Sea Otter Spectator

Thursday the races at the Sea Otter were pretty confused. I talked to a woman who said, Saturday
morning, that she had been there since Tuesday and had only gotten in 1.5 hours of racing. Needless
to say there was quite a bit of grousing.

Friday morning I looked on the Web site and it said that "Stage 4 Saturday races in Santa Cruz have
been moved to Laguna Seca." Since the Friday Stage 3 races were being held in Santa Cruz I was
confused. Nevertheless I drove down to Laguna Seca and got there really early so that if necessary I
could drive back up to Santa Cruz.

At Laguna Seca I talked to a bunch of racers out in the parking lot and they all said that as far as
they knew that the Crits were still being held in Santa Cruz as originally scheduled. I walked over
to the registration tent and asked there what was up and they said, "Whoah, Dude, we don't have that
kind of information, you have to ask at the information booth." While looking for that I found the
bulletin board that had all of the schedules on it. It didn't list any changes in venue. On the way
back to the parking lot there was another bullletin board at the Bridgestone Bridge and it too had
no announcements about the Crit. So my brother and I decided to drive back up to Santa Cruz. - a
trip of over 40 miles on roads that are known for their traffic.

When we got to Santa Cruz and found the Crit site they were running races. I didn't see any Pro
level road bikes but what the heck. I went down and we saw the last 15 minutes of the Fat Boy Crit
and saw Steve Tilman blow the doors off of all of the young guys hands down.

Then everyone started leaving and the cops opened up the road! I finally found someone that knew
what was going on - the PRO ROAD crits had been canceled because of the condition of the course. I
walked part of it and I couldn't believe that anyone would even run a crit on those roads. On the
front straight there were some 1.5" open cracks in the road. Not deep but square sided and would
easily bring down a road bike if you stuck a wheel in it. One of the roads on the back of the course
had pot holes and was extremely rough.

Friday's absolutely perfect weather (in which Mike Creed won the Circuit race that I was missing)
turned into some nasty looking weather with occassional showers on Saturday. The early part of the
day was OK and they started the Pro Road race on time. The men went off before the women which I
think was counter to the schedule and perhaps the only smart change I saw all weekend.

While the men were out on the course we got only VERY spotty reports about what was happening. In
the meantime they held the amateur circuit races on Laguna Seca Raceway. I was at the top of the
course and was really impressed with the Cat 2's. They held a tight group for most of the race
though there was a solo breakaway that took the prize.

Finally the Men's race was announced as betting back close to the race course and we moved down from
the top of the course down to the finish line. The reporting on what was going on was terrible. No
one seemed to know what was going on and who was doing what. They annouced that Flash Gordon Fraser
had gone down in a crash with an Ofoto guy and that he was out. Danny Pate had a long term breakaway
with some other guy and they were reeled in 15 miles out. At about 6 miles out Matt Decanio soloed
away from the pack and pulled out a shocking lead. When he entered the Raceway, for the start of two
laps on the course, he was at least a minute up. There was a solo Posty chasing but I never found
out who and he never got close. On the second and final lap the Posty was back in the pack and
Decanio was way up the road. The group sprint at the end was won by - Flash Gordon who it turns out
wasn't dropped though he surely was bloodied.

The women's race had ONE announcement that I heard while they were on the road - two women were in a
breakaway. We heard not another word until a group of four women came onto the track and I had to
look up the results the next day since the announcers didn't seem to know who the finishers were.

Two years ago the Sea Otter was kind of confused but not too bad. They did some things that really
pissed people off like disqualifying anyone that crossed the finishing line twice with they ankle
bracelet on. I heard them telling people - we announced that you would be disqualified if you did. I
was there at the start of that race and they DID NOT announce that. They disqualified quite a few
people and many others never showed up in the finishing lists.

Last year there was a lot of confusion as well but at least they stuck to the schedule as much as at
most bike races.

This year was sort of an announcement that they couldn't care less for the spectators. And they
screwed around many of the racers as well.

The Sea Otter site is a great one for bicycle racing. The Monterey Cannery Row Crit from the last
couple of years was fantastic. Why they had to move most of the races off of Laguna Seca this
year is beyond
me. They really screwed up when they designed the Redwood City race course. And the Santa Cruz crit
course would have embarassed Velo Promo who does so many races in the area.

I have tried attending Sea Otter for the last five years and every year it has gotten worse. If
these promoters cannot get their act together perhaps it would just as well if this race just
disappeared. I sure am not going to bother going there again next year.

 

Regarding changes in venue, best to check the Sea Otter website at http://www.SeaOtterClassic.com.
They had posted the changes for the Santa Cruz event at least a couple days prior to the event.

Running the Sea Otter is a massive undertaking; it amazes me that it can be pulled off at all. Rick
Sutton most certainly has given back more to the sport than he's taken. Unfortunately, we're not a
sport that's rolling in $$$, so events like this are highly dependent upon the efforts of many
hard-working volunteers, people who most likely haven't had the opportunity to work together except
at the Sea Otter.

I'm obviously very familiar with what went on in Redwood City; there are a great many letters about
it in Cyclingnews.com and Velonews (http://velonews.com/news/fea/3737.0.html,
http://velonews.com/race/dom/articles/3721.0.html, and Vaughter's piece at
http://www.velonews.com/news/fea/3722.0.html). Unfortunately I can't locate the URL for the many
letters to Cyclingnews.

What I'm not sure of is if I was part of the solution or the problem. I did what I could to
encourage people to get out and watch the event (in Redwood City), and publicized the need for
volunteers. We even closed down the shop during the event, so our staff could watch the race (and
encourage our customers to do so as well). But perhaps I overlooked opportunities to get more
involved and try and help with the actual event? Maybe those of us who have identified all manner
of issues that kept the race from being as safe as it could have been ought to step up to the plate
and say hey, if we're going to try and bring big-time bike racing to Redwood City, it's going to
need our help.

Rather than throwing around all manner of opinions about what went wrong, I think Redwood City needs
help from people willing to identify those things *and* offer to help implement changes to make next
year's race a grand event indeed. For example, I think one of the main problems for safety was the
fact that local residents, despite having been served three separate times with notices saying what
was going to happen, still didn't seem to be aware of the magnitude of what was involved. Why?
Because they saw nothing on the roads ahead of time to indicate anything was going happen on April
9th. My idea? Get traffic barricades (those saw-horse type of things that you usually see with
blinking lights on top of them) all over the course, with notices that say "April 9th, road subject
to closure for bicycle race from 9am-2pm, suggest alternate route." In some areas, it could notify
residents that there would be no on-street parking on that day. I live just of the course, so it's
pretty easy for me to identify where this might need to be done.

The trick is figuring out how to become part of the solution. How do I offer something constructive,
and help to implement it if possible, and keep everything in a really positive light? But I'm going
to try. The Sea Otter has the potential to blossom into something that's recognized not just by
those of us already into cycling, but the public as large. This is an opportunity not to be wasted.

--Mike-- Chain Reaction Bicycles http://www.ChainReactionBicycles.com

"Tom Kunich" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
> Thursday the races at the Sea Otter were pretty confused. I talked to a woman who said, Saturday
> morning, that she had been there since Tuesday and had only gotten in 1.5 hours of racing.
> Needless to say there was quite a bit of grousing.
>
> Friday morning I looked on the Web site and it said that "Stage 4 Saturday races in Santa Cruz
> have been moved to Laguna Seca." Since the Friday Stage 3 races were being held in Santa Cruz I
> was confused. Nevertheless I drove down to Laguna Seca and got there really early so that if
> necessary I could drive back up to Santa Cruz.
>
> At Laguna Seca I talked to a bunch of racers out in the parking lot and they all said that as far
> as they knew that the Crits were still being held in Santa Cruz as originally scheduled. I walked
> over to the registration tent and asked there what was up and they said, "Whoah, Dude, we don't
> have that kind of information, you have to ask at the information booth." While looking for that I
> found the bulletin board that had all of the schedules on it. It didn't list any changes in venue.
> On the way back to the parking lot there was another bullletin board at the Bridgestone Bridge and
> it too had no announcements about the Crit. So my brother and I decided to drive back up to Santa
> Cruz. - a trip of over 40 miles on roads that are known for their traffic.
>
> When we got to Santa Cruz and found the Crit site they were running races. I didn't see any Pro
> level road bikes but what the heck. I went down and we saw the last 15 minutes of the Fat Boy Crit
> and saw Steve Tilman blow the doors off of all of the young guys hands down.
>
> Then everyone started leaving and the cops opened up the road! I finally found someone that knew
> what was going on - the PRO ROAD crits had been canceled because of the condition of the course. I
> walked part of it and I couldn't believe that anyone would even run a crit on those roads. On the
> front straight there were some 1.5" open cracks in the road. Not deep but square sided and would
> easily bring down a road bike if you stuck a wheel in it. One of the roads on the back of the
> course had pot holes and was extremely rough.
>
> Friday's absolutely perfect weather (in which Mike Creed won the Circuit race that I was missing)
> turned into some nasty looking weather with occassional showers on Saturday. The early part of the
> day was OK and they started the Pro Road race on time. The men went off before the women which I
> think was counter to the schedule and perhaps the only smart change I saw all weekend.
>
> While the men were out on the course we got only VERY spotty reports about what was happening. In
> the meantime they held the amateur circuit races on Laguna Seca Raceway. I was at the top of the
> course and was really impressed with the Cat 2's. They held a tight group for most of the race
> though there was a solo breakaway that took the prize.
>
> Finally the Men's race was announced as betting back close to the race course and we moved down
> from the top of the course down to the finish line. The reporting on what was going on was
> terrible. No one seemed to know what was going on and who was doing what. They annouced that Flash
> Gordon Fraser had gone down in a crash with an Ofoto guy and that he was out. Danny Pate had a
> long term breakaway with some other guy and they were reeled in 15 miles out. At about 6 miles out
> Matt Decanio soloed away from the pack and pulled out a shocking lead. When he entered the
> Raceway, for the start of two laps on the course, he was at least a minute up. There was a solo
> Posty chasing but I never found out who and he never got close. On the second and final lap the
> Posty was back in the pack and Decanio was way up the road. The group sprint at the end was won by
> - Flash Gordon who it turns out wasn't dropped though he surely was bloodied.
>
> The women's race had ONE announcement that I heard while they were on the road - two women were
> in a breakaway. We heard not another word until a group of four women came onto the track and I
> had to look up the results the next day since the announcers didn't seem to know who the
> finishers were.
>
> Two years ago the Sea Otter was kind of confused but not too bad. They did some things that really
> pissed people off like disqualifying anyone that crossed the finishing line twice with they ankle
> bracelet on. I heard them telling people - we announced that you would be disqualified if you did.
> I was there at the start of that race and they DID NOT announce that. They disqualified quite a
> few people and many others never showed up in the finishing lists.
>
> Last year there was a lot of confusion as well but at least they stuck to the schedule as much as
> at most bike races.
>
> This year was sort of an announcement that they couldn't care less for the spectators. And they
> screwed around many of the racers as well.
>
> The Sea Otter site is a great one for bicycle racing. The Monterey Cannery Row Crit from the last
> couple of years was fantastic. Why they had to move most of the races off of Laguna Seca this year
> is beyond
> me. They really screwed up when they designed the Redwood City race course. And the Santa Cruz
> crit course would have embarassed Velo Promo who does so many races in the area.
>
> I have tried attending Sea Otter for the last five years and every year it has gotten worse. If
> these promoters cannot get their act together perhaps it would just as well if this race just
> disappeared. I sure am not going to bother going there again next year.

 

"Mike Jacoubowsky" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:y%[email protected]...
> Rather than throwing around all manner of opinions about what went wrong,
I
> think Redwood City needs help from people willing to identify those things *and* offer to help
> implement changes to make next year's race a grand
event
> indeed. For example, I think one of the main problems for safety was the fact that local
> residents, despite having been served three separate times with notices saying what was going to
> happen, still didn't seem to be
aware
> of the magnitude of what was involved. Why? Because they saw nothing on the roads ahead of time to
> indicate anything was going happen on April
9th.
> My idea? Get traffic barricades (those saw-horse type of things that you usually see with blinking
> lights on top of them) all over the course, with notices that say "April 9th, road subject to
> closure for bicycle race from 9am-2pm, suggest alternate route." In some areas, it could notify
residents
> that there would be no on-street parking on that day. I live just of the course, so it's pretty
> easy for me to identify where this might need to be done.
>
This is actually a very good suggestion. For the San Francisco Grand Prix, they actually put up
signs informing people they could park on several streets in North Beach (every try to find
parking down there?) and close off the street the night before. Something similar could be done in
Redwood City....

 

In article <[email protected]>, bfd <[email protected]> wrote:

> "Mike Jacoubowsky" <[email protected]> wrote in message
> news:y%[email protected]...
> > Rather than throwing around all manner of opinions about what went wrong,
> I
> > think Redwood City needs help from people willing to identify those things *and* offer to help
> > implement changes to make next year's race a grand
> event
> > indeed. For example, I think one of the main problems for safety was the fact that local
> > residents, despite having been served three separate times with notices saying what was going to
> > happen, still didn't seem to be
> aware
> > of the magnitude of what was involved. Why? Because they saw nothing on the roads ahead of time
> > to indicate anything was going happen on April
> 9th.
> > My idea? Get traffic barricades (those saw-horse type of things that you usually see with
> > blinking lights on top of them) all over the course, with notices that say "April 9th, road
> > subject to closure for bicycle race from 9am-2pm, suggest alternate route." In some areas, it
> > could notify
> residents
> > that there would be no on-street parking on that day. I live just of the course, so it's pretty
> > easy for me to identify where this might need to be done.
> >
> This is actually a very good suggestion. For the San Francisco Grand Prix, they actually put up
> signs informing people they could park on several

Even without parked cars on the side of the course and the roads closed to traffic I have questions
about the safety of putting a 150-200 rider field on roads that narrow and twisting. Remember there
will be a large number of cars following the race ( team cars officials cars, motors etc) and
getting these official vehicles past even small groups of riders on most of those narrow roads is
going to be a problem. Due to the large number of turns is a follow vehicle is speeding past riders
who are off the back the follow car will have little reaction time if they come flying around a turn
and there are riders in the road from a crash. Even at non-race speeds it was challenging to get
past dropped rders and then stary out of the rider's way on some of the downhill sections.

Casey

> streets in North Beach (every try to find parking down there?) and close off the street the night
> before. Something similar could be done in Redwood City....

 

"Casey Kerrigan" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:130420032119319545%[email protected]...
> In article <[email protected]>, bfd <[email protected]> wrote:
>
> > "Mike Jacoubowsky" <[email protected]> wrote in message
> > news:y%[email protected]...
> > > Rather than throwing around all manner of opinions about what went wrong,
> > I
> > > think Redwood City needs help from people willing to identify those things *and* offer to help
> > > implement changes to make next year's race a grand
> > event
> > > indeed. For example, I think one of the main problems for safety was the fact that local
> > > residents, despite having been served three separate times with notices saying what was going
> > > to happen, still didn't seem to be
> > aware
> > > of the magnitude of what was involved. Why? Because they saw nothing on the roads ahead of
> > > time to indicate anything was going happen on April
> > 9th.
> > > My idea? Get traffic barricades (those saw-horse type of things that you usually see with
> > > blinking lights on top of them) all over the course, with notices that say "April 9th, road
> > > subject to closure for bicycle race from 9am-2pm, suggest alternate route." In some areas, it
> > > could notify
> > residents
> > > that there would be no on-street parking on that day. I live just of the course, so it's
> > > pretty easy for me to identify where this might need to be done.
> > >
> > This is actually a very good suggestion. For the San Francisco Grand Prix, they actually put up
> > signs informing people they could park on several
>
> Even without parked cars on the side of the course and the roads closed to traffic I have
> questions about the safety of putting a 150-200 rider field on roads that narrow and twisting.
> Remember there will be a large number of cars following the race ( team cars officials cars,
> motors etc) and getting these official vehicles past even small groups of riders on most of those
> narrow roads is going to be a problem. Due to the large number of turns is a follow vehicle is
> speeding past riders who are off the back the follow car will have little reaction time if they
> come flying around a turn and there are riders in the road from a crash. Even at non-race speeds
> it was challenging to get past dropped rders and then stary out of the rider's way on some of the
> downhill sections.
>
> Casey

Not really knowing the area but just going off the pictures I have seen on Cyclingnews.com, why
would you run a bike race through residential neighborhoods like that? It seems to me to be a recipe
for trouble. Dave

 

> Not really knowing the area but just going off the pictures I have seen on
Cyclingnews.com, why
> would you run a bike race through residential neighborhoods like that? It
seems to me to be a recipe
> for trouble. Dave

#1: Because it's a beautiful area to run a race, with varied topography to
make it interesting.

#2: Because you want to involve a community (in this case, Rick Sutton's
home town) in a major cycling endeavor, and hope that it has an effect on improving awareness of the
sport and making people think that bikes are cool, not just toys.

#3: Because cycling doesn't get much coverage in the press, and holding
races out in the middle of nowhere doesn't help in this regard.

#4: Because the US isn't the only place where major races are run on
relatively narrow roads. I've been to the past three TDFs, and sometimes the race is routed down
something akin to a paved cow path. Now granted such cowpaths generally don't have lots of driveways
and traffic!

The problems of running a major event in a suburban arena aren't insurmountable. Obviously they
aren't easily dealt with either. But hopefully this will have been an opportunity to learn how to
pull this off better next time.

And, by the way, it wasn't even close to the most dangerous race I'd ever been involved in. That
would have been the Junior event of the Tour of Lake Tahoe, back in '75 or so. We were routed
counter-clockwise around the back (Nevada) side of the lake, with a finish line that was supposed to
be outside of Stateline, before you got to the Casino area. Well, the guys in the car who were going
to set up the finish line ran out of gas before they got there.

Picture 40-50 testosterone-crazed 16 & 17 year olds racing through Stateline, on the main drag,
through the most heavily-congested area around. We were on sidewalks, on the wrong side of the road,
just about anyplace we could get through. Did it occur to us that something was amiss? Yes, about
the time we got to the "Y" (Highway 50/89). Amazingly, nobody was killed, or even injured. That
assumes no heart attacks to people in cars, nor accidents to one of several cops we picked up in our
mad dash through town. Also amazingly, they apparently bought our story and left us alone.

--Mike-- Chain Reaction Bicycles http://www.ChainReactionBicycles.com

 

"Mike Jacoubowsky" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
> > Not really knowing the area but just going off the pictures I have seen on
> Cyclingnews.com, why
> > would you run a bike race through residential neighborhoods like that? It
> seems to me to be a recipe
> > for trouble. Dave
>
> #1: Because it's a beautiful area to run a race, with varied topography to
> make it interesting.
>
> #2: Because you want to involve a community (in this case, Rick Sutton's
> home town) in a major cycling endeavor, and hope that it has an effect on improving awareness of
> the sport and making people think that bikes are cool, not just toys.
>
> #3: Because cycling doesn't get much coverage in the press, and holding
> races out in the middle of nowhere doesn't help in this regard.
>
> #4: Because the US isn't the only place where major races are run on
> relatively narrow roads. I've been to the past three TDFs, and sometimes the race is routed down
> something akin to a paved cow path. Now granted such cowpaths generally don't have lots of
> driveways and traffic!

I would be concerned about the resident that isn't happy about having his neighborhood shut down
and backs his car out in front of said peloton. You can't compare the Euro scene to the USA, they
(europe) look forward to seeing bikes race, they don't see them as inconviencing their
neighborhood Dave

 

In article <[email protected]>, "Dave" <[email protected]> wrote:

>
> I would be concerned about the resident that isn't happy about having his neighborhood shut down
> and backs his car out in front of said peloton. You can't compare the Euro scene to the USA, they
> (europe) look forward to seeing bikes race, they don't see them as inconviencing their
> neighborhood Dave

I saw a woman pull out in front of a girl who was riding up the road just after the last follow
car came through. She looks back and must have seen the girl, who was shouting, "Hey, hey, HEY!"
as she piled on the brakes. Woman keeps backing and says, "Get over it!" as she drives past. A
friend lives in that upper neighborhood (on Lakeview) said that, while he knew about the race, he
was surprised that there had been no flyering of the area in the days leading up to it. I also
noted that the lead cops came through in a huge bunch at least a minute and a half in front of
the first car in the convoy. It probably was longer. Some sections of the course were narrower
than I thought was optimal. The ability to get team cars through (as was addressed in another
post) would have been a problem. Just after the race went through the last time, a semi hauling
sod slowly ground its way up the road. It had to stop and back up to make some of the turns!
You're correct about people here (mostly) feeling inconvenienced by a race. It would have been
much worse on a weekend, I suspect.

--
tanx, Howard

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Mike Jacoubowsky wrote:

> Picture 40-50 testosterone-crazed 16 & 17 year olds racing through Stateline, on the main drag,
> through the most heavily-congested area around. We were on sidewalks, on the wrong side of the
> road, just about anyplace we could get through. Did it occur to us that something was amiss? Yes,
> about the time we got to the "Y" (Highway 50/89). Amazingly, nobody was killed, or even injured.
> That assumes no heart attacks to people in cars, nor accidents to one of several cops we picked up
> in our mad dash through town. Also amazingly, they apparently bought our story and left us alone.

i've just been quickly skimming thru this thread, but i'm sure glad i didn't miss this story.

heather

 

"Tom Kunich" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:<[email protected]>...

<snip>
>
> When we got to Santa Cruz and found the Crit site they were running races. I didn't see any Pro
> level road bikes but what the heck. I went down and we saw the last 15 minutes of the Fat Boy Crit
> and saw Steve Tilman blow the doors off of all of the young guys hands down.
>
> Then everyone started leaving and the cops opened up the road! I finally found someone that knew
> what was going on - the PRO ROAD crits had been canceled because of the condition of the course. I
> walked part of it and I couldn't believe that anyone would even run a crit on those roads. On the
> front straight there were some 1.5" open cracks in the road. Not deep but square sided and would
> easily bring down a road bike if you stuck a wheel in it. One of the roads on the back of the
> course had pot holes and was extremely rough.
>

You forgot to mention the speed bumps on the back side. Actually, the roads were not that bad.
Within a few laps you pretty much knew where to be and where not to be. There are plenty of crits
with worse pavement issues. My complaint against the course was that they had absolutely nothing
protecting riders from hitting fire hydrants, steel poles, etc. Not a hay bale anywhere. Speaking as
someone who has seem a teammate die from crashing into that kind of thing, I think they were pretty
negligent about safety.

...
> Last year there was a lot of confusion as well but at least they stuck to the schedule as much as
> at most bike races.
>
> This year was sort of an announcement that they couldn't care less for the spectators. And they
> screwed around many of the racers as well.

I somewhat agree about the spectators. It's a participation event, not really a spectator event. I
mean they cater to every kind of rider--road, crit, mountain, downhill--and at all levels. That's
what is cool about Sea Otter but it seems that is also what is getting them into trouble. If it
continues, I bet it gets scaled back some. I say keep the amateur road and circuit events and
replace the Pro stage race with a one-day big-money Pro race on Laguna Seca itself.

Mark Fennell

 

Howard Kveck <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:<[email protected]>...

(snip)
> Just after the race went through the last time, a semi hauling sod slowly ground its way up the
> road. It had to stop and back up to make some of the turns!

I saw that semi coming down from the top of the course when I figured the pack was 5-10 minutes
away. I went and warned the nearest course marshal and asked if they could call somebody (they
couldn't). The marshal talked to the driver, and he graciously pulled into the cul-de-sac, clear of
the course, and shut his truck off. After the pack went by, he backed out and continued on his way.
This guy was first rate.

Al Wlliams

 

In article <[email protected]>, [email protected] (Al
Williams) wrote:

> I saw that semi coming down from the top of the course when I figured the pack was 5-10 minutes
> away. I went and warned the nearest course marshal and asked if they could call somebody (they
> couldn't). The marshal talked to the driver, and he graciously pulled into the cul-de-sac, clear
> of the course, and shut his truck off. After the pack went by, he backed out and continued on his
> way. This guy was first rate.
>
> Al Wlliams

That sounds pretty cool. He looked to be in a pretty good mood as he went by - unlike the people
in a couple of the cars behind him... It would have been a pretty big mess if he hadn't pulled off.

--
tanx, Howard

Read. Think. Type. Send.

remove YOUR SHOES to reply, k?

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