Sea Otter

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Well, you have to have been there. The Prologue was a mostly spectacular
downhill ride from the top of the corkscrew to the finish line. About 3
km or so. Average speeds were over 30 mph and the winning speed was
something like 38 mph. The men pack filler were as fast as the fastest
women. Horner was about 5 seconds back.

The circuit race yesterday was a long breakaway that the Webcor guys
held at 2 minutes and then slowly pulled back to 40 seconds by the end.
Horner was in the peloton and his some 45 second deficit wasn't looking
all that great. He also wasn't looking very strong.

Today Health Net was on the attack to take the winner's jersey. The 100
mile road race left at 10:30 or so and got back into the Laguna Seca
track for an additional 3 laps on the circuit. On the way up the hill
onto the track Horner EXPLODED away from the pack. He pulled out a 20
second advantage as he hit the line for the first of three laps.
Healthnet's Jones started after him and was obviously the only one in
the peloton capable of mounting any efforts at all.

All to naught though as Horner extended his lead to about a minute at
the finish line to win the second biggest stage race in California with
no one in sight.

Sea Otter was the usual combination of great venue, hundreds of racers
and moronic management. Monterey County apparently complained last year
because of the stoppage of traffic due to Laguna Seca emptying (as if
that doesn't happen regularly with the car races) so instead of simply
suggesting that Monterey County install a traffic light at the exit like
they feel not the slightest compunction to do in front of a shopping
center, Sea Otter staff instead routed traffic in a 8.5 mile roundabout
route. Pro team cars were taking over an hour to get off of the facility
yesterday. Somehow Sea Otter hasn't managed to figure out how to get
play-by-play from the elite road race so the Pro's left at 10:30 and we
had about one comment about it until Horner broke onto the reservation.

It is really frustrating that a race as important as Sea Otter and with
such great facilities manages to year after year insult virtually every
class of racer they can. It would be nice if there was at least a
modicum of professionalism amoung them but after 5 years of attendance
I've come to realize that we aren't going to see it and so Sea Otter
will always be second rate if they carry on at all with the Tour of
Georgia coming three days after the end of the elite races at Sea Otter.
Because of UCSF's great timing Healthnet only showed 6 riders and this
definitely showed in the results despite some great performances by
individual members.

Also, no one seemed to know where the press tent was nor had any idea of
how to get the finishing results for each race. "Duhhh, they'll post it
on the internet" - yeah, like last year, within the next three months.

In article <4081D987.77F3A3CA@yahoo.com>, Tom Kunich <cyclintom@yahoo.com>
wrote:

> Sea Otter was the usual combination of great venue, hundreds of racers
> and moronic management. Monterey County apparently complained last year
> because of the stoppage of traffic due to Laguna Seca emptying (as if
> that doesn't happen regularly with the car races) so instead of simply
> suggesting that Monterey County install a traffic light at the exit like
> they feel not the slightest compunction to do in front of a shopping
> center, Sea Otter staff instead routed traffic in a 8.5 mile roundabout
> route.

It's never a quick trip out of Laguna. I can't imagine there were more
spectators there for the SO than the motorcycle races (WSB in particular),
but it still had to be slow. I think it depends on where you park as to
where you get sent out. But where you park seems to depend on where you
entered the reserve. I've been sent out the way you described a few times
and it still seemed to be much faster than when I went out the front
entrance (in spite of that being roughly 15% the length of the back way).
The hold up there is the turn onto the highway (or actually the people
making a left turn onto it - because it's one lane down to that point,
they'd hold up the people who wanted to turn right).

At least it sounds like the races you saw were good, though.

--
tanx,
Howard

Q: Can we call it a quagmire yet?

remove YOUR SHOES to reply, ok?

We opened our booth at 8am and left just after 5pm each day. There really
was not a terrible traffic problem leaving from the marketplace area where
we were. On 68 there was a small amount of congestion on the way back to
Salinas where we stayed, but nothing that was nearly as unpleasant as the
610 Loop and 59 at 5pm in Houston. Now that's traffic!

Bruce




"Howard Kveck" <YOURhoward@h-SHOESbomb.com> wrote in message
news:YOURhoward-273B3D.22225217042004@netnews.comcast.net...
> In article <4081D987.77F3A3CA@yahoo.com>, Tom Kunich <cyclintom@yahoo.com>
> wrote:
>
> > Sea Otter was the usual combination of great venue, hundreds of racers
> > and moronic management. Monterey County apparently complained last year
> > because of the stoppage of traffic due to Laguna Seca emptying (as if
> > that doesn't happen regularly with the car races) so instead of simply
> > suggesting that Monterey County install a traffic light at the exit like
> > they feel not the slightest compunction to do in front of a shopping
> > center, Sea Otter staff instead routed traffic in a 8.5 mile roundabout
> > route.
>
> It's never a quick trip out of Laguna. I can't imagine there were more
> spectators there for the SO than the motorcycle races (WSB in particular),
> but it still had to be slow. I think it depends on where you park as to
> where you get sent out. But where you park seems to depend on where you
> entered the reserve. I've been sent out the way you described a few times
> and it still seemed to be much faster than when I went out the front
> entrance (in spite of that being roughly 15% the length of the back way).
> The hold up there is the turn onto the highway (or actually the people
> making a left turn onto it - because it's one lane down to that point,
> they'd hold up the people who wanted to turn right).
>
> At least it sounds like the races you saw were good, though.
>
> --
> tanx,
> Howard
>
> Q: Can we call it a quagmire yet?
>
> remove YOUR SHOES to reply, ok?

"Bruce Gilbert" <bhgilbert@earthlink.net> wrote in message
news:W0lhc.4688$gH6.445@newsread3.news.atl.earthlink.net...
> We opened our booth at 8am and left just after 5pm each day. There really
> was not a terrible traffic problem leaving from the marketplace area where
> we were. On 68 there was a small amount of congestion on the way back to
> Salinas where we stayed, but nothing that was nearly as unpleasant as the
> 610 Loop and 59 at 5pm in Houston. Now that's traffic!

On Friday, South Boundary Road was stopped up ALL the way onto the preserve
and you could see cars stopped on that 16% grade right next to the main
entrance. One of the team cars told me that they took a hour to get back
onto 68 where everything did flow pretty smoothly.

I left directly after the circuit race without waiting for the ceremony. By
the time I got onto 68 near Monterey and turned back towards Salinas the
Health Net squad was riding by in the other direction having already gotten
the awards ceremony done with, taken the main entrance exit and riding down
the four miles to where I had finally gotten.

Note: Health Net had an abreviated squad this year. Ofoto wasn't even there.
Jittery Joes wasn't there. Colavita (major loss here) wasn't there. Jelly
Belly wasn't there. It seems like more people than I are thinking that Sea
Otter is treating their main customers in a shoddy manner.

What do you want to bet that these missing teams will all be at the SFGP?

On 04/20/2004 10:35 PM, in article
0Smhc.3072$eZ5.498@newsread1.news.pas.earthlink.net, "Tom Kunich"
<cyclintom@yahoo.com> wrote:


> Note: Health Net had an abreviated squad this year. Ofoto wasn't even there.
> Jittery Joes wasn't there. Colavita (major loss here) wasn't there. Jelly
> Belly wasn't there. It seems like more people than I are thinking that Sea
> Otter is treating their main customers in a shoddy manner.
>
> What do you want to bet that these missing teams will all be at the SFGP?



What do you want to be that all of those teams are at the Dodge Tour de
Georgia, and didn't want to deal with the logistical nightmare of getting
their teams, their team cars/vans, and all their equipment cross-country in
48 hours?



--
Steven L. Sheffield
stevens at veloworks dot com
veloworks at worldnet dot ay tea tee dot net
bellum pax est libertas servitus est ignoratio vis est
ess ay ell tea ell ay kay ee sea aye tee why you ti ay aitch
aitch tee tea pea colon [for word] slash [four ward] slash double-you
double-yew double-ewe dot veloworks dot com [four word] slash

On 04/21/2004 04:26 AM, in article BCABA884.2D1FA%stevens@veloworks.com,
"Steven L. Sheffield" <stevens@veloworks.com> wrote:

> On 04/20/2004 10:35 PM, in article
> 0Smhc.3072$eZ5.498@newsread1.news.pas.earthlink.net, "Tom Kunich"
> <cyclintom@yahoo.com> wrote:
>
>
>> Note: Health Net had an abreviated squad this year. Ofoto wasn't even there.
>> Jittery Joes wasn't there. Colavita (major loss here) wasn't there. Jelly
>> Belly wasn't there. It seems like more people than I are thinking that Sea
>> Otter is treating their main customers in a shoddy manner.
>>
>> What do you want to bet that these missing teams will all be at the SFGP?
>
>
>
> What do you want to be that all of those teams are at the Dodge Tour de
> Georgia, and didn't want to deal with the logistical nightmare of getting
> their teams, their team cars/vans, and all their equipment cross-country in
> 48 hours?



In fact, I'll even provide a couple cites, which you seem to refuse to do:


From http://www.velonews.com/race/race.php?id=1070&section=2

[the] lure of Georgia will keep the Colavita Olive Oil, Navigators and Ofoto
squads away from Sea Otter altogether. In their absence, Northern
California-based squads like Health Net-Maxxis and Sierra Nevada will mark
Sea Otter as an opportunity to snag wins on home soil.


From http://velonews.com/news/fea/5888.0.html

[with] the Tour de Georgia starting just three days after Sea Otter
finishes, many teams felt it would be logistically too difficult to haul
team cars and equipment all the way from California in time for the TdG
start in Macon. So, no Euros, no Postal, no Navs ... but Team Lucky Lounge
does get to step up to the plate in Monterey.


--
Steven L. Sheffield
stevens at veloworks dot com
veloworks at worldnet dot ay tea tee dot net
bellum pax est libertas servitus est ignoratio vis est
ess ay ell tea ell ay kay ee sea aye tee why you ti ay aitch
aitch tee tea pea colon [for word] slash [four ward] slash double-you
double-yew double-ewe dot veloworks dot com [four word] slash

"Steven L. Sheffield" <stevens@veloworks.com> wrote in message
news:BCABAC1E.2D1FE%stevens@veloworks.com...
> >
> > What do you want to be that all of those teams are at the Dodge Tour de
> > Georgia, and didn't want to deal with the logistical nightmare of
getting
> > their teams, their team cars/vans, and all their equipment cross-country
in
> > 48 hours?
>
> In fact, I'll even provide a couple cites, which you seem to refuse to do:
>
> From http://www.velonews.com/race/race.php?id=1070&section=2
>
> [the] lure of Georgia will keep the Colavita Olive Oil, Navigators and
Ofoto
> squads away from Sea Otter altogether. In their absence, Northern
> California-based squads like Health Net-Maxxis and Sierra Nevada will mark
> Sea Otter as an opportunity to snag wins on home soil.

Yeah, you'll have to explain that to Chris Horner and Gordon Fraser. They
too apparently felt it unnecessary to ride a good training race before TdG.

Isn't this what I was just talking about? You guys seem to have no minds of
your own and quote people who think that the guy who wins bicycle races is
the guy on the front of the peloton.