The course was dry and the dust slippery at today’s Sea Otter 2009 dual slalom. For any riders who raced last weekend’s World Cup, it’s been a mission to try to get there and get organised for the race. For this reason, a few racers who have been there in the past opted out this year.

Melissa Buhl won the first gravity event with a solid win despite a mechanical problem in one of her runs. Jill Kintner is sticking with MTB racing this year after 2008’s focus on Olympic BMX, and made up for her disappointment in not qualifying for the World Cup 4x finals last week by placing second.

Kathy Pruitt and Mio Suemasa battled it out for third and fourth, with Kathy taking the Semi-final win despite a crash earlier in the day. Watch out for Mio again in the upcoming Sea Otter Downhill…

You can check out the rider’s blogs for their personal stories on how the race went down. All four of these riders are listed in the blog roll on the right of the Martha Hucker home page and hopefully they’ll be updated soon with the nitty gritty details of how it all went down!

For more info on the oddly named Sea Otter Classic click here for the website.