MONTEREY—One of the world’s most premiere cycling festivals made its grand return to the Monterey Bay this past weekend.
After more than two years, the Sea Otter Classic was in full swing at the Leguna Seca Recreation Area from Oct. 7-10, drawing in hundreds of cycling enthusiasts for the first time since April 2019.
The festival, which was rescheduled for October, featured something for every type of rider, age group and bike race.
But the newest craze in the United States cycling world is gravel racing. I wanted to sign up for the first ever gravel race at the Sea Otter Classic with my friend, and Executive Director of Bike Santa Cruz, Gina Cole of Watsonville.
“After working at the Sea Otter Gran Fondo rides registration for three days, I couldn’t stand it and signed up for Sunday’s gravel race,” she said. “Might have been a little over my head, but settled in and after the first 10 miles and actually had fun.”
Like her, I signed up at the last minute. I had just built a bamboo adventure gravel bike with the direction and help of Craig Calfee along with his incredible crew.
This was going to be the bike’s first test on the fire roads, sand and single tracks.
Cole placed fifth in her age category and I took second in mine, losing to Larry Nolan, a legend and multi world champion in the Track and Road races.
Several other Santa Cruz County riders did well. Most notably, Santa Cruz’s Amanda Schaper and Scott Chapin, who won their MTB tandem race as they have done in several other races.
More unique surprises loomed largely as Leo Rodgers, a tall, lanky amputee with one leg and astonishingly good biking skills rode the same gravel course. Rodgers almost made it to the 2021 Tokyo Paralympics.
Another rider by the name of Christian rode an electrified three-wheeled bike that was powered manually by rotating his arms, spinning the pedals and cranks in front of his chest with no leg power.
Being able to ride alongside both of them for part of the technical, tough course, I could only begin to imagine the challenges this course would hold for each of them to simply get through the difficult terrain, much less finish it ahead of many others.
So, what did the race look like? Well, imagine having to ride up the world famous corkscrew turn at the Laguna Seca Raceway to begin the race.
To most riders it felt more like a cross country mountain bike race with various long single track sections filled with loose sand and poison oak flanking certain sections, dotted with fire roads with steep grades.
Oh, and did I mention there was another XC (cross country) race overlapping on our course—so we were constantly hearing “to your left” on narrow stretches.
That was just another reason why the “gravel “ race was also a XC race, and hopefully will be corrected in April for next year’s edition.
Apart from those un-welcomed surprises to the gravel race, another happy surprise was a trio of locals who showed their grit on the track.
Issac Estrada-Alonso, Jose Luis Hernandez and Ivan Rodriguez of Watsonville competed over the weekend.
Estrada-Alonso placed fourth in the Enduro-Cat 4 race on Thursday, Oct. 7, eighth in the Road-Cat 4 race Friday and second in his age group in the Gravel race on Sunday.
Rodriguez competed in the Gran Fondo, a 92 mile scenic route through the hills, climbing more than 5,000 feet.
Hernandez rode in his favorite race, the XC, and placed 22nd in the Cat-1 50-59 age group.
“I was racing against some of the best riders in California,” he said. “I have won this race before, but there is always someone better.”
