Sea Otter Classic 2011

The Sea Otter Classic, a four-day celebration of all things bicycle, just ended today.  It is one of the biggest presentations of bicycles and racing in the country.  At the heart of it all is mountain bike racing at Laguna Seca Recreation Area, a racetrack and terrain primarily known for its twisting and climbing motor speedway.  After 21 years, the event includes any and all forms of mountain bike racing as well as BMX racing, road racing, demonstration and trick riding, and a huge bike expo where 315 exhibitors show off their products.

All around the Peninsula, "citizen" rides (now called gran fondo), road races, and other evidence of the presence of thousands of fans of mountain and road racing shows up in bright lycra clothing, and car racks bristle with mountain and road bikes.

I volunteered at the racetrack today for a few hours, where I was made to count visitors at the VIP tent, directed them to the catered food and drinks.  I also watched the dual slalom downhill races in the distance.  In the span of time I was watching races, I saw five crashes with big clouds of dust, tumbling bodies and bikes.  Cheers from the crowd erupted when the riders remounted and continued their downhill runs.  One little boy, only two years old, was riding around on a tiny bicycle with really wide wheels.  He wore a helmet, t-shirt, sweat pants over his diaper, and he rode back and forth over a four-inch ramp in the parking lot pavement, a tough and sturdy boy with energy to burn and remarkable coordination.  I waved at him.  He blew me a kiss, sort of, after his mom taught him how.  Pretty cute.

The expo was jammed with thousands of people, clouds of dust, a few acres of bicycle exhibits in colorful product tents.  Truly a circus, with never a moment of boredom to be had, the Sea Otter has mountain biking at its heart.  It does include a road stage race over the four days, BMX demos, test courses for riders to try out new products, and - best of all - no cigarette smoke for miles around.  

Pros were being interviewed on camera, signing autographs and posing for pictures. (Wouldn't you know it, my iPhone was not charged up; no pictures to show you.) It was a restless tribe of exuberant humanity, an oasis for bicycle-loving bedouins who will all be gone tomorrow.  The energy was high and a family atmosphere reigned.  Everyone there had something to do or see at every point in the weekend of the festival.

Swimming is still my mother sport, but cycling has a special place in my heart.  There will always be an unfortunate and sometimes literal collision between bicycles and motor vehicles in the American west; we will never really be a peaceable society that moves calmly about on two wheels, intelligent and practical as that may seem to we who like the idea.  As fuel prices climb and alternatives to gasoline are considered and planned, riding a bike - the most efficient means of transportation ever invented by humankind - may become an ever more obvious choice for us to make.

Events like the Sea Otter Classic that promote cycling and give more and more people the spark to get on bikes regularly gradually change the balance so that drivers behind the wheel get more accustomed to sharing the road.