SCOTT Takes Home 3 Trophies at the 2016 Sea Otter Classic

The annual Sea Otter Classic in Monterey, California is a cycling festival of unrivalled proportions. Riders flock to the Laguna Seca Raceway for a mix of bike culture and early season competition. With fast, open courses and plentiful spectators, these exciting and popular races pave the way for the season ahead. For the 2016 edition we had perfect weather with temperatures in seventies, plenty of sun and just a bit of wind.

This year, SCOTT was lucky to bring home not one, not two, but fully THREE trophies, thanks to the strong efforts of our riders out on the courses. Teal Stetson-Lee won the enduro, Geoff Kabush was fastest in the short track, and Todd Wells closed out the marquee event with first place in the XC. Erin Huck of the SCOTT-3ROX Team also placed fourth in the short track.

Teal kicked off the 4-day weekend with the women’s pro enduro on day one. Consisting of four stages scattered around the venue, she opened the SCOTT account with a commanding win ahead of Anneke Beerten, with Kelli Emmett in third. Teal was fastest on two of the stages, which gave her a 10-second total advantage by the day’s end.

“I started off the season with some challenging racing in South America which easily prepared me for the smoother courses at Sea Otter,” said Teal. “I felt confident and relaxed and rode all the stages smoothly and consistently.” 

Teal rode a Genius 900 Tuned, because the courses were relatively smooth and required a lot of pedaling. “With the 2nd and 3rd stage being more XC-style, pedaling was key and I worked hard to make up as much time as possible with hard anaerobic sprint efforts.  My downhill and dual slalom skills are still a work-in-progress but are steadily improving.  I'm really happy to perform well against tough competition in front of the entire cycling industry at a high-profile event like Sea Otter,” said Teal.

On day two, the short-track races gave the endurance riders a chance to shine. Fast and intense, the short track is tailor made for a seasoned pro like Geoff Kabush. He outsprinted a group of 3 riders to take a thrilling final in front of a large crowd.

“Old man still has some tricks up his sleeve!” said Geoff after the race. “Maybe it was the bike, maybe the tires, maybe the quick shifting, maybe the aero skinsuit? Who knows but somehow I out maneuvered everyone and won a tight sprint.” Geoff’s Scale 900 was fitted with a new FOX fork, Shimano XTR single-ring Di2 shifting and Maxxis tires.

The very next day in the cross-country, another veteran of the circuit made his mark. Todd Wells, riding a SCOTT for the SRAM-TLD team, charged out of the last corner and held a gap all the way to the finish line.

“The XC is the race everyone wants to win and I knew I had the form,” said Todd, “but I just needed the legs, no bad luck and the right tactics to have a good race.”  A field of Olympic-caliber riders lined up for eight laps of the 4 K course, which consisted of a long pavement climb, lots of off camber loose switchbacks on the main hill and a section through the venue that was also used in the STXC.

Going into the final lap, Todd was in a group of three. “We were still all together as we hit the STXC portion of the course, two minutes from the finish,” he said. “I knew I had to get that last single track first because that’s how Kabush won the day before. I just squeaked into the last singletrack first after locking bars with Nicola and almost crashing. I held on in the two hundred meter sprint to the finish!”

Congratulations to these riders on their huge efforts so early in the season. It’s going to be a great year for SCOTT!