Sea Otter Classic Monterey, Ca March 21-24

The Sea Otter classic is know as the first big event to start off the new season for Mountain bike racing. With a downhill, Dual Slalom, and a Mountain Cross event for the gravity racers, it was a week full of action. This years Sea Otter was the biggest ever, and one of the favorites for all 3 of the classes was Wade Bootes. Racing guys like Eric Carter, Brian Lopes, Wade has made himself one of the top MTB racers in a short time, winning the World Championship in his first full year of the MTB circuit in 2000. With the success he has had, this years Sea Otter had a large group of BMX riders, Including Christophe Leveque, Randy Stumpfhauser, Robbie Miranda, Brian Schmith, Jason Richardson, Steve Veltman, and many others. Here is how the Double A Marketing riders finished up at the event:

Wade Bootes was going for the iron man award by racing Dual Slalom, Mountain Cross, and Downhill. Wade had a very impressive weekend, with placing 2nd in the Mountain cross event. This event was like the X-Games Downhill BMX event, but it had 4 riders on course. Wade started off by qualifying 2nd in the time trial and then winning all his event up to the main event, where he met up with Brian Lopes, Eric Carter, and Cedric Gracia. Wade had a bad start, but battled it out to come back and place 2nd overall. Next was the downhill, and event where Wade is somewhat new to, and he placed 8th in a very impressive field of international Downhill superstars. Wade did have some bad luck in the dual slalom thought. In one of Wades strongest discipline, an untimely crash in the round of 16 took Wade out for the rest of the day. Overall, Wade had an impressive Sea Otter event, and looks forward to Racing BMX again in 2 weeks at the ABA Winternationals. Wades MTB sponsors include: Trek, Volkswagen, Azonic, IRC, Vans, Oakley, Powerbar, THE, Marwi, Shimano, Rock Shox. Nike, DE Marchi, Cane Creek, Selle San Marco, Sock Guy, Cycle Ops, Saris, JBL, ATI, Pedros, IMBA, Revenge, and WadeBootes.com.

Christophe Leveque made his MTB race debut this past weekend at the Sea Otter and had a lot of fun and some great first timer results. In The Mountain Cross Christophe looked to be one of the guys who may have given Lopes a run for the win, as he eased his way through the first 2 rounds. In the round of 16, Leveque once again grabbed the holeshot, but unclipped in the first turn and was shoved almost over the berm. Leveque fought back to 2nd, but was passed in a questionable move by a rider in the last turn ending his quest to the finals. Christophe looks forward to his next MTB race, in France on May 4th, that is a BMX/MTB race with events in both each day. Then he's off to Big Bear, CA for the Norba Opener. Christophe's Sponsors include, GT Bicycles, Speed Stick, Fox, Sun Ringle, Azonic Stem and Bars, ATI, King, Easton, Troy Lee Designs, Fox Forks, Smith, Marwi, Champion Nutrition, and BMXpros.com

Randy Stumpfhauser also had a good showing, qualifying for the Mountain Cross well and doing great in his runs, till the round of 16, where he was nipped at the line by one of the top Europe Mountain bike downhillers. Randy enjoyed the experience and looks forward to going to more MTB events in the future. Randy's sponsors include Huffy, Smith eye wear, IRC Tires, AC components, Revenge Sport, Vans, Champion Nutrition, Headlock, Fox, Marwi Ti Spokes, CTI 2, and BMXpros.com.