Race Report: 2026 Lifetime Seaotter Classic Gravel Race- 90 miles

‍ ‍Race: 2026 Lifetime Sea Otter Classic: Gravel Race – 90 mile, women

‍Date: Friday 04/17/2026

AVRT racers: Orthja Efinger, Katarina Zgraja

Top Result: Orthja Efinger 1/28 overall

Course: 3 laps of 30miles/2800ft of elevation. 30% paved and 70% gravel/ singletrack. The course starts with an uphill on the racetrack which is followed by a couple miles of descent. After that it’s rolling terrain and changes between paved/ gravel. You hit a nice flowy singletrack section around mile 20, followed by a short uphill (little Moab). Expect an amazing paved descent after where you hit 50miles/h before you start climbing back up for about 3miles with some steep sections (10+%). It started to get windy later in the day.

Strava: https://ridewithgps.com/routes/54004242

Nutrition: There are two feed zones, which were pretty well stocked with gels/ bananas/ gummibears/ pickle juice you name it. There is a neutral feed zone at the start/ finish line. Started with 2 small bottles with mix (1.5l total) and a hydration pack with water only (1.5l total). I changed the bottles in the neutral feed zone between lap 2-3 for another 1.5l total (S/O to my friends handing me those). Besides the liquid nutrition I tried to stuff around 40g of carbs into me every 30mins.

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Recap (written by Orthja):

Kat and I lined up with 26 other women, and from the gun, the pace was on. I tried to stay with the front group, but lap one already hurt. I kept getting dropped on the short climbs, and started questioning what I was doing in the front group at all. Each time I got dropped I was able to catch back up though on the descends. The lead group was around seven women and luckily the pace slowed down a bit going into the second lap.

I managed to stay with the lead group even though I crashed in one of the turns (RIP new jersey) but towards the end of lap two, the race started to break apart. Some of the women in the lead group were racing the 60miles so they started to speed up and Kelsey from the 90mile race managed to stay with them becoming the lead women with over a minute ahead of us others going into lap 3.

After the first long descent of lap 3 the lead group of seven had turned into that single leader that was being chased by me and two others. I took over most of the pulling trying to keep things steady and controlled but panicked on every climb because I wasn’t sure if the other two would get away from me. Coming into the singletrack portion 20miles into that last lap I sped up to break our group further apart ( I had watched the Elite race the day before so I knew this was the place to attack hehe ). Plan worked and the group was down to me and Claire and we were actually fast enough to catch Kelsey (the girl that was a minute ahed) just before the final climb. 

I had no hopes of keeping up with the two on that last climb since I had done so much pulling prior and my butt is not gravity friendly but Claire dropped and surprisingly I was able to keep up with Kelsey.

At that point I knew the race would be decided on the paved climb on the racetrack before the final descent. So I attacked Kelsey within 30 feet to the top of that. It wasn’t much—but it was enough. I crested first, committed to the descent, and held it all the way to the finish line.

Kat's goal was to finish the race and she was focused on making the time cut (starting the 3rd lap before 1:30pm which required approximately 12 mph average speed), which she did by 6 mins! She rode in a group with 2 other girls for lap 1 which was great, but spent lap 2 and 3 generally alone which was hard to stay motivated and keep a steady pace. She had debated to drop to the 60mile race so finishing the 90miles was a huge accomplishment.