A Rainy Saturday at Sea Otter by Mike Norris

The debris flows that shut down the women's pro circuit race created delays for the start men's pro circuit race and general disruptions to all the events. The Sea Otter Organizers scrambled to stabilize the courses, for the sake of the competitors and the courses themselves. As the women's race was being stopped, and the announcer was listing all the other events that were being put on hold, he finished with a comment to the effect that the Slip 'n Slide competition would continue on schedule.

Initially the Men's race was delayed an hour from it's initial start time of 1 until 2PM. As the riders assembled, the rain continued and the track crew admitted things weren't stable yet, delaying the start until 2:30. Most riders returned to their team cars to keep warm, a few rode the course and felt that, while things weren't perfect, they were acceptable. One racer (Ken Akita) from Japan was racing unattached, so his trip back to his car was no doubt a long and chilled trip. Around 2:30, the race officials began congregating into position, but it was nearly 3PM before the race actual was started (my camera's clock is off by 1 hour. Someday I'll get it right).

There was some drizzle for the first bit of the race, but that soon died out and the wind picked up, drying the track and chilling everyone out. The sun was a nice break for me, but I'm not sure the riders felt much of it. The wind pushed the riders up the first part of the hill, became a hard cross wind throughout the Rahal straight pushing the riders into onto the warning track, and was a head wind down the corkscrew.

Andy Jaques-Mayne from California Giant Berry Farms was off the front within the first twenty minutes of the race, and was soon joined by Daniel Ramsey of Successful Living, and the two worked well together for most of the race. After about an hour and a half, they were caught by a chase group, but Daniel Ramsey attacked again, and stayed away for the rest of the race.