Sea Otter Classic 2009
Laguna Seca Raceway, Salinas, CA
Racers Present- Josh Horowitz, Mitch Gantz, Justin Kerr, Matt Landen, Rudy Napolitano, Tommy Nelson, Travis Wilkerson
Sea Otter is the largest bike festival in North America. It happens every year around mid-April, just when it is starting to get very warm in southern California, yet still chilly and cool in northern California. Usually we are blessed with wind, rain, and temperatures in the 50s. It also presents the first opportunity each year for manufacturers to showcase their new products to vendors, as there is a pretty expansive expo set up in the infield of the raceway.
Liquid Fitness/Adageo Energy made the trek north with its newest addition, Kiwi Justin Kerr. Justin is a returning rider from last year, but because of the way the race season is in the southern hemisphere, he wasn’t able to join us until about a week ago, so this would be his first foray into battle for 2009 with the team.
New to the race program this year, the criterium on the racetrack presented an opportunity for the team to open their legs up before the harder road race and circuit race later in the week. It proved to be a difficult test, as from the gun there were attacks and splits in the field. Tommy managed to make the break, and was in a few moves that attacked out of the break, before he was simply outgunned by Bissell’s team of 12 riders. The got a trio of riders off the front of the break, and never opened more than a few seconds of a gap on it, but held it to the line. Tommy wound up 15th in the sprint. Travis and Rudy were in the mix in the group behind, and Travis wound up taking the field sprint.
The road race is always hotly contested. There is a lot of nervous energy, because there is a 5 mile neutral section where the riders follow a motorcycle and get led out onto the open road. The only thing this does is allow us the opportunity to fight for position without really going anywhere. We got going, Tommy was in an early move, and then the break of the day went. Levi Leipheimer drove it, and while Tommy made an attempt to bridge across with Dan Holloway of Garmin-Slipstream, he never made it. In the finale, Rudy, Matt, and Tommy each took a shot at getting up the road, with Tommy’s final attack being the one that stuck. He came across the line solo for another 15th place, with his pain face on.
The circuit race was different from years past, in that this year it wasn’t raining, it was actually hot. An early break went with Tommy in it, and he got left out in the wind after one of the riders attacked after his pull. He rolled back to the field, and committed to pulling the break back so that his teammates could get across. With the gap now at a manageable level, and with Rudy, Justin, Matt, and Travis still sitting pretty, each rider took a shot at getting in a move. The final selection ended up with Bissell again getting multiple riders in the break, and Matt, Rudy, and Justin finished in the chase group. Each of them deserves special recognition just for finishing this race, because it sure is a difficult one.
Overall, this was an incredibly successful Sea Otter campaign for Liquid Fitness/Adageo energy. We were a factor in every race, all three days, and we got a couple of top-20 results against a very tough pro field. Justin Kerr showed us why he is a great rider, doing some amazing work for the team days after getting here from New Zealand. Matt worked tirelessly for the team, as always. Travis was in the hunt and showed he has good criterium form. Mitch learned a lot against a very tough pro field, and is becoming a great teammate, as well as a great talent for the future. Josh worked like a dog for our sponsors, making sure we are an effective marketing tool for them. Tommy provided comic relief.
We need to thank not only our great sponsors, Adageo Energy, MBT, Rudy Project, Rapidade, PV Bicycle Center, and Paramount Farms, but also our awesome host houses. They treated us to a barbecue on Friday night, and without the random acts of kindness from fans of the sport, we would be left cramming 7 or 8 guys into a small Motel 6 room.
