Erik Chalhoub here, saluting the thousand-plus volunteers at the Life Time Sea Otter Classic. They’re in the home stretch of the massive biking event that began Thursday, April 16 and ends today, April 19.
At least, those are the start and end dates for the general public. For these volunteers, it begins much earlier than that, and ends even later. From set-up to take-down, to even organizing the volunteers in the first place, putting on the Sea Otter Classic is nearly a year-long effort.
In this week’s edition of the Weekly, we highlighted a few of the many aspects of the biking extravaganza. Art Director/Production Manager Karen Loutzenheiser focused on the new and returning favorites to this year’s Sea Otter Classic. Today, April 19, there’s still plenty to see, including the finals for the downhill races, which are always an intense competition to witness.
Loutzenheiser also featured the return of the Brompton World Championship race, which took place yesterday, April 18 on the WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca track. She’s a veteran of the wacky race, having competed before in 2017 and 2018, so her insights add a unique perspective to the article.
The centerpiece of our collection of Sea Otter Classic articles is a map showcasing the challenging and pivotal points of the gravel race. Although those races wrapped up Thursday, April 16 and Friday, April 17, it’s worth checking out—maybe it’ll inspire you to compete next year. It’s never too early to start training.
Back to those volunteers. I chatted with a few of them to get a sense of why they come back year after year (you can read that interview in this article).
One of those is Dave Rollings, a longtime volunteer with National Ski Patrol, a group that is stationed throughout the various courses and is on hand to provide first aid and monitor any potentially hazardous situations.
The group has long shifts—oftentimes 12 hours—but they do it for the love of the sport and the event.
“It’s very fun to get there every morning, get everyone rallied and sent out to their roles,” Rollings says.
The final day of the 2026 Sea Otter Classic is upon us. I suspect many are already counting down the days to next year.
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