Have you checked out what’s going on over at Wahoo Fitness? We had the chance to stop by the Atlanta-based company’s booth at the Sea Otter Classic 2013 and get the full rundown from Eric Stobin, national sales manager. (See video below.)

If you train seriously, you know how important numbers become. Heartbeat. VO2 max. Caloric output. RPM. MPH. Distance. Time. Comparables.

All these things are quantifiable. But it can be a real pain to track them.

Wahoo Fitness is cracking that nut. Using not separate dedicated devices but instead recent iterations of the iPhone, iPad or iPad mini, Wahoo Fitness melds data from its own devices and apps with other smart device apps to provide a comprehensive statistical overview of your workout or training sessions. Examples of compatible apps include Strava, iRunner, MapMyWalk, MapMyDOGWALK, MotionX GPS, TargetWeight and on and on. (The Wahoo Fitness Web site provides a slew of them.)

Wahoo Fitness covers the gamut of athletic activities: Cycling, running, walking, hiking. There’s even a “Balance Smartphone Scale” that tracks weight loss or gain and BMI. (As Bicycling magazine put it, the bathroom scale trumps all other data points.)

Wahoo makes a variety of iDevice, bluetooth-capable devices for monitoring fitness. Including: the “RFLKT” bike computer (mountable on handlebars). The KICKR PowerTrainer featured in the video below. The SmartPhone Scale. An armband, a heart rate strap and a speed/cadence sensor.

We’re still taking in the incredible array of Wahoo Fitness capabilities. But recalling the days of clunky monochromatic displays and awkward bike rollers or stationary cycles, where the number of soaked towels was the best indicator of workout effectiveness, we can appreciate how digital technology in Wahoo’s ingenious hands is creating a whole new world for managing fitness athletics.

In recent races Seattle native Jill Kintner’s name has shown up on the women’s downhill roster as well as her signature event, the dual slalom.

We’ve suggested this means Jill may be looking for bigger vistas. Jill herself won’t confirm or deny the extent of her downhill ambitions, although in a new blog post she suggests she’s seriously pursuing DH.

And there it was again, at the Sea Otter Classic. After wearing out the field in the dual slalom and taking home the gold, Jill threw in her lot with the downhillers the following day.

The result was quite respectable: Sixth, about 5 seconds off the smoking hot pace of Melissa Buhl. Interestingly, Buhly had an off day in the dual slalom, at fourth, after narrowly beating Jill in last year’s Sea Otter slalom matchup.

More significant from our perspective was the fact that Jill finished ahead of some real high rollers, including Fionn Griffiths, Kathy Pruitt and Katie Holden. And she was just a hair off the paces of Sabrina Jonnier and the ageless wonder, Leigh Donovan.

These results translate simply into one factor: Experience. Jill has been honing her downhill skills under the tutelage of Aussie boyfriend Bryn Atkinson, a world class downhiller himself. If she can get more downhill racing under her belt, there’s no reason she can’t contend for World Cup titles.

Why bother with downhill at all, when you’re so good at dual slalom? Any champion wants to push her envelope and keep testing herself. Having medaled in the Olympics in BMX, Jill is pretty much the gold standard in dual slalom. And in the competitive arena, downhill racing is still the ultimate challenge. The downhillers get all the glory — disproportionately so, perhaps, but deserved as well.

The only question is whether downhill could hurt Jill’s campaign for the world title in dual slalom this year. You don’t find someone at No. 1 in both disciplines at the same time, for a variety of reasons starting with, as Jill acknowledged to Brett Tippie (scroll down for video interview), being too whupped winning the slalom to face a second day of racing.

But the one quality you have to love with Jill is she really believes anything is possible. You can see the steely determination when she rides — it translates from her body language right through the goggles and jump suit. And any interview I’ve seen with her shows an uncommon resolve to follow through on her goals.

Kintner may at this point be undecided about pursuing downhill. It’s still early in the season. But we’d sure love to see her rock in the Big Dance!

Full race results.

Mountain Bike Action recap.

Also at Otter, the Banshee Spitfire, 2010′s best new-bike name so far, is caught on video by PinkBike.

Ned Overend, the ageless one, is at Sea Otter as well.

For some time we’ve been following catastrophic failures of Thule’s T2 rack, which we think should be officially recalled. Looking for a good alternative? Here’s the Kuat NV, reviewed on MtnBikeRiders.com.

Seattle native and slalom champion Jill Kintner will be there on her new ride. Jill will be out to avenge her narrow loss last year, and won’t be making this mistake:

One thing undoubtedly contributed: Not having been pressed all day, she may have been playing it too cautious, counting as much on something going wrong for Buhl as seizing the opportunity to put down the hammer from the start.

You’ll be able to see Jill aboard her spankin’ new Transition Double at the Sea Otter Classic next weekend in Monterey. (Race schedule here.)

This is quite an upgrade from the old Double.

For mutual moral support, there’s an all-girls mountain bike program.

Banshee Bikes, which is busting out with upgrades and new bikes in 2010, also will be there with its new Spitfire.

Have you checked out the Ghost Bikes Film project’s blog? Cool stuff…

Guy turns 70, decides it’s time he rode across the country.

Yeah, it’s January. It’s in the 30s and 40s out there, and mud everywhere. It’s another three and a half months till the Sea Otter Classic April 15-18 outside of sunny Monterey, but that doesn’t mean it’s too early to build the buzz.

Here’s a worthy cause that’ll etch you or your message in posterity. Evergreen Mountain Bike Alliance is selling engraved tiles for a facade outside Duthie Hill mountain biking park near Issaquah. Funds go to paying for all the great work at the park. More on the Evergreen site.

One thing that could aid in promoting bike sharing, which basically involves paying a fee to take a bike from a rack, then returning the bike to a rack at the rider’s destination, is transponder technology. Transponders are satellite or other wireless-enabled devices that provide tracking capability for their hosts. The tech may not be quite there for bikes (in terms of power source, robustness and protection against disabling or removal), but is improving all the time. If there were a way to monitor independently the movements of shared bikes, the shrinkage rate might diminish. At the very least, abandoned bikes could be recovered.

Some good sources for Sea Otter coverage. MTBR.com has its own queue, Cyclelicious has the wonderfully named Yokota Fritz on the case (altho she was a bit, ahem, on the fritz last night), Velo News is out and about and of course the site’s own news team is all over. And there’s this from the Monterey County Herald.

Don’t forget the Sea Otter hash at Twitter, #seaotter. I’m twittering as well from @BikeIntel.

Why ride? Robb at Mountain Biking by 109 says it all. Wish you were here at Sea Otter bro!

The first couple of days would be pouring rain. Freezing riders would slog through mud the likes of peanut butter crossed with molasses. Then the skies would part and be cloudy or clear, but still unruly. Finally on the last day, or maybe for Saturday and Sunday, the sun would come out and quickly bake the ground back to hardpan, and a decent race day or so would ensue.

Sponsors tried moving the date of the event earlier, then later, then back to its traditional mid-March slate. Nothing worked. It was as though the gods were toying with the traditional cycling season kickoff and its thousands of attendees: Sorry, you can run but you cannot hide.

The saying became, “If it didn’t rain the first two days, it wouldn’t be Sea Otter.”

But behold the 2009 version of the Classic. Perhaps sympathizing with sponsors facing a sagging economy, bankrupt bike makers and brutal retail numbers, the gods are smiling. Forecasts call for sunshine throughout, with spectacular weather for the big Saturday and Sunday schedule.

Or maybe moving to mid-April did the trick. In any case, it’s a good thing, because attendance predictions have Sea Otter producers harboring high expectations.

It will be a bit cooler than usual, in the mid-60s rather than the normal 70s, but racers are not going to complain about that. As for any Seattleites like me visiting the Classic, mid-60s feels like July to our winter-battered souls.

Friends tell me it's raining in Seattle

A mainstay on any trip to Cali is the Wilder Ranch compound just north of Santa Cruz. Yeah I’ve ridden it so many times I could do it backwards upside down, but there’s nothing like panoramic ocean views, clear blue skies and UC Santa Cruz stunts to stir the soul of a mountain biking addict. The only omission is my riding buddy Jim, stuck in the cold and dark of Seattle. One of these days we’ll get him down here to sample the local treats.

The other nice thing about the Wilder ride, which usually runs 2 to 3 hours, is that it’s a good toner for muscles long atrophied by cruel Northwest winters. A few Wilder runs under the belt leaves you ready for the bigger assaults in Nisene Marks, Aptos and beyond.

Sea Otter starts in just a few days!