April 17, 2009 – Monterey, CA - Although Sea Otter can seem like a four ring circus at times with so much going on within the confines of Laguna Seca Raceway, the value of being able to visit with the sponsors out-weighed the zooiness.
Andrea and I were the only Webcor riders to line up at the start with about 50+ other women. Fortunately, despite a history of horrible weather, we were blessed with warm, sunny skies and only a moderate breeze. The course was a circuit of the raceway that we would do for 2 hours. For those of you not familiar with Laguna Seca course, it "is 2.238 miles (3.602 km) in length with a 300 foot (91 m) elevation change. It has eleven turns, including the famous "Corkscrew" at Turns 8 and 8A" (wikipedia).
This would definitely be a race of attrition as the first handful of times up the climb did not feel so bad but as race went on, the efforts built up in the legs and you got that "not so fresh" feeling.
The first part of the race was animated by several regional riders who would get a good gap off the front of the field but eventually be pulled in by others wanting to keep the race together. The first significant move came when Alison Powers (Vera Bradley) attacked and the ever attentive Andrea was immediately on her wheel. They stayed away for about a lap while Kristin Lasasso (Tibco) set a steady tempo at the front to keep them insight. Coming through the feedzone and rounding the lefthand bend to begin the significant part of the climb, I could see that Andrea was getting gapped a bit by Alison. Knowing the strength of Alison, I immediately responded and put in a hard attack to bridge up to Alison and keep the pressure on the peloton to chase. Alison stayed on my wheel cresting the hill and Kat Carroll (Peanut Butter & Co, 2012) was not far behind and the three of us went down the descent together.
This was a perfect break for me as I knew both Alison and Kat would be motivated to keep us off the front. We all took equal pulls to gain distance from the chasing peloton (both Colavita and Tibco missed the break so we knew we had to push it to make the break stick). We still had half the race to go and I knew that I had to pace myself so did my best to pull on the tail wind sections and not go too hard on the climb.
The motobike did a great job of keeping us informed of the time gaps (no more race radios makes it crucial that this happen) and our initial 15" gap grew to 25", to 45" and then over a minute with several laps to go.
Knowing that my breakmates were very strong, I had to play to my strength and try attacking on the climb. With two laps to go, there was a slight gap to the others and I kept the pressure on going over the hill, but Alison used her skills on the decent to bring us all back together. Coming through the feedzone, I found myself in front although I ideally wanted to be third wheel. I put in an attack at the base of the climb to try and get distance from the others. I did manage to gain a few meters and dug deep to get over the top, unfortunately, there was not much left in the tank and Alison and Kat were soon back on my wheel. Rolling down the decent, Alison put in a strong attack and using her strong downhill skills, quickly got a gap.
Kat fought hard to catch her and I tagged myself to the back of Kat but in the end we could not catch her and Alison rolled across the finishline for the win, with Kat close behind, having put in a strong acceleration coming into the finish, I rolled in for 3rd about 2" later, with nothing left in the tank having left it on my last attack on the hill.
Andrea did a great job hanging in with the chasing peloton and finished 9th.
After the race we had a great time visiting with sponsors.