GREAT FINISHES AT SEA OTTER FOR TEAM GIANT

GIANT RIDERS WIN AT SEA OTTER CLASSIC

Emmett wins XC: Decker tops in Super D

It was a great weekend for the Giant Mountain Bike Team at the annual Sea Otter Classic near Monterey CA, beginning with the Super D race on Friday. Team veteran Carl Decker (aka, “the Deckerator”) won the event riding the Giant Anthem Advanced, and decked out in a skin suit and silver racing goggles. Decker, who finished fourth in the Super D last year, told cyclingnews.com: "The start was better and last year, we had what felt like a half mile of this flat stuff at the end. This year it didn't have that, so I just sprinted to the finish. You didn't have to brake anywhere if you took the right lines. "

In the Women’s Elite Super D, Kelli Emmett, looking to defend her 1st place finish from the preceding year, could only claim third at the finish because she launched her attack “a bit too early,” she told cyclingnews.com.

However, Kelli Won the Women’s Elite XC event on Sunday riding her Giant Anthem Advanced on a tough 38-mile course made tougher with stiff winds and billowing sand and dust. She attacked early again and this time the strategy worked. Her time was more than two minutes ahead of the second place finisher. It was Kelli’s best cross-country Sea Otter performance. Her previous best finish was a 5th place a few years ago.

In the Short Track event on Saturday, Kelli placed third even after a crash in the early going. "I hit a gopher hole as I was going for a pass and went down. There are tons of holes!” she told Cyclingnews.com.

GIANT MTB TEAM RESULTS – SEA OTTER

Men’s Elite Super D
1st – Carl Decker

Women’s Elite Super D
3rd – Kelli Emmett

Women’s Elite Short Track
3rd – Kelli Emmett

Women’s Elite XC
1st – Kelli Emmett

For complete results and more photos, go to:
www.cyclingnews.com

REPORT FROM GIANT INTERNATIONAL TEAM AT WORLD CUP XC #1 IN BELGIUM
Adam Craig and Oli Beckingsale in top 20

In the first World Cup event in Houffalize, Belgium Giant MTB team member Adam Craig placed 15th in his quest to be America’s choice to go to the Olympics in August. Oliver Beckingsale of Great Britain placed 18th—and both riders now look forward to racing the next World Cup event in Offenburg in a week. On Giant’s RideLife website, Adam’s blog is posted about the event, and Oli has a contribution as well.

Here are some of Adam’s comments: "I’m pretty stoked and a bit relieved to have been 15th in my first proper race of the year. Having your best international start in memory is a good sign that I didn’t do too much skiing or dirt bike riding this winter… Just right, it looks…" And there is also this from Oli: “Back to the racing and from my start of 49th I wound my way round a few people on the stupid steep start hill and rolled up through on the next few laps in the company of my man Adam. With two to go I started to dream of frites and mayo which is not a good sign but kept it together for 18th. Pretty chuffed with that and a good first race for the new XTC advanced.”

More of Adam’s blog can be found at: www.ridelife.net/rideLife.html and click on “Rider Blogs: Adam Craig” at the bottom of the page. Complete World Cup results are at: www.cyclingnews.com