Good Day for Cottles

Here's some video of the Men's C race start with Doug and Tanner. Watch closely and you can see them on the inside near the end.

First off, congrats to Brook and Brady on the birth of Ethan. I'm glad all is well and wish Brook a quick recovery. Wish we could see the little guy in person.

Today was a pretty good day to be a Cottle. First I got to spend nearly the entire day with Doug and Tanner. That's always good. Tanner decided to race the Men's C group with Doug and then the Junior 15 - 18 group an hour later. Tanner was a stud. He worked his way into the 2nd chase group behind the leading group of 3 and battled the entire race. With 2 laps to go, he put a gap on the other guys and stayed away to finish 4th out of over 30 adults. I was really impressed and it was a blast watching him. Good job to Mike W for battling for the win and finishing a strong 2nd on a single speed. Mike, get some gears!

Doug rode a solid race to finish 18th. He's improving each race and having fun. The thing about cross is that it very hard regardless of where you finish. You ride at your limit the entire race. Sometimes you just go faster than others. Doug gave max effort for entire 40 minutes and looked good.

After the C race, Doug got a call from Brady informing us Brady had just won his very first cross race. I can't tell you how impressive it is to win the first cross race you enter. This is a hard sport and Brady is making it look easy. I look forward to hearing the details from him.

Tanner then gave the Junior race a go but was pretty worked from his prior effort. He hung in there and finished 3rd. He'll beat these guys next week at the State Championships when he does only one race.

I must have been inspired by Brady because I managed to get my first cross win as well. I got in a good warm up and felt ready at the line. I got a good start and was 3rd into the 1st corner. The 3 of us got a gap and I moved up to first by the end of the first lap. I drilled it for the next two laps and got a good little gap. My teammate AJ disrupted the chase group a little for me and I managed to build about a 30 second lead. About half way through the race, AJ attacked what was left of the chasers and I thought he would bridge to me and I'd be in trouble trying to stay on his wheel. However, my gap never came down while his gap increased over 3rd. In fact, my gap increased the last few laps. I caught my teammate K Wilde with a few laps to go and rode in with him. I caught nearly half of the A's that started a head of the 35+ group and it was very cool. Going fast is a very good thing.

It is very satisfying to see my hard work over the last few years payoff. This win was a long time coming and I've day-dreamed about it many times. The reality is better than the dream. A couple of years ago, I would not have thought it was possible. What made it even better was having Doug and Tanner there and getting great help from my teammates. Our team rocks. Today, we had a 1st, 2nd, two 4ths a 5th and a 10th. State Championships should be fun next week. With any luck, I'll have good legs again. Too bad it isn't at Heber. We've raced there 3 times this year and I've had a 1st, 2nd and 3rd.

Tanner in the barriers.

Doug crossing the finish line.

Me and K Wilde near the end of the race.

I finally get to do the victory salute.