Every year, Sea Otter Classic is the biggest cycling convention in North America. For 4 days, most people from the cycling industry gather at the Laguna Seca race track in Monterrey, California to show off their new products, discuss new marketing or partnership opportunities, connect with folks from the industry and fans, and, once that is all done, to race your bike!

It's always a busy time, and honestly a bit crazy at times, but it always is very nice to get to meet and connect with people in real life! It's both awesome and crazy and exhausting at the same time. Through all the chaos of Sea Otter, a few questions have popped in my mind.

One, it can sometimes be easy to wonder why is it important to race at these big expo events? One the one side, as an athlete, it is kind of nice to have a race during that weekend because it is the one time that feels kind of quiet and less chaotic, more in your control. That said, I always wonder if doing a race is the best way to use your time at Sea Otter? We get to race every weekend of the year if we want...yet, we only get to see our sponsors in real life very rarely. Seeing them in real life creates the opportunity to make real life activations and fun projects, with the companies, the employees of that company, and with the fans to activate their brand. Yet, if you know you have a 4-5h full gas race the next day, how much can you really dedicate to the promotional aspect?

I don't have the answer here, but sometimes I feel like by wanting to do everything, it's hard to do anything really well.

Secondly, I've been tinkering about how can one stand out through the chaotic environment of the Otter? Everyone is busy and has back to back meetings for 4 days straight. Sometimes, if you are lucky, you get to have very meaningful conversations with people and plan things for future projects. That's great! But other times, you only get to say hi and not more...you become 1 out of 300 people who said hi that day. Is there a way to stand out and do things differently as an athlete? A way to connect with the people you want to connect with, meaningfully, and create memories with those people? I don't know! But sometimes I like to analyze, and I feel like I may have some ideas for the next editions :)

I guess all I'm wondering is: How can I make the most of this weekend going into future editions?

Either way, it was still a fun weekend, except...

Belly aches...
I guess I wrote longer about the weekend because I don't have much to say about the actual race, unfortunately. But first, a short premise.

Sea Otter, for me, is mostly about the expo. For most mountain bike and gravel racers, this was the first big race of their season. Everyone is fired up and this race is a target. I get that, I've been there, and it's an awesome feeling. For me, however, as a cyclocross athlete, Sea Otter is my first event of the season, but still in the "building" phase of my training. I don't have goals for that race except for having fun and getting a big training day in.

Yet, despite all of that, as the race arrived, I was thinking about it. What excited me about this one was not going for a result. It was riding with all my North American friends that I don't get to race with very often these days. I knew we would have fun in the Fort Ord singletrack and climbs together. And not knowing where my fitness was, I was looking forward to using my experience and ride a fast steady pace to try and get the most out of this as I could.

I'll save you all the boring stuff, but in short: I started feeling nauseous the night before. I woke up and it wasn't better. Had breakfast and it was worse. Felt really weak in the warm up, and couldn't get food in...

I ended up not racing because I felt too sick. As much as this sucks, I don't regret the decision because it's never a good idea to race when sick. However, there is one thing I wish I could have learned by now!

Despite knowing that I wasn't healthy enough to race that morning, I had such a huge FOMO (fear of missing out) that I still took the start. That was dumb, because 2 minutes into the race, I pulled out. I should not have started, but I so badly wanted to try. At 30 years old, I feel like I should know better. So anyway...here's a note to myself.

Why did I get sick is another question I need to find an answer to. This stomach upset and nausea has happened a few times this winter. My WHOOP has helped me notice that it comes when I get super tired...so I need to tend to it and figure that out!

Momentum
This week I read this: "It's hard to build momentum if you're dividing your attention." from James Clear.

It's with this sentence in mind that David, Mia and I are driving back to Canada. We've had a very fun winter in California, I've done some great strength training, some good riding, and I feel like my mountain bike skills are at a good level. But I'd be lying if I said it was all great and perfect...and I want to be honest in this newsletter. I've struggled having good consistency in training. There were a lot of interruptions (sickness or other) that broke our momentum a few times.

So now I'm heading home and focusing on building momentum, by doing things right, one day at a time. I've learned over the years that it's pointless to say something like : "I'll do this one thing every day for the the next two months"...it only leads to disappointment, because chances are things will happen and perhaps on one day the best decision will be to not do that one thing...and then you've failed yourself. So instead, I'll focus on doing the best I can each day with what I have, and make good decision with one goal in mind. But my energy and attention will not be divided, it will be on creating momentum and progressing in my health and fitness.

I'm excited for it! We are in good mood and honestly, despite the belly aches, had a lot of fun and productive time at Sea Otter.

We are now driving from California to Dundas, Ontario to take part in the Paris to Ancaster gravel race. This event is always a highlight and we look forward to it :) Then, we'll finish the drive home.

Another highlight of Sea Otter was launching a few very fun partnerships! I'll follow up with more info on that next Sunday after P2A :)

Cheers everyone and take care!

Maghalie Rochette

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