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Sea Otter Classic - NE
Monterey, California, USA, March 21 - 24, 2002
2001 Results Preview Past winners
Preview
If you're wondering why Sea Otter has dropped off the UCI calendar for 2002, well, blame those pesky mountain bikers, or, to look on the positive, a unique Sea Otter event called the Iron Otter that sees athletes compete in both the road and mountain bike stage races this weekend.
For Iron Otter, riders must take part in all eight stages of the road and MTB competitions. If the road race had UCI status, mountain bike racers would have to be members of a UCI-registered trade or national team. As Iron Otter co-founder Rick Sutton puts it, "These requirements lead to administrative problems, sponsorship and uniform regulations and a lot of confusion with laundry."
On the pure road side, all this and Milan-San Remo means that this year's Sea Otter is likely to be a heavily domestic affair. Saturn's Trent Klasna will be looking to defend his title at the event but after last weekend's races at Redlands, it's obvious that he'll face strong competition from Prime Alliance's Chris Horner and Canadian national team member Roland Green – that's if world MTB champ Green isn't concentrating solely on the dirt racing.
Among the women, Saturn may be looking to Canadian rider Lyne Bessette to lead the charge for GC, given the recent huge efforts by Judith Arndt who has pulled off two great wins in the Tour de Snowy and at Redlands. Besssette and Arndt have the most powerful team in US women's cycling backing them up, but the relentless, attacking style of young Canadian phenom Genevieve Jeanson (RONA) is sure to put Saturn under pressure.
Past winners
Women Men 2001 Anna Millward (Aus) Saturn-Timex Trent Klasna (USA) Saturn 2000 Petra Rossner (Ger) Saturn Gord Fraser (Can) Mercury 1999 Anna Wilson (Aus) Saturn Frank McCormack (USA) Saturn
