GREAT FINISHES AT SEA OTTER FOR GIANT TEAM

Decker tops in Super D; Emmett wins XC

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 XTC 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:
http://www.cyclingnews.com/mtb/2008/apr08/seaotter08/?id=results/seaotter0813