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Geoff Kabush victorious at Sea Otter Classic

Gagné and Pendrel visit local laundromat to wash kits before heading to Australia.

April 17, 2016
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Geoff Kabush (Scott-3 Rox Racing) of North Vancouver took the win at the Sea Otter Classic pro short track mountain bike race on Friday April 15. Kabush sprinted to the line ahead of 19-year-old Simon Andreassen (Specialized) of Denmark.

It is not the first time the 39-year-old Canadian from Courtenay, B.C. has been victorious at Sea Otter. Kabush’s success at the race goes back to 2005 when he won the cross country race, he would go on to repeat that result in 2007 and 2012. In 2013, Kabush won the short track race. Kabush’s teammate, Derek Zandstra of Trenton, Ont. finished sixth on Friday with Evan Guthrie of Peachland, B.C., behind him.

The Sea Otter Classic is a four-day cycling festival that takes place in Monterey County, California. The event hosts mountain bike cross country, downhill, enduro, dual slalom and short track races. Road cyclists compete in a circuit, criterium, and road race and there are cyclocross races as well. Sea Otter also hosts a consumer bike exposition and recreational events for riders of all ages.

On Saturday, April 16, the pro’s took to the cross country course. In the women’s race, Catharine Pendrel stood on the third step of the podium. Pendrel’s teammates Katherine Nash and Georgia Gould were the only riders ahead of her making it a sweep of the podium for the Luna Pro Team. In the men’s pro XC race, Derek Zandstra narrowly missed the podium with a fourth-place finish. Behind him in fifth and sixth were Leandre Bouchard of Alma, Qc., and Raphaël Gagné from Quebec City.

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At last weeks muddy US Cup race at Bonelli Park in San Dimas, California, Kabush finished third while Gagné earned himself a place on the second step of the podium. Evan McNeally (Norco Factory Team) who had a personal best result at a US CUp race finished in 15 described the conditions, “In stark contrast to the usual southern California conditions, the rain turned the course into peanut butter. The all natural, separating kind peanut butter that nobody wants to stir.”

As the XC events wrapped up at Sea Otter the riders who were headed off to Cairns, Australia for the first round of the mountain bike World Cup which begins on April 23 prepared for their flights. Gagné visited a local laundromat to clean his kit before packing it up for the flight. Pendrel also made use of the machines demonstrating the glamorous lifestyle of world class mountain bikers.

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