Sweet Victory - Finally

Indeed it was a good day for the Cottle's! Daren congrats on the win, that is pretty impressive. Doug said you looked really good and were passing the A group that started ahead of you. Tanner is the man. Taking 4th in the C group is a great prep for state next week. I am excited to hear how Doug will do at Nationals with guys his own age. I bet he will tear it up. I almost didn't do the race today, it was cold and foggy at our house, but it cleared up as we got to the race.

Since it was my first cyclocross race ever I decided to race in the C group with the masters and the juniors. It wasn't a real big group, maybe 35 riders. I didn't get a good start, but by the end of the first lap I was in first position and never looked back. It hasn't rained in the last five days, so the course was wet and slippery, but it wasn't to muddy. There were quite a few spots you had to get off and run and a lot of hills, which played to my advantage. I wasn't the best on the down hill, but I increased my gap going up the hills. I ended up winning by about 250 yards. A guy on my team, Paul, got a flat in the last lap and ended up taking 3rd. Overall it was a good first try. There is one more at the end of this month, maybe I will have to try it again.



This is me crossing the finish line.
It was about the crappiest prizes I have ever won. I got a box of SoyJoys (they taste like garbage) and a gift certificate for cube of cheese (I hate cheese)!
This is the first hill after jumping 3 barriers. This was the first lap and I made up some ground by passing all four of the guys in front of me on this hill.
Mom took some great pictures and the kids were a great cheering section. The course was very fan friendly.