Race Report: 2025 Sea Otter Circuit Race - Men's B

Race:  2025 Sea Otter Circuit Race - Men's B

Date: Thursday, April 10

AVRT Racers: Ryan Dyke, Kevin Kauffman

Best Finish: Kevin Kauffman - 11/24 in Men B category (16/57 overall B/C/Collegiate/40+/55+)

Course Description: 45 minutes on a 2.238 mi racetrack with a 180 ft climb broken into a shallow grade and a steep kicker before dropping into “The Corkscrew”, followed by a brake-free series of 45mph turns, then finishing on flat wide turns to the finish line.  Perfect tarmac with only constrictions being a few sections with barricades bottlenecking the track. 

Strava: https://strava.app.link/FpgbDDgUzSb 

Nutrition: half a banana 30min out. Half a bottle of water during the race because my mixed carb/caffeine bottle leaked all over my race bag on the drive in. 

Recap: 

Got to the course around 7:20AM. It’s a big venue and the parking was a 10min walk to registration, 10 more min to the start line with staff who had little knowledge of where to go. I got a few laps in on the road to warm up before wandering to the start line. The confusion led to a bit less effective a warmup than I wanted but I at least wasn’t going in cold. 

All groups gridded together and just raised hands when the group was called so we could see who we were racing against. It was hard to gauge how many were in B but it felt small, but felt like just under 50 at the line? Ryan and I started side by side, but he quickly pushed up to the front third, and myself back to the back third. In hindsight this was a key mistake as I was forced to brake a fair bit into every turn on the first two laps as the group congested. At the beginning of lap 2 I got caught in an incident that drove a few riders off the track into gravel and a few others locked up and unclipped. That was my cue to move up. 

Conditions were very foggy, and as I wasn’t familiar with the course it was a bit of a learning curve finding comfortable lines at high speeds on the corkscrew and 180°, but road conditions were great and settled into a groove for the last 6 laps. Not sure I touched the brakes once after that. I originally planned to sag the main climb as I knew I didn’t have the W/Kg of the smaller riders in the group but the speed of the course led to the group getting pretty strung out and messed up that plan. 

By the end of the climb on lap 3, people started to fade and let gaps open. I was able to bridge a handful of them but eventually the elastic broke and Ryan and I found ourselves on the wrong side in a chase. Myself, and an assortment of riders from VFR, Lamorinda, Devout, and an XC racer took some turns trying to accelerate the group through the flats but after the next two laps it was clear we wouldn’t catch the front. 

After reading our new group, it was clear that Ryan, Scott from VFR and myself were the heaviest riders. I knew I’d either need to make some sort of move leading into the climb and see if I could force a gap with a small group over the crest, or sit in and hope that the small ones wouldn’t smoke me on the last climb and save my sprint for the finish. I took the first choice, was able to get a few second gap with 2 other riders on my wheel, but was caught just before cresting the climb. That burned my sprint and I finished in the middle of our group sprint. 

Overall, it was a fantastic experience getting to race the Laguna Seca track, attend the expo, and watch the start and end of the LTGP gravel race. Will definitely be coming back next year and bring some improved strategy and fitness.

Sometime mid race