No Go

Daren,Good luck at the harvest moon crit tomorrow. I was planning on racing it, but I've had no legs all week and the weather is predicted to be bad. So I'm out. Noah has a soccer game at 11 and I would rather go watch him anyway.
I'm thinking of racing cyclocross on the 20th at Fort Buenaveutura, but I'm not sure yet. I still wish we were going to do the white rim trail next week, but I understand the reasons for waiting. I hope we can ride it sometime in the spring.

Crash Zone

This is looking down the trail

Looking up at site

After the air-borne phase this is where I landed

I'm trying to figue out the posting of pictures and labeling them, but this makes no sense, so if this post is out of order that is why. I need some inservice. Betty and I had a great afternoon up the canyon, hiking and driving over the mountain. We ate at a great lodge in big cottonwood and had alot fun.

This is the rock that sent me flying

Good Rides

I'm having trouble with my computer at home, so no pictures. I'll post some when I get it all figured out. Saturday's ride was a blast right up to the time Doug crashed. He and Tanner had really been doing well to that point. Thankfully, Doug's wrist is not broken and he'll heal in time for Cross. However, it does mean that the White Rim Trail is out this fall. I'll try to get some dates in the spring. It's good we rode up high on Saturday because there's snow on it today. We need lots of snow this winter. Tanner's praying for snow everyday. He's got big plans for skiing this year.

After our ride on Saturday, Tanner and I when to the AST Dew Tour in SLC. It was pretty cool. We saw all the best freestyle motorcross riders do crazy tricks over huge gaps. Those guys have serious issues. The main reason we went was to watch the UCI Supercross. All the best BMX riders in the world were there to race. It was a race that had points for Olympic qualification. There were teams from 19 countries. The current world champion, Kyle Bennett of the US, was there. We got to see about 9 preliminary heats before the rain came and closed things down. Too bad because those guys have skills. We also caught some BMX park prelims. More guys with issues.

Tonight, I raced the last RMR for the year. I did 16 RMR crits this year, more than twice as many as any other year. The good news: no crashes for me; lots of great workouts; spent some time off the front; attacked a bunch and manged to get some points. The bad news: I have no chance to win a bunch sprint; I'm fast enough to attack but not fast enough to make it stick and some days I have to work hard just to stay near the front.

Cross racing starts soon. I can hardly wait. It's the Ogden Crit this Saturday. Hope to see you all there. I plan to race the Masters 45+ at 1 pm. Should be hard and fast. Hopefully, I can hang on for a good finish.

Daren

Loverly "FALL" Riding

Congrats to Bub, he maybe #2 in Eugene but he's #1 with us! D and T and I had a great ride on Sat. We rode to all the names I had heard so much about, the spine, puke hill, dog lake. It was one of the best rides any of us had been on. No race, or group pressurers, just best friends and georgeous trails and scenry! We all had a ball and Daren took us down exciting and pucker trails. After over 3 hours of riding we were heading down to the parking lot by Solitude and with about 200 yards to go, I hit a rock, all most recovered but proceded to do the famous swan dive over the bar landing on my head,ear and right wrist. It was an all rock landing that wasn't very nice. I got home ok and didn't get to the Dr. until sunday morning as I was hurting pretty good on the wrist. I went to the emergency roon where Kim and my friend Rob Alley was the attending MD. He laughed as he came in as he was on call when I smashed my fingers. The X-rays revealed no apparent fractures but one bone needed to be checked by the radiologist. I found out today that there is no fracture. Splint and swelling are in my immediate future. I thought I could drill today, but I couldn't even get a glove on and I get a few days off that I can't do anything. Go figure! Life is good.

Sun City Loot!

On a whim Jeremy and I decided to race a crit in Portland. I called Jeremy on Friday to talk about our youth temple trip. He said that he saw there was going to be a crit in Portland right after we got done. So we got the ok from wives (thanks Brooke and Kristy) and headed to the race.

The course was the craziest 3/4 mile course I have ever seen. It was behind a strip mall and had many twists and turns going in and out of parking lots and through alleyways. You started the race going down a hill, which quickly 180's, going right back up the hill into a head wind. The uphill and technical turns played to my advantage. By the fourth or fifth lap we had already established a good gap on most of the field. By the sixth lap it was myself and another guy. Jeremy got stuck as we broke away and wasn't able to bridge the gap. I was able to win two of the three prime's. One was $50 gift certificate to a Mexican restaurant and the other $109 free month of Taikwando lessons (woo -hoo! What do I do with that?).

Going into the final lap I was pulling, so I decided to attack up the hill and try and hold the lead. He was able to stay close on my tail, but I was still in the lead. Going into the last corner I took it too wide, giving him just enough room to squeeze in and cut me off around the bend. It was the only time all day I took the corner that wide. The sprint was about 20 yards out of the turn and I never was able to catch him. I lost by about 2 feet! I think I am destine for second. We were able to break a huge gap and I felt really good about that. Jeremy finished behind us winning 3rd. I walked away with about $230 in cash and prizes, so that was pretty cool (even though $109 is for Taikwando - I think I am going to try and sell it on Craig's List - any takers?).

It is good to see all the pic's taken from the Lotoja! I think we should start calling my Dad "Crash!" It seems a more fitting name.

Bubba

LOTOJA- 356 days to Go!

Well I'm sure you have been dying for my lotoja post. My only problem that the hole I wore in my butt has prohibitted me from setting long enough to post. It is getting better but D and T know I didn't do to well Sat going up the mountain. My experience this year was much better than last. I even felt good on the climbs, thanks to compact conversion. The worst feeling was on top of the Snake River Pass, knowing all the climbs were over but we still had 80 miles to go. It is such an individual experience it is fun to hear how everyone personally felt. It looks so easy for everyone else but me. I do think there was some very exciting moments, like coming off the big mountain to Montpellier and watching the specialized machine go to the front and drive that train home for 20 miles. It was so cool as we pulled half the field with us to the feed zone. Who could forget Uncle Kim's nature deposit, it put a whole new definition to buck naked. We may not have been the fastest, but we looked the best, bikes included! Here are a few of my pictures. We will be putting everyones on a dics and making copies for all. We had success though as we did beat the hairy legged tube sock soloist! Brady can almost sleep at night if it weren't for the big thighed duds that beat us.

Tri Geeks and Other Stuff

First off, I've thought of a long list of reasons not to ride LoToJa next year. However, out of respect for Adam and the crew, I'll not rain on the parade. Let's just say I'm very comfortable with my decision not to ride it next year.

It's been a pretty good week. Here's some pictures.


We visited Ashley at USU. Here she is with one of her roommates, Kim. Her apartment this year is much nicer than the dorms last year.



Seems everyone I know is doing Tri's now. We checked out the start of the Ogden Valley Tri prior to our MTB ride Saturday. Here's a very happy Eric coming out of the water after the swim.

This is Eric's group starting, I think. Hard to tell. They all look the same to me. I must admit watching the race made me want to do one. It has a good vibe, similar to MTB racing 10 years ago. Tyra, Bonnie and a friend of theirs did the relay. It was great to see them there and they made it through the race pretty well. I also saw a few of the local bike guys racing, Brad Pilling and Will Purdy to mention two.

After watching the swim and some of the bike, we were off to ride Skyline trail. Doug, Tanner and I started. Unfortunately, Doug's saddle sore from LoToJa (one of the not mentioned reasons to not ride LoToJa) was too painful so he headed back after 40 minutes or so. T and I continued up to Lewis peak. It was a cool trip up and down memory lane. I was telling Tanner stories about first riding Skyline 29 years ago on a motorcycle. 9.5 miles and 3,300 of verticle later, we were on the top. Not too many trails give you an uninterupted 9.5 one track descent. If you haven't made to trip to Ogden Valley to do this ride, you should.

Here's the view of North Ogden from the top of Lewis Peak.

Friday, I sent some time at Miller Motor Sports Park watching some machine powered racing. Here's a Daytona Prototype car. These are serious racing machines. Loud and fast.

After the qualifing run, the teams completely tore the cars down. At MMSP, you can freely walk around the pits. That was the best part.

Here's Travis Pastrona's Mustang for the celebrity race. I hope the insurance was paid up. Fuzzy Hall was one of the celebrities. I've always liked Fuzzy, but they were stretching a bit for celebrities.

I registered Tanner, Dave and me for cyclocross nationals in December in Kanas City. The race is broken into 5 year age groups. The field sizes are huge and your start position is based on when you register. The registration opened at 11:00 pm Friday. I was pounding the "refresh" button to be one of the first in. I did me first, Dave second and Tanner third. It took less than two minutes to complete all three. I was the 5th on the list in my group, Dave was about 40th and Tanner was 3rd. We should all have good start positions. In about 5 minutes, some groups had more than 60 registered and by Sunday night most had more than 100. The online registration now says it's full. Amazing that many people will go to that much trouble to race for 45 minutes in the winter in KC. I can hardly wait.

I say we ride

Top 5 reason we need to ride again.

1. What else would make me ride all year?

2. The family that doesn't ride together.....?

3. The odds of that many physical problems ever happening again all on the same day has to be small.

4. It's really the only time we ever get to ride with Bub.

5. 11 hours on the bike, a few days of pain.

5th Lotoja, priceless.

It can't be that bad, look at all the smiles.

Love the pain

I just like this photo

The joy of finishing another LotoJa

The view at the back of the pack

GC connection powering down the road

The GC connection train

I'm love'n it

One Pedal stroke at a time

Doug love'n the compact

This way to Jackson

I think I can, I think I can. I don't know how Russ did it. Gotta love the Cottle blood in all of us.

Thanks for a great ride and especially to Doug and Kim who make it all happen.

GC Connection for Life.

Sutt

Lotoja 2007

Lotoja felt like a blur - it came and it's gone, but this year had many unforgettable moments, Russ throwing up, hammering out from the start, and Kim having to make a bathroom stop. All this together makes a Lotoja that we won't forget. Thanks for Daren letting me use his bike (I think I am a Carbone fan). Tanner and Daren really missed out. The body is starting to slowly recover. The question is - Will GC Connection ride again next year?
Here is the faithful support crew getting bottles and food ready. Many thanks to all of them!

The GC Connection riding up into Jackson.

Robbie, Doug, and Bubba before the ride. Notice we are all smiling - at this point.
Doug and Bubba. I am still amazed that the old man can still turn the pedals so well. Doug held strong and did well. He redeemed his "bonk" from last year. He climbed well and held on during the flats.
The support crew anticipating the arrival of the GC Connection.
Bonnie seems a little worried - Is Kim OK?
The GC Connection before the race.
Doug getting ready.
Bet you can't tell which one stands out like a soar thumb - Russ missed the team jersey coordination meeting.
The support crew!