9 Takeaways from Sea Otter Classic
Racing is faster, there's still safety issues, and why brands must try harder.
It’s a trade show! It’s a bike race! It’s the Sea Otter Classic.
This past week, the bike world descended on Monterey, California for the world’s biggest bike show. A melting pot of disciplines, people, and products. For a few days, everything in cycling passes through this one place.
As is tradition, here are my takeaways.
1. The Grand Prix is getting faster - again.
The level is higher, the speed is up, gravel has once again taken a big step. There’s not just strength, there is depth too.
It’s professionalising, fast. There are more team jerseys, support staff, and bigger budgets. There are at least two seven-figure budget teams in gravel now, and it shows. Life Time putting up big series prize money means that everyone is throwing their hat in the ring.
Gravel racing is legit.
2. Gravel needs to focus on fans.
The only way a sport grows is if people are watching it. There are tens of thousands of people on-site, yet the biggest race of the week went off on Thursday morning, before most had arrived. If you’re going to bring that many people into one place, the race has to be built for them, as well as the athletes.
Shorter laps with multiple viewing points. Proper fan zones where spectators can see the race more than once, grab a drink, understand what’s happening, and actually feel part of it. Too much of the race happens out of sight and out of mind.
This isn’t just about improving the spectator experience, it’s about the future of gravel. More eyes on the race means more value for sponsors, better storytelling, and a stronger case to attract those elusive non-endemic brands.
If people aren’t watching, the whole model falls apart.
3. We’re talking safety, again.
Even on a fully closed circuit, a car found its way into the middle of the peloton at the start of the men’s race.
I understand the desire to integrate sponsor vehicles, but there’s a line.
4. Sea Otter is so much more than bike racing.
There’s a pretty strong case that pro racing is the least important part of the whole weekend. The real pull is everything happening around it.
It’s the only time of year where the entire ecosystem shows up. Brand managers, sales teams, product people, CEOs, athletes, journalists, coaches, fans, consumers, family. You can’t walk five metres without stopping for a conversation. It’s the annual reunion for all the people you forgot you knew.
Deals get done, partnerships start, ideas get floated over coffee and beer. Riders build relationships that matter just as much as results. In an increasingly online world, it’s a reminder that in person connection is vital.
5. Asian brands are coming big.
One of the main stories in the product world was the noticeable increase in well resourced, and even better priced Asian brands.
As mid-market cycling is getting more expensive, it’s not hard to see how this ends. These brands won’t win overnight, but they’ll quietly chip away at market share for the next decade. Before we know it, we’ll wake up and their major players.
6. It’s hard to stand out.
Walking around the expo is overwhelming, and it’s difficult to stand out. Few brands focus on having something that pulls people in. Having a fancy bike out front is cool, but if everyone has a fancy bike out front then they become old fast.
Brands need to focus on a way of pulling people in. Coffee, athlete appearances, live events, something interactive. It doesn’t need to be big, just have something.
Attention is the currency and many brands are spending a lot to be ignored.
7. Life Time are making a killing.
To race the crit, a one-hour race on an already closed circuit, Life Time had the cheek to charge $125. That’s $2.08 per minute - before fees. That’s an extreme example, and while some events were at least competitively priced, others pushed well beyond the line.
With more than 500 individual vendor booths, sponsorships, events, and general entry fees, the Life Time Events division are making serious money.
Which, to be clear, is the point. This is a business - and a very good one. If Life Time make money, they invest in the sport. Everyone wins.
8. It’s sensory overload.
The beauty of the Sea Otter Classic is the same reason you leave needing a holiday. You’re in the sun all day, your social battery’s drained, and everything outside the Laguna Seca bubble starts to pile up.
You try to squeeze in meetings, events, work, and still find time to ride 17-Mile Drive, one of the best roads in the world.
It’s brilliant, but it takes a lot out of you.
9. The new reality in gravel.
If you want to race gravel at the top now, you have to be all in. No split focus. No half-commitment to racing and media or other disciplines.
I went round to a few partners to apologise for my DNF, and no one made it a big deal. That’s the reality of this world. We’re living the dream on paper, but it’s a tightrope. Travelling, racing, training, creating, all on a shoestring.
In some ways, it’s more impressive that it works as often as it does. In others, this week made something clear. The game has changed.
What’s next for me?
I’m up in Marin as I write this, just north of San Francisco. I looked at a map and see I’m staying a stone’s throw from a small town called Sleepy Hollow. That’s how I feel right now, sleepy and hollow.
The Redlands to Sea Otter double header took a lot out of me. I bit off more than I could chew. I have so much to write - still all those words from Redlands. My training is suffering, my racing is suffering, and I need a rest.
Somebody commented on my Instagram: “If you bite off more than you can chew you’ll never go hungry”. While, that is true, I feel I have learned a valuable lesson, and I need to let something go.
Maggie lands in San Francisco on Monday, we have a few days together before I go to Levi’s Fondo. Then, it’s time to go back to Europe.
I love the buzz of the States, but when you’re constantly on the move, you start to crave the routine of home. It’s always the same on these trips. At first, I don’t miss home at all, just the people…and then, almost out of nowhere, I miss everything about it.
While you’re here…
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Appreciate the outline of learnings here. Definitely agree with the call out for race organizers and brands to be thinking about spectator engagement + athlete connection in the expo, too!
Bang on.