Redwood City Daily News Headline: Sea Otter Classic Dead
By Melanie Carroll
A world-class bike race originally slated for its second year in Redwood City
won’t be coming to town. Until yesterday the Sea Otter Classic Elite Stage Race
was scheduled for April 14 in Redwood City, but those plans have been scrapped,
due to dwindling corporate sponsorship.
"The corporate finance was not what it once was," said Rick Sutton, a
co-founder of the Sea Otter Classic.
The Sea Otter Classic in Monterey is considered by biking enthusiasts around
the world to be one of the major racing events in the United States. Redwood
City’s portion of the race, which was supposed to be the first leg of the
Monterey competition, got off to a dubious start last year. The results were
nullified after some racers refused to continue with the course.
Last year’s rocky start wasn’t the problem, city officials said.
"We’re blaming it on the economy," said Dan Zack, the city’s downtown
development coordinator. "They can’t get a sponsor."
Last night, City Council was poised to approve spending $25,000 to help pay
for race necessities, such as barricades. Instead, the agenda item was deleted
after a conference call between Sutton and city staff yesterday afternoon. "We
were really sad to do it," Zack said.
Sutton, who lives in Redwood City, said he’s got to balance finances as the
Monterey event goes into its 14th year. Redwood City’s event was not the only
one that got canceled. A new event in Santa Cruz that was added last year was
scrapped as well due to a lack of corporate sponsorship, Zack said.
Last April in Redwood City, roughly 60 competitors in the women’s race
completed the course without incident. But later, when the men’s competition got
under way, many of the 130 racers refused to continue after four laps. Rather
than completely close off the nine-mile race course that took bicyclists on a
six-lap course in the Emerald Hills area, traffic was sporadically permitted
onto the roads in "rolling starts" by volunteers directing traffic. Racers
complained about unsafe conditions caused by the vehicles.
Thanks to the Redwood City
Daily News and Glenn Stilwell.
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