the top, and deep sand right at the bottom.
The TLDR is that I walked a ton the day before my race, didn’t quite sleep enough, race very well but cramped up right when I was putting my dig for third and ended up fourth.
Long Version:
There was so much going on at Sea Otter that it was truly overwhelming at times. Unlike all of the other gravel races/events that I’ve done in the past, this one seemed to require more planning and more time just due to the sheer size of the event both physically and logistically.
I got into Laguna Seca on Thursday morning which was great. I had time to park, check-in, pick up my race number and then take care of some issues like getting my new tires seated and sealed up thanks to the Orange Seal tent. I spent the rest of the morning and afternoon walking around way too much the day before the race clocking over 12k steps. I did end up doing the TGIF x Canyon shake out ride to get a preview of the first climb up the big dirt descent. This was very much worth the effort as it put me at ease knowing the section was fast, but not technical. This was also great because I could try out my new 50mm Specialized Terra’s and I figured out that I forgot my SRAM battery at home (fully charged). Another special thanks to the SRAM booth for hooking my sorry ass up with a new battery after I asked if they had any to buy or borrow.
The night before the race I stayed up too late, but I did get my bottles and camel back filled, had some food ready to finish off my carb loading and stuff for a quick breakfast. I love that Grocery Outlet stores are just about everywhere which is where I went.
Morning off got up at 5 am, had some oatmeal, loaded up my vehicle and was out the door by 6:30. Got the venue, parked, got dressed, bathroom, took some bicarb and was ready to go and on the course by 7:30 which was perfect. While I was cruising around I decided to leave my camel back in the neautral feed area because I figured with two full 900 ml bottles that if I really needed it, I could easily pick it up after the first lap. However, this cut down my 105 grams/carbs hour down from 375 to 200 in my bottles, but I did have 60 grams in gels and I knew that there were gels available at the aid stations.
Onto the race - I started up front in a field of 90. Apparently we had the biggest field of the day in the 60 mile category. At the start the pack moved pretty quickly up the track to the dirt section. While I did not drive the pace or eat much wind, I made sure to stay up front and it was moderately difficult pace about 8.5/10 and I was very pleased to see that it was a group of seven of us with at least a handful of seconds on the next group when we hit the dirt. We all went down the first descent quickly but safely - and whoever was left behind did not try to or were able to catch back on.
I was feeling fairly comfortable in the group but not overly strong. There were three riders that seemed strong and content to drive the pace. I was staying back most of the time but took enough pulls to contribute to group and keep the cohesion amongst us. We all made it up over the rollers, the super fast descents, and through the single track together. When we finally hit the big kicker up the last climb is when we all ran into traffic from the earlier groups. This turned out to be the first major shake up in our group as I had to dismount and run up the steep and rutted climb. Three other riders made it up before me and two were behind not to be seen again.
I could see number three ahead of me and I slowly clawed my way back catching him on the corkscrew climb. At this time I could feel some twinging in my legs. I had taken in on full 900ml bottle along with 2 gels for 160 gr in two hours. It wasn’t especially hot and I wasn’t really sweating all the much and I didn’t see any salt on my short which is a good sign.
On the start of the second lap me and No. 3 teamed up and road really well together. The guy friendly and gentleman and we agreed to work together to fend off No. 5 as long as possible. We took pretty much even pulls and once we hit the second major paved climb I stood up and held a nice tempo in which I dropped No. 3 which felt really great. However, once back on the dirt and sitting down my legs were barking at me again and I had to go very mellow, yet staying on the pedals. He caught back up by the feedzone where I took a pickle juice hand up and a gel. At this point I figured either he would cave or keep up with me but he was looking pretty good. I led the single track section so that I would not have to work to keep up with my partner. We then pickup up another rider from the 90 mile start in the 30+ age group and worked with him for a bit until we got to the last time up look out ridge. I was ready to throw the guantlet down and I started with a strong tempo up that climb. It was pretty wide open and unlike last time, I could pick my own line. After about 30 seconds as I putting in a dig my legs finally called it. Right quad locked up, left hamstring seizing. I felt of my bike in agony. No. 3 passed me and kept going, asking if I was okay and I said keep going I have a cramp. It took me 2’15" to finally get up and walk up a bit until I could start pedaling again. After that my legs felt normal again I pushed as hard as I could to try and catch up and preserve my spot. I ended up closing in on him but with only a couple of miles to go there wasn’t much I could do.
Finished the day for fourth place and I was both proud and disappointed. I wanted to go “Mano-a-mano” up either Lookout Ridge or the Corkscrew but it turns out my attempt at that was to cramp.
Something I would have done differently if I could go back. I’d load up two bottles with about 150 grams carbs each plus 1.25 grams sodium and pack 4 gels at 30grams carbs + each with some caffeine. I’d also mess around a lot less the day before and go to bed way earlier. For whatever reason I spent so much energy off the bike the day and night before this event as opposed to any other event that I could drive to the morning of.
I could talk about the event itself and my musing of the ‘scene’ a lot as I found it quite interesting.
