The semi-dry Sea Otter Report
It did not rain this year in Laguna Seca.
Perhaps that is not the most sensational news from this year’s Sea Otter, but the great weather certainly made it much more enjoyable for the racing, spectating and camp fire beer drinking.
The Sea Otter Classic unofficially opens the season of professional world class mountain bike racing. Europeans, Australians, Canadians, fight for spots on the podium. The results often are a great indication for the finishing order of the season’s finale, the World Championships.
Getting silly at the Sea Otter Photo by Marla Streb
A podium here in Laguna Seca targets you with a rainbow colored bull’s eye for the rest of the season’s racing.
The clear skies and clean uniforms made great podium shots for the Luna Chix: Katerina Hanusova winning the Short Track, Alison Dunlap and Shonny Vanlandingham, 4th and 5th. In Sunday’s cross country, Katerina made use of the controversial tech zone and switched wheels after mushing her way up that last, endless fire road climb. The finish was a mass sprint of a dozen all in close contention for the GC. But, Alison Sydor rode away with the XC win and the GC.
Tracey Moseley won the women's downhill, while my teammate Kathy Pruitt sprinted her way to a 2nd place to finish exactly an eyeblink behind. Sabrina Jonnier won the Slalom and Jill Kinter the Mountain Cross.
Amid the weekend’s racing Alison Dunlap also showed great form on the front page of the Monterey newspaper wearing strapless, backless, slinky black dress for the movie premier of “The Road to Athens”. Shonny also made the front page in a jaw dropping stunning blood red ensemble of coutoure. The film chronicled their dramatic attempts to win the single spot on the US Olympic team which Mary McConolloug won by a hair over Sue Haywood. This year’s Sea Otter proves that the women can show more than great legs when they want to.
Oh yeah, the men did some racing, too. Jared Graves won the Downhill, as well as the Gravity Omnium, Brian Lopes the Mountain Cross and Nathan Rennie rode away with his first ever Dual Slalom victory.
The new "super-XC" event, modeled after European style Supermoto, was taken by Bart Brentjens. The short track went to Trent Lowe, who came in looking fit after the Redlands Classic road race. Geoff Kabush had a huge weekend winning the time trial, the XC (wore a "dopers suck" T-shirt on the podium), and the whole shebang as well.
It was also a blue sky weekend for our newest 'Luna Chick', Nea Jackson as well. Not only did she win the Breast Cancer fundraiser first prize of joining the team for the weekend with all the bells and whistles, she also proved she was a winner by placing first in the Beginner Downhill and fourth in the sport Mountain Cross, too! The only bummer for her was she had to room with me.
There was no Marathon XC this year at the Sea Otter, but after three hours, thrity seven miles of spinning aboard my one-day-old, 2x1 ratio, one of a kind Santa Cruz, I was really happy to win the Single Speed XC.
I also want to thank all those who voted in Bike Magazine’s Reader’s Poll. I was really flattered and flustered when I received my award and frankly I got scared when I heard my own voice echoing off the stage, so I would like to take the opportunity now to thank all my sponsors as well. Thank you Clif Bar and the Luna Chix, Santa Cruz, Fox Shox, Red Bull, Oakley, Sportlegs, Maxxis, Sugoi, Shimano, Vetta, Giro, Mavic, Kelty, Sidi, Blackburn, Ibex, Truvativ, Pedros, Stan's No Tubes, PalmOne, Chris King, Six Six One, Selle Italia, Light & Motion, and Brave Soldier.
Perhaps that is not the most sensational news from this year’s Sea Otter, but the great weather certainly made it much more enjoyable for the racing, spectating and camp fire beer drinking.
The Sea Otter Classic unofficially opens the season of professional world class mountain bike racing. Europeans, Australians, Canadians, fight for spots on the podium. The results often are a great indication for the finishing order of the season’s finale, the World Championships.
Getting silly at the Sea Otter Photo by Marla Streb
A podium here in Laguna Seca targets you with a rainbow colored bull’s eye for the rest of the season’s racing.
The clear skies and clean uniforms made great podium shots for the Luna Chix: Katerina Hanusova winning the Short Track, Alison Dunlap and Shonny Vanlandingham, 4th and 5th. In Sunday’s cross country, Katerina made use of the controversial tech zone and switched wheels after mushing her way up that last, endless fire road climb. The finish was a mass sprint of a dozen all in close contention for the GC. But, Alison Sydor rode away with the XC win and the GC.
Tracey Moseley won the women's downhill, while my teammate Kathy Pruitt sprinted her way to a 2nd place to finish exactly an eyeblink behind. Sabrina Jonnier won the Slalom and Jill Kinter the Mountain Cross.
Amid the weekend’s racing Alison Dunlap also showed great form on the front page of the Monterey newspaper wearing strapless, backless, slinky black dress for the movie premier of “The Road to Athens”. Shonny also made the front page in a jaw dropping stunning blood red ensemble of coutoure. The film chronicled their dramatic attempts to win the single spot on the US Olympic team which Mary McConolloug won by a hair over Sue Haywood. This year’s Sea Otter proves that the women can show more than great legs when they want to.
Oh yeah, the men did some racing, too. Jared Graves won the Downhill, as well as the Gravity Omnium, Brian Lopes the Mountain Cross and Nathan Rennie rode away with his first ever Dual Slalom victory.
The new "super-XC" event, modeled after European style Supermoto, was taken by Bart Brentjens. The short track went to Trent Lowe, who came in looking fit after the Redlands Classic road race. Geoff Kabush had a huge weekend winning the time trial, the XC (wore a "dopers suck" T-shirt on the podium), and the whole shebang as well.
It was also a blue sky weekend for our newest 'Luna Chick', Nea Jackson as well. Not only did she win the Breast Cancer fundraiser first prize of joining the team for the weekend with all the bells and whistles, she also proved she was a winner by placing first in the Beginner Downhill and fourth in the sport Mountain Cross, too! The only bummer for her was she had to room with me.
There was no Marathon XC this year at the Sea Otter, but after three hours, thrity seven miles of spinning aboard my one-day-old, 2x1 ratio, one of a kind Santa Cruz, I was really happy to win the Single Speed XC.
I also want to thank all those who voted in Bike Magazine’s Reader’s Poll. I was really flattered and flustered when I received my award and frankly I got scared when I heard my own voice echoing off the stage, so I would like to take the opportunity now to thank all my sponsors as well. Thank you Clif Bar and the Luna Chix, Santa Cruz, Fox Shox, Red Bull, Oakley, Sportlegs, Maxxis, Sugoi, Shimano, Vetta, Giro, Mavic, Kelty, Sidi, Blackburn, Ibex, Truvativ, Pedros, Stan's No Tubes, PalmOne, Chris King, Six Six One, Selle Italia, Light & Motion, and Brave Soldier.
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3 Comments:
This post has been removed by the author.
marla,
we needs pics of these beauties without their helmets on! especially shonny. that woman is a goddess.
"my life is my reality show"
trainwreck
Congrats on the win! Over seven min lead...
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