Kabush second in Sea Otter XC
Kabush takes second in men's XC, Pendrel third in women's event at Sea Otter
Geoff Kabush wasn’t too pleased with the course, but he was happy to walk away from the Sea Otter Classic cross country race with a second-place finish Sunday afternoon at Mazda Laguna Seca Raceway. Kabush (Team Maxxis-Rocky Mountain) finished second by only inches to 2009 Under-23 World Champion Burry Stander, of South Africa.
The race course was far less technical than most UCI XC courses, with much of the laps being held on the Laguna Seca road course. That gave a big advantage to riders like Stander, whose Specialized Factory Racing team had three riders finish in the Top 4. Cannondale also used its team numbers to its advantage with four finishing in the Top 10.
“It was a bit ridiculous trying to cover all those guys, so I think I managed it pretty well,” said Kabush. “I’m happy with the way I was feeling. I was covering attacks constantly. My goal was to get it to a sprint finish, but I just wasn’t able to time it quite right.”
Similar to Saturday’s short track XC race, Kabush, Stander and Todd Wells were alone up front all race. Another Specialized rider, Christopher Sauser, chased the three of them throughout the race, but never closed the gap and finished just over a minute back. When the three leaders came around the final corner for the sprint home, Kabush held a narrow lead over Stander, but the world champion pulled ahead in the final metre and took the win with Kabush second and Wells two seconds back.
Kabush was critical of the course, saying it wasn’t long enough or hard enough to be used for such high calibre racing.
“It was a pretty sad mountain bike race if you ask me. It was an hour 20 and all that pavement. Guys come all the way here for a mountain bike race, so it’s a little disappointing. The UCI is going to get a lot of flak,” he said.
Other Canadians in the race included Chris Sheppard (Rocky Mountain/Thule), who came home 10th, Adam Morka (Trek Canada) in 13th, Kris Sneddon (Kona) in 19th, Craig Richey (Aviawest – Blue Competition Cycles) in 21st, Peter Glassford (Trek Canada) in 29th, Stefan Widmer (Rocky Mountain Factory) in 34th and Eric Batty (Trek Canada) who double flatted during the racing and finished a couple of laps down.
Pro Women
Canadian Catharine Pendrel had another solid day in the pro women’s cross country race Sunday, finishing third behind Luna Pro Team rider Georgia Gould, of the United States, and Specialized rider Lene Byberg, of Norway.
The women’s field of 34 split apart in the first of four laps around the Laguna Seca course and in the end it was Gould and Byberg fighting it out for the win. Gould pulled away and won by six seconds. Pendrel, who finished third in the short track race Saturday, found herself working with Subaru-Gary Fisher rider Willow Koerber, but it was Pendrel taking third by one second. Koerber’s teammate Heather Irmiger was fifth and Trek World Racing rider Emily Batty, of Canada, took sixth. That was another solid result for the 21-year-old rider.
“I could have used another lap because I was feeling good toward the end. I guess I held my own out there and was feeling even better than (Saturday). Hopefully the first World Cup goes even better,” Batty said.
The next challenge for many of the riders who competed at the Sea Otter Classic will be the first World Cup of the year, being held in the U.K. Despite massive air-travel headaches caused by the Iceland volcano eruption, the UCI announced Monday the race will go ahead as scheduled.
However, many riders, including Canadian Mical Dyck, were already starting to feel the effects of the travel restrictions to Europe. Dyck was stopping in Toronto on her way to London, but because of the restrictions, had her Air Canada flight out of San Francisco cancelled Monday morning. That will be a common story today as dozens of riders and team officials try to exit California and make their way to Europe.
