I should be riding right now...

A co-worker and I drove down to Monterey yesterday to watch the Sea Otter Classic. Around 9:30am we loaded up his fly mini-van with our mt. bikes and he brought along 2 surf boards and wet suits for some surfing in Santa Cruz after the race. We did a quick tour of Santa Cruz on our way down and scouted a few key surfing areas...pretty much a wide range of wave sizes. Santa Cruz looks like a very cool city. Lots of beautiful roads to ride and the surfers rave about the waves there.

After a few stops we headed further south to Monterey and then east, climbing a mountain up to the Sea Otter Classic (the mini handled the mt. roads like a Porsche). This is a very cool festival...never before have I been to a bike race that crosses all disciplines. The festival started on Thursday and ends today (Sunday). Yesterday, we were able to watch the Pro Circuit Road Race, Downhill Mt. Biking and a bit of the Cross Country Mt. Bike race. There was also a BMX Track, Trials "Track" and a Dirt Jumping Area. And, of course, the Expo Area (more like a party).

We rode our mt. bikes around all day...hitting up the Expo and grabbing some free schwag and talking to some really cool marketing representatives throughout the day. Pedro's is coming out with two new new fully biodegradable products: chain lube called "ChainJ" and a foaming bike wash (I got hooked up and will let you know how I like these two as I use them). Yakima and Clif Bar had the party going strong in the expo...Sierra Nevada was flowing nicely. Clif also had a bike powered blender:


Besides living it up in the expo area, we watched a large portion of the pro circuit race and then headed up the mountain to watch the final few runs on the downhill mt. bike course. These guys were flying down this course.

Here's a pic from the lower half of the DH Course...tried to lable, but too lazy to make it look good:

Due to the 2hr rain delay on the circuit race, we did not have enough sunlight left in the day to surf, so that's been postponed for another day.

So, it's sunny and in the 60's right now...you may ask, why am I not out riding? I woke up early, ate/coffee'd, showered, got all kitted up, aired up the tires, put on my shoes, gloves, glasses and then looked around for my helmet...DAMN, I left it in the MiniV! No ride so far today...hoping to ride over and get it later today.