The next Sea Otter I see I am eating him.
by Clint Hosman on April 17th, 2007
“They all can’t be sunny rides.� Said the guy next to me as we made the climb up the final ridge to laguna Seca. I had been trailing him for the past half mile and finally caught up to him. It was the day before I raced at Sea Otter and the rain was pouring down like it had last year. The water whipped the right side of my face as we rode and I couldn’t get a good look at the guy but we continued to talk as we finished the last couple miles of the ride.
Sunday as I lined up I looked at my competition and thought “There are way less people then at NOVA, I got top 20 in the bag.� We took off from the line to a thundering applause from the crowed yelling and pounding on the sponsorship signs. We all soon feel into a rhythm as we peddled around the race way. Once off the fire road and onto the single track I was feeling good sitting in about middle of the pack and thinking I was in a good position to ride out the first lap and then make my move on the second.
Once we passed the feed zone on the back side and began to climb back out of a canyon I began to feel my left thigh twitch. Not good, so I slammed some Cyto but it was too late. My muscles began to cramp in both legs and by the top of the climb I was falling out of position. I stretched my back and got some temporary relief but by the end of the first lap where I had spoken to the guy in the rain the cramping was back and I continued to lose ground.
Now, there is a point in your mind when you know you have lost it and you have a decision to make. Do I call it a day? Or do I man up and complete the race? This moment came to me when I heard the lead moto for the pro women creeping up behind me, “I am getting lapped� I thought. And I was right. It wasn’t but ten minutes later that I was passed by the first pro woman, a few minutes later another came by, then another, and another. By this time I am pleading with my now locked out legs, to just give me five more miles as the last of the lead women passed me by.
It is disheartening to look down at your thighs seeing them twitch back and forth. After months of training this is what they are reduced to, quivering in pain begging me to stop with nothing left to give. I couldn’t stop though, I know from past experience that the minute I stopped peddling even for a second it would be all over and I wouldn’t move again. So I kept going to the finish. There was no one there to cheer like when I had left, just the shelled remnants of the Semi Pro group straggling in. I was 50th out of 56.
It wasn’t until the end of my ride in the rain that I got a good look at the guy I was riding next to. It was Gary Fisher; maybe some of you ride a bike with his name on it. I would like to say I made a good impression on him and I will be riding for him next year but we parted and he wished me good luck in my race. But like he said they can’t all be sunny days.
That’s why we compete though isn’t it? To see how far we can go? How much punishment we can take before we quit? I sure don’t get paid to kick my own ass on a weekly base. The thing is though, I didn’t quit even when I new it was hopeless. I will be back there three weeks from now at Fontana and this time I will be hydrated and ready to dish out some payback.
April 18th, 2007 at 10:34 am
Excellent race report! Yes indeed, it is the quest to see how far you can go that compels us all to compete.
April 18th, 2007 at 10:39 am
Hey, I just noticed the bike. Nice 29er! What tires are you running?
April 18th, 2007 at 2:53 pm
Right now I am running WTB Nano Raptors. I run them tubeless with Stan’s and don’t have any problems. They are Stan’s rims with a King hub in back and the Cannondale hub up front. I am just bidding my time until I can get Maxxis Crosssmarks though.