Race Report: Sea Otter Classic Gravel Race

Date: April 11, 2025

AVRT racers: Steph Hart

Top Result: 2/21 Womens field; 61/198 overall (1st 30-39 AG)

Course: 3 laps of a 30 mile course, 2700 ft vertical per lap. Course is ~70% gravel, not terribly technical, but lots of loose descents/corners, and a pretty rough climb leading into Lookout Ridge. 

nutrition: 380g carbs over 6 hours (by some combination of maurten, shot blocks, and neversecond gels). Started with 2 bottles and 0g sodium (we’ll get there). 

Strava: https://www.strava.com/activities/14149586809/overview

Race Recap:

I’ll preface this race report by noting that I bought a gravel bike on a whim in February, and after falling off my bike 9 times on the first ride (as kindly evidenced here, thanks for keeping count for me, Rachel), I decided to sign up for the 90 mile route at Sea Otter. Goal number one was to keep the rubber side down, anything else was a bonus. 

We had a women’s only start for the 60 mile and 90 mile routes (67 riders total). At the gun, everyone went out very hard to climb out of the racetrack and onto half a mile of single track, and then a fast but loose 3 mile descent. After grabbing way too much brake, watching two super sprinkles riders crash, and contemplating why I took a day of PTO and paid $175 to do this race, I finally settled into some flat(ish) gravel where I could collect myself. On the first pavement climb I caught up with a group of 7 riders (sitting 8th-15th place or so in the combined 60 mile/90 mile women’s field). The pace felt very manageable, but I sat in taking the free draft while I could. Within the group, I clearly had the fitness advantage, but managed to get gapped at every sandtrap, loose corner, and single track section- that’s gravel newbie life. 

Near the end of the lap, we came to a 0.25 mile stretch of pretty technical single track that averaged a 15.5% grade. I was worried about this, because I took a bit of a crash pre-riding this section of the course a few weeks prior. However on race day, I managed to stay clipped in and upright, even dropping the group I was with (shocking both me and the 6ft tall Dutch lady I was drafting off). I put in a solid gap on the group over the rest of the Lookout Ridge climb, while picking off a couple solo riders. The start/finish of each lap loops back through the Laguna Seca racetrack. This sounds uneventful, but included two 3-4 minute climbs peaking at 12%, and 2 descents through gravel pits that my roadie bike handling skills were wildly insufficient for. However these features were well suited for spectators heckling riders, which I found at least a little entertaining. 

At the start of lap two I saw two riders ahead of me, and a lady was shouting that I was the 6th woman to come through - 3 minutes down on the leaders. That was enough motivation for me to loosen the deathgrip on my brakes during the long descent to start the lap. I spent most of lap two riding either solo, or passing guys at the back of the earlier start fields. By halfway through the lap, I caught the 4th place rider and was able to ride with her for a while. Well, sort of- she was a downhill MTB rider from Durango, so she would drop me on anything technical, then I would crawl back on the climbs- but kinda same average speed. I had assumed there would be neutral bottles in this race, so didn’t bother to bring a hydration back, however this was not the case. So with only two bottles and a pretty warm day, this was a decision I had to pay for at the 50 mile mark where I had to stop and fill a bottle. I probably lost 30 seconds, but managed to catch back on to the 4th place rider before dropping her on my second trip up Lookout Ridge. 

At the start of lap 3 I heard the gap the lead was 90 seconds. In theory, I should have drilled it to catch the lead group, but at this point the 30 and 60 mile riders were finishing up and I basically saw 3 people on course over the next 15 miles- morale was low. At the 75 mile mark I finally caught another woman, and she kindly informed me that she was leading the race (as the other 2 women in the lead group of 3 had completed the 60 mile race). At that point I was back in road race mode, where I was wondering what on earth I should be doing tactically to drop this lady and try to win. I shouldn’t have worried, because after riding together for 5 or so miles my lack of hydration & 3900 KJ of work caught up with me, and what ensued was the worst adductor cramp of my life. I physically had to get off my bike and walk off the cramp while watching the race leader ride up the road. After an eternity (probably like 2 minutes) of frantically trying to regain control of my limbs, I was able to get back on my bike. I spent the next 10 miles limping back to the start, watching my average power plummet, and praying 3rd place didn’t catch me. By some miracle I got up Lookout Ridge the last time without cramping, wrapping up the day in 2nd place and a stunning 0 crashes.