April 9th, 2003- Redwood City hosts the first stage of the Sea Otter Classic

Above is a map of the race course, which you can enlarge to a printable version by clicking on it (or you can pick up a free copy at either of our locations). To print it out cleanly, click on it to bring up the larger version, then select the appropriate settings to "fit to page."  Eventually I'll figure out how to do it as a .pdf file, which automatically prints cleanly.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Billy Innes, captain of the LeMond Fitness team, and off-season employee of Chain Reaction.  One of those guys it's embarrassing to have around because, no matter what your own cycling accomplishments are, you'll never touch this guy.  One of those guys with skin stretched tightly around his leg muscles.

Lead woman on the first lap of their race, a hotly-contested four lap event that was everything the men's event wasn't.  This photo is on Hillcrest, near the top of the course, with the Port of Redwood City in the background.
The chase group following shortly afterward.
First lap of the men's race, proceeding at a casual-enough pace that a spectator could pick out conversations among the riders.  All four laps proceeded as a promenade, interrupted by a rider protest that stopped the "race" about halfway through.  The riders felt the course to be far too dangerous, due to the number of vehicles parked on the course, as well as drivers that managed to squeeze in between the police escorts.
The end of the men's race, which was something of a contrived affair.  Instead of a full-field sprint, the 13 teams decided to send one member of each squad to contest the sprint, with the rest of the field (about 150) coming in a couple minutes later.  The idea was that this would create a safer finish than having them all funneling through at once.

For a rider's viewpoint of the event, you can check out what Jonathan Vaughters wrote about it for VeloNews.

WHAT'S PROPER ETIQUETTE WHEN THE PELOTON
STOPS BY YOUR HOUSE?

Hi Mike,

Talk about a bike race in your backyard, when the peloton stopped today to discuss the race safety, it happened literally at my front door!    Our water supply and bushes (the riders asked very politely before commencing) were liberally supplied and we became an unplanned rest pit stop for the peloton.  I also had a chance to have an extended conversation with Floyd Landis who is quite nice. 

See you at the shop, Michael Aronson


As you can see (and read), Michael Aronson had front-row seats to the goings-on of the rider protest at the Sea Otter Classic!  This all took place directly in front of his house.

Many thanks to him for sharing his story and photos.

 

That's USPS rider Floyd Landis, giving tips to Ethan, TDF Tete de Course for 2025!  Floyd's currently recovering from a broken hip suffered in a crash earlier this season.  He says he's still on track to ride the Tour de France though (and help Lance to victory #5!).

Below is a posting I made in rec.bicycles.ba in response to one of many postings bashing the Sea Otter Classic in general, and the Redwood City event in particular.  --Mike--

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 off 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-- 04/13/03
 
Above is the output from my Ciclomaster HAC4 bike computer when I rode the course on 1/26/03.  That image also can be clicked on for a larger version.

What's the course like?  Depends upon how you want to ride it.  The first time I took it easy and shot lots of photos; the second time I wanted to get an accurate readout of the course from my computer, so I rode it quite a bit harder.  Got a totally different feel for how the course is!  At a moderate speed, you don't mind the climbs very much, as none of the steep parts are all that long.  But at speed, when you hit each climb already a bit winded, it's a whole different experience.  I did one lap in about 35 minutes, including stopping for all stop signs and lights (the most annoying of which are the two stop signs on Fernside; there's actually only one light, at Jefferson & Alameda).
 

March 29, 2003 The Sea Otter Classic ran a clinic in Redwood City for 30 lucky local cyclists, featuring Dr. Massimo Testa, legendary Davis, CA Sports Physiology guru, as well as Clark Natwick, National Cycling Coach (and many times National Cyclocross Champion), Linda Jackson, literally a World Champion cyclist, and, of course, Rick Sutton, Redwood City's homegrown cycling promoter extraordinaire and father of the Sea Otter Classic. 

The backdrop was Redwood City's rejuvenated Fox Theater, the center of many cultural events that have finally found their way to downtown Redwood City.
  --Mike--

Last updated 09/09/07Hit Counter since 04/13/03

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