April 11, 2007 – Whenever the Sea Otter Classic comes around, it’s a sign that the competitive cycling season — mountain bike, road and now BMX — is up and rolling. This year’s Sea Otter Classic kicks off tomorrow, Thursday, April 12, in Monterey, California with the opening of the famous village and expo, freeride zone and demo area. The rivalry starts tomorrow as well with the SRAM Super D and SRAM amateur road races. Sea Otter organizers have added even more variety to the 17th annual Sea Otter Festival with the new Thule Adventure Race and Sea Otter BMX.

MTB
The pro/elite mountain bike events are definite highlights of the Sea Otter Classic. They include the Pro/Elite triple header: SRAM Time Trial on Friday, SRAM Short Track on Saturday, and SRAM XC on Sunday. Watch for top Canadians like Geoff Kabush (BC, Maxxis), Seamus McGrath (BC, Rocky Mountain-Haywood), Mathieu Toulouse (QC, Maxxis), Matt Hadley (NB, Rocky Mountain-Haywood), Kiara Bisaro (BC, Opus), Wendy Simms (BC, Kona-LesGets) and Mical Dyck (AB, Terrascape Racing) as they aim to start their seasons with a bang.

The weekend also includes a bunch of pro/elite gravity action, such as the SRAM Super D on Thursday, SRAM Dual Slalom on Saturday and SRAM DH on Sunday.

For some edge of your seat entertainment, the Invitational Dirt Jump Contests go on Saturday and Sunday afternoon.

Road
The Sea Otter Classic is also famous for its high-speed SRAM Pro Men’s and Women’s NRC Road Circuit Races, which centre around the Laguna Seca Raceway on Saturday. Friday offers a men’s and women’s Cat 1/2 road race as well on the 8.5-mile Fort Ord loop, but the circuit race will be the definite main attraction.

Several elite men’s teams are scheduled to compete – such as the KodakGallery.com/Sierra Nevada Brewing Co, Healthnet, Priority Health, Team Rubicon and Organic Athlete.

Scheduled women’s teams include Aaron’s Pro Cycling, TEAm Lipton and ValueAct Capital, WEBCOR, ExpressCopy.com, Cheerwine and Colavita/Sutter Home presented by Cooking Light. This means Canadians stars like Anne Samplonius (QC, Team expresscopy.com) and Gina Grain (BC, Team expresscopy.com) will be ripping it up.

BMX
The Sea Otter BMX National Bicycle League Golden State Championship Series race makes its debut at the Sea Otter cycling festival on Saturday and Sunday.

Click here for a complete race schedule.

Click here to visit the official Sea Otter Classic web site.