Satake Duo Strong at Sea Otter

by Den Satake

I'm sure that others will write up race reports for the more serious races
but I thought I would report on the most fun I've ever had racing.

As most of you know my son Brenden (9) and I raced the open class Tandem
Cross Country race at Sea Otter on Saturday 4/14. According to the results,
there were 11 teams that finished. It seemed like there were a couple of
other teams on the start, but we didn't count. There was one other
father-son team but the son was quite a bit older and already a racer on
single bikes. All the other teams were all grown up. Needless to say, our
goals were to A) finish and B) try not to come in last!

For some reason the race organizers decided that we should be the first wave
to go off that morning. That means that there were 100 Beginner/Sport
singlespeeds 2 minutes behind us! The race started out climbing on the
paved track then dropped down a paved road for a couple of miles. At the
bottom of the hill there was a T and we followed the teams in front of us to
the left. After a short while we figured out that this was probably a wrong
turn and turned around. This proved to be the right thing when we ran right
into the back of the single-speed pack going the right way. This worked
nicely because it saved us getting passed by the most agro of the singles.
It turns out we climbed at about the same pace as the mid pack singles so
the first extended climb in the single track had us dicing with guys mostly
going our speed.

The course was tailor-made for a tandem team of our experience. Tight
enough to be fun and interesting, not so technical that it scared the
stoker. Towards the end of the first climb we passed two other teams and
didn't realize it but we had moved into first (the other teams that kept
going in the wrong direction ended up cutting back onto the course and
substantially shortening their race). First place was short lived though
when we approached the first stand of Porta-Potties and I heard "Dad! I
have to go to the bathroom!" and I did something I have never done before.
Stopped for a bathroom! Not to worry though. On the next extended climb we
saw the other tandem team, caught and dropped them. A few miles later
though came what would become a familiar sound "Dad! I have to go to the
bathroom!" This one we managed to pull off without getting passed though.
Things were looking good. Then on a relatively tight section of singletrack
just before the mid-course feed station we passed a low lying Manzanita bush
and it ripped the timing chip off of Brenden's ankle. We had to stop and
send him back to look for it. This actually took a while and "guess who"
passed us again.

After the feed zone, we again caught and passed "first" place and put some
nice time on them in the steep technical sandy sections. However, on the
long rolling climb to the finish we got passed one last time by our
nemesis, but no fear, we were pretty sure we could hold onto them for the
sprint, then.... "Dad! I have to go to the bathroom!" NO!!! Not now, we
can almost see the finish line! Can you hold it? Then I remembered my
mantra of the last few weeks. "Keep it fun!" So, we pulled over for our
THIRD potty break and watched "first" place ride off to glory.

Like I said, this was truly the most fun I have ever had racing. I hope all
of you get to do something like this with your kids someday. Just don't
fill the Camelbak so full!

ps We ended up 7th officially, but 2nd of the teams that raced the whole
course.