Race Report: Sea Otter Classic, Monterey CA, April 18-22, 2012
The biggest cycling festival in the world was held this past week in Monterey, CA. The 22nd Annual Sea Otter Classic is a four-day “Celebration of Cycling” that welcomes nearly 10,000 athletes and 50,000 race fans and other bicycle enthusiasts. There are races held for nearly every discipline of cycling, and for every age and type of rider. The Sea Otter Classic also hosts the largest consumer bike exposition in North America. The Expo holds hundreds of vendors who display new products and offer samples and bargains. McKenna made her way up to the Laguna Seca Raceway, which was the host for the event, to race her first, of hopefully many, Sea Otter Classics. She was registered for both the downhill and the dual slalom, and at registration she discovered, being 9 years old, she was the youngest female in both races by several years. McKenna was extremely excited about racing such famous and well-known race tracks. Registration was followed by a walk down the downhill course. McKenna saw that the track was not very technical, but high-speed with a lot of pedaling. She was thinking she could do really well on such a course.
After practicing on Thursday and Friday, downhill racing began early Saturday morning. McKenna did one practice run just to make sure she knew all her lines, and to see the condition of the track after two straight days of practice. She was one of the first riders to go which was a nice change from her usually being the last rider down. She set off out of the start hut pedaling hard into the first jump. She hit all her lines, pedaled everywhere she could and try to carry speed through every corner. She got to the bottom without any incident, crossing the line with a 3:44, and very happy with her performance. She ended up in 21st place in her category of Beginner Open Women (all ages) out of 32 racers, and was 3rd of the under 18 women (out of 6).
McKenna's dual slalom race was held on Sunday morning. She was able to get several practice runs in over the previous three days and was having a ton of fun on the course. She qualified in 2nd place, 2 seconds of the first place qualifier, between a 12 year old and a 16 year old. McKenna would race the 3rd place qualifier first, and she beat her on both the red course and the blue course and advanced to the final. In the final she met up with the first place qualifier, a 12 year old BMX racer form Lincoln, CA. McKenna got the red course
first, and having some trouble coming out of the gate, lost to the other girl by 1.4 seconds. They switched lanes for the next race, and McKenna had a great run on the blue course, beating the girl, but by not quite enough. She missed out on first place by only 1/10th
of a second. She was very happy and satisfied with her 2nd place result in her first ever dual slalom race.
Sunday afternoon saw the long weekend come to a close, except for the long drive ahead. McKenna had the greatest time and some of the most fun racing she has ever done. There were so many great moments throughout the week. Besides the racing, some of the highlights for McKenna were: the visit to the Monterey Aquarium; meeting so many World Champions and having them sign her shirt; getting to hang out so much with one of her many heroes, 2011 Junior DH World Champ, Manon Carpenter; watching Jill Kintner win both the downhill and dual slalom and then giving McKenna her plush Sea Otter prize; meeting the amazing Tara Llanes; and lastly, being cheered on by the legend herself, Leigh Donovan! McKenna would like to say a huge thanks to all and everyone who helped make her first Sea Otter such an amazing trip.
