Monday morning’s commute to work was a sad one, as I saw race vans and cars with their bikes and bags all packed and headed home after a long, fun, fantastic weekend at the Sea Otter Classic. This year had to be one of my most memorable years at the Sea Donkey compared to all of the years past. It was my first year as a Marin/Rabobank sponsored rider and my first time racing Pro and I got to start the fun off right.
RACE DAY!
I woke up bright and early Thursday morning for Race Day! I was lying in bed facebooking, or bluefacing as my boyfriend, Brian, calls it (because when it’s night time and I’m on Facebook, he says the light makes my face blue). I heard someone walking down the hall and assumed it was our friend and was ABSOLUTELY SURPRISED to see my dad in the doorway!!! Turns out he wanted to surprise me for my first official Pro race at Sea Otter. He drove down the night before and slept in his car in our driveway. It was definitely the highlight of my weekend.
It was time to race and I knew it didn’t matter how I did today, I was so happy to have my biggest fan there to support me! I lined up for the first stage of the Enduro, which was on the Downhill course, and was so excited to see a bunch of ladies that I inspire to be like all lined up ready to race. We had a pretty stacked class with EWS (Enduro World Series) racers, Anneke Beerten, Hannah Barnes – the Enduro Podium winners from last year – Teal Stetson-Lee, Kelli Emmit, Legend Marla Streb, CES (California Enduro Series) shredders Lauren Gregg, Rachel Throop, and DH World Cup racer Micayla Gatto, along with so many other awesome women!
It was so nice to have my Attack Trail for the downhill course. The bike was dialed for the race and my new Rabobank wheels helped me pedal a clean run on this stage – even after only one practice run. I then headed up to stage 2. I knew in this stage I was going to have to be fast, but accurate, there were a lot of sandy corners that could make or break your race. I went as fast as I could, while knowing I had to look out for those turns and ended up catching Hannah Barnes halfway down, she was super nice and pulled over for me to have a clean pass. They had the finish on a slight uphill, right after you got off the singletrack, so I just pedaled as hard as I could standing up! I thought I might fall over when I crossed the line.
Next we headed up to stage 3. I got to ride with Anneke and Hannah for a little bit and asked as many questions as I could. I have to know all their secrets so I can be as fast as them! smile When it was go time on Stage 3, the segment started with quite a bit of pedaling, more than I remembered and I felt a bit blown out from pedaling so hard on stage 2, but I made it through the run clean and unscathed. When I got to the bottom of that run, I started heading back up to the track for the final stage, which was on the Dual Slalom course. On this transfer stage I got to catch up with Marla Streb, this is one of the best things about Enduro! You have time to get to know the other amazing women that you are racing with. There isn’t really any other bike competition where you get to talk in between racing, with Enduro you have a lot of time to talk and learn more about the other racers.
The last stage was the Dual Slalom stage, everyone had to ride it blind. I can’t say I was excited to ride it with no practice on the course, the only thing that made it better was knowing the other ladies had to ride it with the same impediment. It was the first time I had ever gone down a DS course and it was actually REALLY FUN!! If I had had one practice run, I think it would have been even more enjoyable. I might have to add Dual Slalom to my racing next year!
After it was done my dad met me at the bottom and I couldn’t stop telling him how much fun I had out there. I raced my hardest, and I didn’t have any crashes, plus I got to know a lot of amazing ladies all at the same time.
When results time came around, I was SUPER STOKED to see that I earned a solid 6th place! I couldn’t have asked for a better finish with that group of gals. Overall, I was just so excited to share that awesome day with my Papa there! I got to spend the afternoon meeting some of the other Marin athletes and team members that I hadn’t met in person yet, EVERYONE was so nice, I felt like I had known them all for years. Then I got to spend a day with the infamous Little Bellas taking them out for rides, showing them the different components on the bikes, introducing them to pros and getting them excited about being on bikes! Man did they wear me out, in a great way.
Sunday was all fun and games for me, it was the first time I haven’t raced the XC course in years and it was great to be able to support Brian in his race. I dropped my bike off with Gravy in the morning so I didn’t have to carry it around the venue. When I came back I wasn’t sure if he still had my bike… the one I thought was mine was sparkling clean!!!! He said he hoped I didn’t mind, he gave the #BrizzlyBear some love, cleaned her all up and tuned her up. Heck YES! Gravy is the absolute best!!!! Super stoked to be part of such a great team!
Sea Otter 2015 has to be one of the best in the books. It was a little bittersweet seeing all of the bikes leaving this morning, but it just means I have a lot to look forward to next year. Thanks #SeaDonkey, it’s been real.