Sea Otter Classic Creates Two-Wheel Convergence For Bicycle Lovers Of America
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MONTEREY, California — I was bicycling back to my hotel room in this scenic, Central Coast tourism town, enjoying the Pacific Ocean views Saturday morning when I heard a voice behind me.
“Hey, LVSportsBiz.com.”
I was wearing my LVSportsBiz.com bicycle jersey with my former pug, “Pugsy,” on the front and even the back on a fantastic trail. By coincidence, the trail was part of the Sea Otter Classic bicycle ride Saturday morning and dozens of bicyclists were pedaling the 45-mile ride.
One of the volunteers on the bike course was Robin Brown, a retired Clark County Fire Rescue captain and 35-year EMT.
A lover of bicycling, Brown moved from metro Las Vegas to Big Bear, California, one of the most beautiful places to ride a bicycle in Southern California.
Our reunion was a fun jolt. We chatted for about 15 minutes and then I had to pedal back to the hotel to shower and check out.
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I first talked with Robin Brown in September 2017 when LVSportsBiz.com broke a story about about a bicyclist on a bicycle safety awareness ride called, “3 Feet For Pete,” getting shot by a gun user illegally firing shots on Bureau of Land Management land in the wrong direction along the bike route.
That’s right. On a bicycle ride designed to increase awareness about safety for bicyclists in Las Vegas, a bicyclist was shot by a shooter.
I could not get shooting info from Las Vegas Metro or the BLM for my story.
But Brown was cycling near the rider who was shot in his calf and was my source for the story.
Brown had heard five to 10 rounds whizzing by southbound bicyclists along the Las Vegas Boulevard route and seconds later heard a bicyclist muttering, “What the heck?”
Brown said he saw blood on the bicyclist’s calf.
“I knew exactly what happened,” Brown told me at the time. “He got shot.”
The bicyclist who was shot was a Henderson teacher.
LVSportsBiz.com spoke with Brown, at the time, and said he learned a family was shooting target practice on the BLM property and spraying bullets toward the west in the direction of the bicyclists who were pedaling along Las Vegas Boulevard.
The target practice shooter should have been firing rounds toward the east and a hill. Instead, they were shooting bullets toward Las Vegas Boulevard and I-15.
“They were pointed in the wrong direction,” Brown said.
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Brown serves on the Big Bear bike ride’s board of directors these days.
“You have to ride the Tour de Big Bear gravel ride. It’s August 3,” Brown told me.
“I will.”
Bicycle rides are crazy. You never who you will meet, what you will see and what will happen.
Bicycling is like John Steinbeck’s quote: “People don’t take trips. Trips take people.”
That’s what bicycle rides do.
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The Sea Otter Classic is the biggest bicycle event in the United States.
There are all types of races for everyday bicyclists, but some bigtime racers are here, too.
About 1,100 exhibitors, including the bicycle industry’s biggest names like Specialized, Trek, and Shimano, are here talking directly with people.
Life Time puts Sea Otter these days and the company put out a number of 80,000 for the attendance expected for the Thursday-Sunday bicycle event at the Laguna Seca racetrack in the grassy hills between Monterey and Salinas.
The bicycle industry’s biggest challenge is getting people with a casual interest in bicycling on bikes. The fact is our country is focused on moving cars and trucks as fast as possible and so many people fear pedaling bicycles on public roads.
That’s why a network of paved trails, a highway system for bicycles, is necessary.
Sadly, many communities do not value bicycling.
Take Las Vegas, for example.
People have been calling for a paved trail from the busy and fast-growing suburb of Summerlin to the Red Rock Scenic Drive entrance for literally decades.
But there is no trail.
When I spoke with exhibitors, some workers who did not want their names but they repeated a theme — the bicycle industry is too focused on selling expensive, high-tech bikes and gear to high-roller bicyclists and don’t know how to connect with everyday people who just want to bike a few miles to a park, store or work.
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Sunday is the last day of Sea Otter.
It’s a tough place to reach.
There’s one two-lane road in and then the same road is used for people to leave.
But the joy on kids’ faces when bicycling tells you why people make this annual pilgrimage.
It’s a reassuring sight to see all the bicycles hanging on metal horizontal poles at the bike valet.
Bicyclists are often treated as second-class citizens.
But here, if you don’t have a bike then you’re the weirdo.
These are the bicycle lovers of America here.
They are celebrating at their Woodstock.
Even when the day’s activities end at 5 PM, bicyclists just hang out at exhibitor tents. Bike culture is great. The place remains open for people to share bike stories and enjoy reunions.
We are just different.
