On Tuesday 2 weeks ago, I stepped off the plane in Monterey, CA. I’ve gone to Sea Otter the last 5 years or so. I used to race and work the Ergon booth, but these days I opt for lower stress and just work the Ergon booth.
Sea Otter is always a good time because it’s a huge bike festival with all disciplines of racing. It’s also the first big event on the year, so I get to see all my bike racer and bike industry buddies I haven’t seen all winter long. The weather has also been nice the last couple of years with blue skies, 70 degrees, and green rolling hills. April was by far our snowiest month in the last year with over a foot of snow dumping weekly. I was even more grateful to escape this year!
My MTBR buddies. He ended up wearing the disco ball to lead out our fat tire crit at the Whiskey 50 the next week too. Rad!
Cruised the demo loop with my Backcountry.com shredder buddies. Cory Wallace came with us too. Everyone was absolutely hauling ass! I tried my hardest to keep up!
I got to ride with my teammates for the first time in a long time too! (Jeff Kerkove and Yuki Ikeda)
Ride video that Jeff Kerkove made with Yuki Ikeda and I
I got to spend some time with Roman Arnold – the owner of Canyon Bikes (our bike sponsor) Franc Arnold, the owner of Ergon also came to Sea Otter. Both brothers live in Koblenz, Germany.
With all the snow we’ve been getting, I enjoyed the bright colors. Plus, purple is one of my favorite colors!
Working the Ergon booth! We now have a saddle sizing tool.
My wonderful clothing sponsor, Primal, had a women’s road ride on Saturday AM. I was getting ancy to actually do the XC race, but this commitment kept me in check! Karen Jarchow came with me. As we sat at breakfast, we noticed that it was mostly guys walking in. Comical!
Pat Cupcake Mayben drove my bike out for me, and committed a homicide with my bike on the roof of the sprinter van. I guess it was insanely windy driving across Utah. Poor bird!
That’s something you don’t see every day!
We still had a good group!
Myself, Karen, and Nicky Wangsguard
Curly bars, ocean, trees, new friends
We also rode the mountain bike Gran Fondo course on Sunday with people. That was a good time too! On Monday, we all loaded in the sprinter van and started the drive to Prescott, AZ for they Whiskey 50.
