April 13/07 9:10 am - Sea Otter Classic: TT Report, Results & Photos

Posted by Editoress on 04/13/07
 

Canadian Men Dominate Sea Otter TT

Photos: Women, Men

The Sea Otter pro mountain bike competition opened today with a short 2.25 kilometre time trial in the Laguna Seca recreation area on the outskirts of Monterey, where Sea Otter is based. Canadians fared well, with Geoff Kabush (Maxxis) leading a 1-2-3 sweep of the men's podium, followed by the Rocky Mountain-Haywood duo of Max Plaxton and Seamus McGrath. Katerina Nash (Luna) beat her team mate Georgia Gould for the women's win, with Wendy Simms (Kona) the only Canadian to make it onto the podium in fifth place. Alison Sydor (Rocky Mountain-Haywood) and Mical Dyck (Trek-Terrascape) finished just behind in 6th and 7th respectively.

Unlike last year, when rain before and during the weekend turned the ground into an oozing mud bog, the conditions this year are near perfect - 18 to 20 Celcius, and sunny with little wind. This led to another problem, however - dry and loose conditions made cornering at speed a little dicey, and Espoir World Champion Nino Schurter (Swisspower) did wipe out on a turn.

The course was pretty straightforward - climb for approximately two minutes as you traverse your way to the top of a hill, a short run across the top ridge and then a fast, twisty descent to the finish. As Nash put it: "You warm up for 45 minutes, and then ... it feels like it's over just as you are getting started."

In the women's race, new Specialized signing Lene Byberg set the fast early time of 4:24, but was eclipsed by Dyck a few riders later, who knocked 5 seconds off. Dyck held the top spot for 5 finishers, until Gould took it down a further 7 seconds. Nash started nine spots behind her team mate, but initially, everyone (including the riders) thought that Gould had won by a few tenths of a second. It wasn't until just before the podium that Nash finally found out that she had won.

"I blew the second corner in the downhill, but I don't think I lost too much time. I hoping that Nova (in Arizona two weeks ago) was a warmup for here; I was riding really well until I had a problem (she crashed in the cross-country while in the top-5)."

Simms, who finished 6th at Nova, was pleased to make the podium. "It was an all right ride today. It is so short, and definitely very different riding this year compared to last. There were a couple of loose spots, but I was just more careful there. This is a good start for the weekend."

In the men's race it was Thomas Frischknecht (Swisspower) with the first sub-3:40 time. He was quickly supplanted by Jeremy Horgan-Kobelski (Subaru-Gary Fisher) at 3:37, and then Peraud knocked it to 3:34. He was immediately replaced at the top by Kabush, with a blazingly fast 3:26 - the only rider to go sub-3:30. Plaxton came closest, but he was still a significant 5 seconds in arrears. McGrath beat Peraud for third by a few tenths of a second.

Initially, everyone thought that Peraud had just beat out Kabush, and there was a rumour floating around that the French rider had been penalized for starting early, but "I was as fast as I could be," shrugged Peraud. "He was just faster."

Kabush, coming off wins at the Pan Am Championships in Argentina and both the short track and cross-country in Arizona (Nova National), looks to have unbeatable form at this time. "I felt pretty fast out there, and I ran Maxxlite 310's (310 gram tires), because every bit helps. I think that I rode everything smooth; there was just one spot in the downhill that I wasn't quite 'on'."

Plaxton, who won the Espoir Pan Am title, was looking to erase his bad luck in Arizona, when a mechanical took him out of the race early. "I was looking to win, so it's a little disappointing. I know my form is good, and this was a good test, but it is a weird sort of time trial because it is so much shorter than what we usually do."

Race Notes

- Liam Killeen (Specialized) is racing his first competition of the year, after a viral problem laid him low for part of the off-season. He didn't take the time trial too seriously "I 'warmed up' by riding from the trailer to the start ... I don't think that I am back to 100% yet, but that was still a pretty good performance I think." Peraud is also coming back from injury: "I had a problem with my knees at the beginning of the season because of a new pedal-shoe combination, so I did not train so much these past few weeks."

- It looks like the hopes for a sixth downhill World Cup (to replace the cancelled Angelfire race) are over. There was apparently quite a good opportunity for it to go to Whistler, but the mountain proved to be inflexible on scheduling around Crankworx at the end of July. The UCI and teams suggested one week after Crankworx and the teams would all stay, however, Whistler said no to this and suggested a midweek World Cup as a lead up to Crankworx. This was unacceptable to both the teams and the UCI, so the World Cup will now be 6 cross-country events and 5 downhill/4-cross ones.

Also, there was a strong move to have the event (both cross-country and gravity) move to Lake Placid. However, a shortage of time and required payments to Lake Placid sponsor Chevy squashed the deal - at least for this year