Sea Otter Classic 2008

As a general rule I try to avoid talking solely about how my race went and how it played out etc.  However in this case, due to great demand, I am leaving the rule.  I present The Sea Otter Classic, Pro Men XC 2008 through my eyes.

I rolled out the door of my hotel and into my red mustang rental car along with Brian and Sager with about two hours until start time.  After shaving some weight off of the rental's tires, we arrived  at purple parking #11.  After the 15 min walk to our tent, we had about an hour until start time, so I got ready quickly and headed out for my warm up.  I warmed up on the Laguna Seca raceway for a little bit and then heard last call to staging.  I was standing at the back of the flock of sheep, when I heard my name called. I had been chosen, unfortunately nobody believed that this skinny kid who has a shocking resemblance to Ronald McDonald was being called up.  Luckily for me Shep was standing there and told everybody to let me through.  Front row call up.  Very Nice.

The start of the race went backwards along the raceway for about half a mile.  There is very little more frightening than a group of 100 amped mountain bikers all in a big group on the road.  I didn't leave the top 5, and even led up the tailwind climb out of the raceway.  Unfortunately 6'2 143lbs guys don't go down hill real fast and the leaders gaped me.  I spent the middle 3/4 of the race with the Israeli national champion and the Costa Rican champion.  On the start of the long dirt road climb with a head wind I took a min pull and could see the lead group of 7 about 45 sec. ahead.  I asked for Rotem (Israel) to pull and he did, for 2 seconds.  Then I pulled for another minute and he did the same pathetic 2 second pull.  I told him to help me some more and for Costa Rica to help.  Rotem said that he was doing all the work and told me to work, so I said, "Fine, I'll work" and attacked.  I dropped them easily and was now on my own to catch the leaders.  Fortunately the wind was a big deterrent for the leaders to work hard because nobody wanted to give the others a free ride.  This allowed me to catch them, however it was not without a tremendous effort and lots of pain.  It took the majority of the climb to do, but I came through to start my second lap in the lead group, so it was well worth it.  Ohran saw me and couldn't believe it.  When I grabbed my bottle from him he looked like he was in shock.  I was in shock.  I looked around and knew that I was most likely going to finish top ten.  I was excited, then I realized that I was with the leader and all podium spots.  I looked around the group of seven thinking, "OK, who can I beat?  Can I get on the box?"  My answer in my head was, "Nope, no way.  What are you even doing up here in the first place?"

On the first decent Shep let a gap develop and I had to sprint around him and try to get back up to the group.  I hit some sand funny and almost went down and Shep caught back up to me.  Then we started the single track climb.  I could see up the trail a little ways and saw Sid and Decker about 5 sec ahead of me and Trebon, Miguel, and Shultz about 10.  Miguel attacked and was gone.  I dropped Shep and thought, "wow, I am in sixth. This is huge."  At the top of the single track I caught Decker and Sid.  Sid attacked and I tried to jump on his wheel.  I couldn't quite do it and he stayed about 30 sec in front of me the rest of the race.  I did, however, drop Decker in the process.  Now I am thinking, "Oh man, I could podium! I need to catch one more person so that I have a little more room to play with."  I kept hammering and eventually I saw Trebon in front of me.  I thought, I can catch him.  I did catch him and passed him before the neutral feed zone on course.  He sat on my wheel for a while and I asked him to pull, but all I got back was, "I'm tired Mitchell".  Turns out he wasn't kidding.  I dropped him when the road went up again and I could see that Sid had caught Sam and they were still about 30 sec. up.  I went as hard as I could to try and close the gap, but it remained the same.  Half way up the final climb I looked back and saw nobody.  This was the best sight I have ever seen.  I now knew that I was going to finish fourth and that nobody was going to catch me.  I didn't know what to think, so I just kept hammering.  I saw Sam attack towards the top of the climb and leave Sid; I kept hammering.  I came across the line wanting to have both arms up, but felt it would be out of place since I didn't win, so I through up one arm. (I later heard that the announcer had said that I was Shep just before I did that and they thought that I was flipping them off).

I couldn't believe it.  People were running up to me congratulating me, telling me when the podium was, taking my picture, it was crazy.  I was getting texts and calls from people all across the nation.  It is amazing how fast news travels.  I still get a big grin on my face when I think, "I was 4th at Sea Otter."  Now I have to hit the books hard for two more days and then I am off to Germany for WC #2.