Sea Otter Classic - April 16-19, 2009

The Big News is that Keith won Junior Expert 18 and under with a time of 2:19:96!!! That's right, 1st Place out of over 50 riders. This is huge and something to be incredibly proud of. Great Job Keith!!! 

Here's Keith's account of his SOC weekend:

"To prepare for the Sea Otter Classic, I cut out all junk food, soda's and all energy drinks. I bought an indoor trainer, hooked it up to my dads Enduro, and I have that set up in my room. I do intervals and go through all the gears until I can’t possibly pedal anymore. I seriously burn my legs until I can’t feel them. Each interval is about 3 min, then I take about a minute, cool down, and I do it all over again. I do that to get used to that burning feeling you get when you pedal you’re a** off. What I have learned is that its all mental: as long as I don’t think about the burning, I feel like I can pedal for hours.

On that Wednesday, before the first day of practice, Tony and I simply walked the course, checked out what was new, and figured out what to do different from last year; where to sneak a few more pedals, and what are the straightest lines through certain sections. 

Thursday, I did 5 complete runs. No sessioning. That helped me pedal through the whole course without thinking of stopping like last year when I sessioned the whole track. That helped a lot. I didn’t work on speed, but I worked on my lines, and getting them burned into my brain, how to take certain corners, and where to and how to jump things.

Friday, I started to add more speed to my runs, and started to shoot lower on the jumps. I worked on not breaking in the corners, but braking before the corners for max exit speed,

Saturday, I also worked on exit speed, and pumping everything I possibly could to maximize my speed with less effort,

Sunday, race day, I felt really good. I had my lines dialed, and I knew exactly where to pump, where to pedal, and where to brake. I did one practice run, just to see how the track changed.

Twenty minutes before my race, I found a spot to be alone, had my ipod on, and my favorite song, so i could get in the zone and imagine my run corner by corner.

In my race run, after the starting beeps, I was in such concentration I didn’t hear the crowd along the track. It was silent. It was one of the best runs I’ve have ever had."

Khaner raced Slalom in 18 and under Cat 1. At 14, I'm proud of him for taking on this division and qualifying 23 out of just over 30 riders. 

Check out more Dual Slalom photos here.

In DH, Khaner had a clean run and finished mid pack in 15-16 Cat 1 with 11th place and a time of 2:33:13. 

In my race run, I slipped a pedal on the jump to table at the top. When I came down, my foot was just a little too far forward for me to pedal. I adjusted my foot and couldn't quite get it in the right place, so I had to pedal over the next table and the step up into the berm (instead of floating above them). I figure this cost me at lest 8-10 seconds in momentum and speed. I had been cleaning all these jumps in practice. I also didn't hit the rutted berm smoothly just before the hip. I came out of the ruts a bit too high and had to almost come to a stop. The rest of my run was felt fast and I ended up in 11th place with a 2:34.

All in all, it was a great 4 days of riding, hanging and chatting it up with friends and industry folks. Thanks to Phil at rideSFO for letting us hang around the hippest, most crowded booth at the event!!!