Sea Otter Classic cycling festival, Monterey California

in seaotterclassic •  7 years ago 

The Sea Otter Classic is the largest cycling festival in the United States and is held during the third week of April at the Laguna Seca raceway since the early 1990's. There are over 500 bike vendors there with every type of bike available on the market.

There are kids bikes, road bikes, cross bikes, mountain bikes and races of all types. From beginner to the professional level.
festival.jpg

I've always wanted to ride around the track, so I did this morning. It is 2.2 miles with 207 feet of climbing. The raceway is usually for cars and motorcycles and this weekend, bikes...
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I demo'ed a YT Jeffsy 29'er which retails for $4,000.
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The demo loop was 6 miles and 890 feet of climbing.
jeffsey.jpg

GPS data is from a Garmin Vivoactive HR uploaded to Strava
jeffsyloopdata.jpg

I watched the woman's professional cross country short track event which was around 28 minutes of all out mtb racing. The start line, these ladies are very competitive!
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The first lap still had quite a large group, it is usually smaller from what I've seen in the past.
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Manufactures show off their latest models and colors
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The high end market for bikes is very expensive, this Ibis Ripmo is over $7,000
ibis.jpg

This bike is a downhill 29'er, basically made to go as fast as possible and belongs to one of the best riders, Greg Minnar. It almost looks like a mini motorcycle frame, everything is overbuilt so nothing will break.
minnar.jpg

Lots of wild flowers in Fort Ord which is the park next to Laguna Seca.
flowers.jpg

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You have been tagged @steembloggers 30 day tag challenge

Thanks to the info, I need to make sure to head to the introducion/new members tags each week.

Lovely. I only ever knew Laguna Seca as a fantastic track with epic battles in MotoGP.

This is indeed a very different side to the place.

From the picture it appears, that the XC racers were riding on asphalt. Was this the case? Or this was just at the start line and then they moved out onto the dirt?

The high end bike market is going crazy, but what is even more surprising is the number of casual cyclists (who have the money) buying these bikes without a second thought. I understand the need of an athlete to get the best. But a casual cyclist upgrading every couple of years for the newest technology is quite unexpected.

The pro race started on the track just before turn 5 near the overpass, then went onto the dirt. It is a long streatch of track which is not the best for mtb...
In the summer, Laguna sets aside a few hours for road cyclists on one day suring the evenings, nice for the locals.
My bikes are from 2010, all 3. I cant see myself paying the current rate for these bikes...

Hi glennoula,

Wow, $7k for a bike. I guess only the die hard biker would understand the price of a bike like that.
Continue enjoy biking....Looks like a great way to exercise.

I looked on the Ibis site and their highest end build retails for $9399. The high end bike industry has gone wild and out of hand for most people.

There must be a demand for high end bike to drive the price up that high.

So nice festival. Its good activity. Good post. Thanks for sharing.

Riding along the demo loop seems scary though..

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