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By Dan Vinson
For the Pro 1 roadies, this year's Sea Otter Classic was a single day event - a circuit race on the 2.4 mile Laguna Seca race track. The course starts out flat but soon begins a gradual climb to soften the legs. Next you hit the steep part of the climb (10%+), have a short reprieve (too short to really notice) and then the final steep section (10%+) to the KOM. There was a reported 300 foot elevation gain per lap. Then, you literally drop over the top into the infamous "corkscrew" where you go from 10 to 50+ miles per hour in about three seconds as you dive into the turns. Finally, you have a big "roller" and a few fun sweeping turns before the flat finish. We were scheduled to do 31 laps for a total of 75 miles and about 9000 feet of climbing. Pro teams including Jelly Belly, Healthnet, Kodakgallery.com/Sierra Nevada, Successfuliving.com, Monex and the Spanish Orbea Continental team were present. As if it wasn't hard enough, Levi Leipheimer (Gerolsteiner) made a special appearance and was in the race. We started with about 110 riders.
The race started off reasonable - not too fast - but that wouldn't last for long. By the third lap the pace quickened and riders were already falling off the back. Early in the race I found myself riding up the climb next to Leipheimer and thought, "this is pretty cool," but wasn't really sure how long that would last. Anybody get a picture? My legs felt decent and I tried to go with some moves early in the race, but nothing exciting happened. The dynamics of the course were real unique - you could not afford to let the slightest gap open on the climb. If you let a short 2 second gap open on the steep climb, that 5 meters will immediately become 50 meters as you drop into the corkscrew and then you have an excruciating chase which could easily end your race. So, there was no relaxing on the climb!
There were many attacks and at one point, about 10 laps into the race, a large break of over a dozen riders got away but they were reeled back. There were other "separations" as well but nothing stuck. A few riders made valiant solo efforts but ended up coming back to the peleton with a painful grimace. It was evidently going to be a race of attrition. Half way through the race, we were down to 65 or 70 riders and the racing began to get more intense.
At 12 laps to go the race was evidently on with the favorites up front drilling the pace non-stop. Two laps of that pace - going big ring up the climb - caused the field to fall apart. Some riders were blown off the back and others formed chase groups. I hit the climb hard as I could passing several riders but I didn't have great position and it wasn't enough. A 15 man chase group formed and for a few laps we tried to chase until reality kicked in. Then we went tempo. Up ahead, the lead group consisted of 24 riders, with a 12 man chase group after them and finally our group. All others had been pulled. With 5 laps to go we were pulled from the race and with 1 lap to go the chase group in front of us was pulled just leaving 24 riders left in the race. I would have ended up about 40th had our group been given a place. Healthnet had the numbers and apparently planned to set up strong man Karl Menzies for the sprint. Jelly Belly had other ideas however and began launching attacks in the final laps. Caleb Manion (Jelly Belly) went off the front with Menzies, Leipheimer, and a Spanish rider not far behind. Manion was caught and Matty Rice (Jelly Belly) attacked and got a gap over the others. Rice drilled it all the way to the line for his biggest career victory. Menzies crossed the line 2nd and Caleb Manion drove it in for 3rd - and an all Australian podium. Leipheimer, not far behind, finished 8th. Once again, Laguna Seca saw some great racing and the spectators of Monterey were not disappointed. Until the next race. . .
