The third NICA NorCal League race took place at the Laguna Seca raceway near Monterey, and featured some of the same trails as the Sea Otter Classic cross-country race. After racing State Championships here last year as well as several years of racing the Sea Otter Classic I can say that Laguna Seca is my least favorite place to race cross-country MTB ever.
That being said it is not all bad, the course featured one fun, fast, but very tame downhill and then a painful climb back out, that includes the aptly named "Hurl Hill" after that a long fire road climb takes you to the finish that can become a nightmare if the wind picks up.
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| Wind can be brutal on the fire road climb. |
Even though I was placed in the very first row of racers in the start I had a bad start and was dropped by quite a few racers up the first road climb out of the start and the rest of my first and second laps I worked on picking my way through the Varsity pack with some success.
For the rest of the race I kept up with a few other racers in my category and tryed to keep up a solid pace while battling the hot temperatures and complete lack of shade, over the five painful laps. I ended up finishing 13th and only 8 seconds behind the top ten which was disappointing but still a good result in such a competitive category.
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| The only trees on course. |
I am currently 7th in overall points and I am looking forward to the fourth NorCal Race in two weeks at Petaluma. Thanks to all volunteers, coaches, athletes, and everyone else who makes these races such awesome events. Photo credit: Doug Bedient, Rhianna Grady-Roush, and Larry Sussman.
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