The men’s race saw attacks right from the gun. Team Successful Living, who surprised everyone last year by sending eventual winner Daniel Ramsey solo, proved to be a major animator, stringing the field out early and sending riders off the front repeatedly.

With a tremendously strong headwind on the acclaimed corkscrew descent, and a crosswind on the long back stretch, the peloton saw most of its normal advantages negated, and was left holding an empty bag after Successful Living managed to sneak a stunning three riders into a four-man break.

Michael Grabinger Jr., Brian Jensen and Bradley White of Successful Living, together with the tattooed David Clinger of Rock Racing, went into a fast-moving pace line and never looked back.

Behind them, the field attempted to chase, and splintered into many groups, but after several laps where the gap never dropped below 1:30, the riders in the lead chase group gave up on catching the break and resigned themselves to a race for fifth place.

As the laps counted down and the break lapped the shattered field, onlookers waited uncomfortably for the group of Successful Living riders to start attacking the isolated Clinger. But to the surprise of everyone except the riders themselves the attacks never came. “We were worried about him [Clinger],” said Michael Grabinger Jr. Additionally Grabinger noted that, thanks to the strong winds, they “weren’t too motivated to attack.”

Instead, the Successful Living riders set up the sprint at the end, where Grabinger took the win with his teammate, Brian Jensen in second, and Clinger in third. “We had the confidence to do what we had to do at the end,” explained a beaming Grabinger, who gave the Successful Living team its second win at Sea Otter in as many years.

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