Sea Otter Classic “Ladies Activities Day”

The Sea Otter Classic is including a day of Ladies Activities! Sunday April 17

Last year I had the opportunity to attend the Sea Otter Classic in Monterey, California, for the very first time. It was awesome. The weather was perfect, the racing was tough, and the community was amazing. There was only one thing missing. Just like many other cycling events, the women’s participation and attendance was noticeably smaller than that of the men’s.

Apparently, I wasn’t the only one to notice.

This year, the organizers of the Sea Otter Classic wanted to do something about it. Enter Lorri Lee Lown, cycling coach and founder of Velo Girls, the San Francisco Bay Area cycling club.

“Sea Otter Classic contacted me in spring 2010 to see if I would create their first-ever Ladies’ Day for 2011. The SOC participant demographics are largely male. For the competitive events, the female racers are there, but for festival participation in general only a very small percentage of participants are women and girls. The goal of the program is to reach out to the recreational woman cyclist by providing special events just for her, with the hopes that she would then see how cool the greater SOC festival is. Afterall, SOC has lots of attractions that women would love — shopping, bling, music, food, people, and bikes! Recreational male cyclists have known this for a long time, but somehow, women cyclists have never participated to the same level.” Lorri informed us. “I, of course, jumped at the opportunity since I love nothing better than getting women on bikes!”

Awesome, Lorri! We agree completely. Check out this list of excitement. From the Sea Otter Website:

For all interests and abilities

The coordinator for Sea Otter’s women-specific activities is Lorri Lee Lown, cycling coach and founder of Velo Girls, the San Francisco Bay Area cycling club. Lown, who has been a racer and rider in many of Sea Otter’s events over the past decade, shares Sea Otter’s commitment to a cycling scene that is just as welcoming to novice cyclists, of all interests and abilities, as it is to veterans.

These activities are being led by some very cool women! Check out this list:

Abbie Durkee of My Alibi Clothing and the Pretty Fast Girls
Bina Bilenky, Bilenky Cycle Works
Catharine Pendrel, Luna Sports, current Mountain Bike World Cup leader
Heather Henderson, Women Specific Product Manager for Trek Bicycles
Karen Kefauver, Spin City Cycling Columnist for the Santa Cruz Sentinel, mountain biker
Rachael Lambert, Women’s Product and Marketing Manager, Specialized Bicycles
Sheila Moon, women’s cycling clothing designer and cyclocross racer
Tara DelloIacon of Luna Nutrition

What’s happening:

Road Ride
Mountain Bike Skills Clinic
Women’s Bike Fit Seminar
Bike Maintenance and Cleaning Seminar
Nutrition Seminar
Women by Design Panel Discussion

There’s also an opportunity to mix and mingle with others at a Wine and Chocolate Reception hosted by Trek Women, followed by a raffle with awesome prizes.

We are looking forward to attending all the events and bringing some great photos and stories to our readers. If you are in the area, join us! You can find a list of all of the activities on the Sea Otter Classic website.