After a very long drive of 25 hours, we finally arrived in Monterey, California for the 2008 Sea Otter Classic. The weather was warm and sunny at about +20. There was no wind, unlike the following days! After checking in at our hotel, we headed for Laguna Seca where the race was being held. We were early, so we walked around and took a look at all the tents being set up by all the different bike shops, and stores. I have really never seen anything that big, and all of them had something to do with biking or fitness in some way. We made our way to the registration tent, and tried to get that out of the way, and on our way out, we met 3 guys from Pinkbike - Tyler, Radek and Jordan.
Meeting them was a lot of fun - and Tyler gave us one very useful tip: make sure to put sunscreen on your neck, so not to get burned by all the walking on the pavement. I guess in previous years he's had a pretty bad burn! Well, back to the hotel, and back to bed, as I had to get up for Dual Slalom qualifying the next day. When we arrived for DS, we soon realized that they had registered me in the wrong category, but there was nothing we could do about it, they wouldn't change it. Well, I was still happy, cause I still got to race. I ended up qualifying 1st, and would go on to finals that Sunday. Saturday morning arrived for the DH practice, and on my second run I nose cased the log drop, and went over the handlebars, and found I wasn't able to get up very quickly - a little shaken up, and a little bruised. I had a fairly large cut on my upper chest, and was having a hard time breathing. I took a break, but wanted to return for my race later that afternoon.
That afternoon was cold and windy. We waited around for the Sport category to get started, and the wind was still blowing. I made my way to the gates, and got a pretty good start, and felt pretty good about my run, however over the log drop I went with a different line, which probably cost me some time, but overall I was happy with my results. Back to the hotel for some more first aid and food. I managed a placing of 28th in the DH Sport category. It was Sunday, the final day of the event. I had finals today in Dual Slalom. I was still pretty sore, and still had some trouble breathing, but I still wanted to race. Practice began at 12:00 and the race got started at 1:00. It was so much fun, but exhausting at the same time. The finals didn't finish until 4:30, and I was tired, but managed 3rd place. From there we went back to the hotel and started packing up as we had an early morning for the 25 hour drive back to Calgary! All in all, I had a great time and met some fantastic people and made new friends along the way. I'd like to say thank you to my parents, who cleared their schedules to take my brother and me to California, and to my grand-parents for flying out of Calgary, and meeting us there. I would also like to say "thank-you" to Mr. Stevens for running back to his car to get my jersey! THANK YOU CALGARY CYCLE - WE HAD A BLAST!!
CODY RATTE
CALGARY CYCLE DH RACE TEAM
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