Jill Kitner does trail work on the Sea Otter dual slalom course with the course designer Keith DeFiebre looking on in the background. So the picture isn't a Mike Gin masterpiece satire of the movie poster but it's a real shot and I like the irony.
Six weeks of unrelenting rain turned the Laguna Seca swale into a swampy mess. The dual slalom course couldn't hold up to the seep from the hill and the berms trapped the water and turned into "pigs wallows". Many shoes were lost in the pit during the amateur race. Bikes were eaten and we were entertained with mud wrestling - which is wrestling the bikes from the mud.
The pros handled the wallows much better. Before the qualifiers, Cedric Gracia grabbed a shovel and took trail work into his own hands. Jill Kitner grabbed the shovel before the finals. Watching the male and female racers in the world holding shovels was precious to a long time trail worker like myself. I should have taken more pictures. This is Eric Carter dragging his bike past the pigs wallow.
It was an amazing day of racing. The riders did their best dealing with the mud by hammering through the muck. At the end of the day Brian Lopes edged out Cedric to win the pro men category.
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