Planes, bikes & autos

It's been a pretty long week with some good and not so good. On the 24th, Tanner and I rode our MTB's in Corner Canyon for a couple of hours and had a good time. It was a little on the warm side, but we had the upper canyon to ourselves.

I spent a couple of long travel days beginning Wed morning at 4am. I was visiting one of our production facilities in Eastern Iowa (Doug's beloved Hawkeye territory). All went OK until the trip home. We had a 45 minute commuter flight turn into a 2 hour flight dodging lighting and thunderstorms. We missed our connection in Minneapolis had were lucky to get a hotel accross from the Mall of America at midnight. It was back to the airport early Friday for more commuter flights to Billings and then the SLC. We were only 18 hours late. I love flying in the late summer. Weather causes havic every time I fly.

I got home in time to head to the Happy Hunting Grounds for some scouting Friday night and Saturday. Tanner, a friend from work and I went to my neighbor's property. We had a good time and saw some nice deer but few elk. Hopefully, the elk will be easier to find in 4 weeks when I'm there for the real hunt. We put up a couple of tree stands (a small platform you hang 10 - 20 feet up in a tree usually by a water hole to bowhunt from) and helped clean up from a black bear. Because it's been so dry, the bears are having a hard time finding food. One bear discovered the camp kitchen (a 12 x 24 tuff shed), pulled 2x10's off the outside of the windows, opened the window and climbed in. He pretty much opened everything in the kitchen and trashed the place. Pretty amazing.

This week, I'm fully back in training and racing mode. I've had a good 3 week break and I'm ready to go at it. This week I'm racing RMR on Tuesday and the final ICUP MTB race on Saturday. I'm leading the 40+ Expert ICUP points and need a decent race on Saturday to secure the overall points win for the second year in a row. I didn't set out to win the points this year, but now that it is possible, I'll give it a good effort Saturday.

Daren

Ogden Crit/ Laramie

Great posts from Bub and Daren. Ogden has its own crit now. On thursday nights at the BDO. It is about a one mile square with new pavement and flat. It is on the south end towards 12th st. I got a flyer at a bike shop and so I went out, and sure enough it was happening. This was the 3rd of 6 races. I got in the C group, not knowing what to expect but got to the front of the 35 person group and stayed there. It was fast but I was OK, in the end the sprint was fast and I finished about 10th, hard to tell. We averaged just under 27 mph for 30 minutes. I jumped in the B group for 5-6 laps to see how fast they were going, not much difference but better riders. The C had several crashes. It was alot of fun and hopefully we can have some GC presence.

We are up in Laramie now and the Robbie's and I had a hard ride Saturday. We rode to the top of some mountain 85 miles away. The first 60 were gradual up going from 7100 to 8500 then the last 13 miles up were a killer. 8% average with no breaks for 13 miles it was tough as the air is thin and we ended at 10,888. We met the fam's on the top for lunch and then we rode down the mountain and loaded up for the Laramie. It was a hard, but fun day. We are riding MTB's today and a team ride with Laramies fast guys on Wed, then home for Betty and I.

Ride Safe
Doug

Vacation and E100 Relay

The last couple of weeks have been busy, but fun. Varsity Scout camp last week and a 3 day family vacation this week. We stayed around home and had a great time together. Below are some pictures of the good times.



What's a July vacation in Utah without a rodoe. Our kids hadn't been to one in recent memory, so we hit the Days of 47 show last night. It was a good time. Here a cowboy gets up close and personal with the fence. The bulls won last night with no rider going 8 seconds. Those guys are nuts.







Yesterday was the E100 team relay and 50 mile solo. The good news was the Porcupine / Specialized team of Dave Harward (last minute fill in), me, Eric Rasmussen, Glen Adams and Mike Sohm killed it. We took 8 minutes off last years time on a different course. Not bad for a team with two guys on borrowed bikes (Dave and Mike). I had a good day and raced the leader of the 50 mile class for my entire segment. He'd catch me on the climbs and I'd put time on him on the downhill. The bad news was there were no other good teams (only 6 teams total) and we won by 2 hours and 38 minutes (yeah, that's not a typo). After me, our guys just rode alone. We need some good teams to race next year.

On Friday, we headed out to Miller Motor Sports Park for some gokart racing. What a blast. Ashley is a speed demon. We were battling it out until she spun out. Going fast is a good thing.










We watched this Ford GT do some hot laps on the race course. I'd like to have one of these when I grow up.











Thursday afternoon, we were at Snowbird. Here's Ashley going fast again. This time on the Apline Slide. I hate to admit it, but she was the fastest. Tanner was close. JoAnn took a spill and has the road rash to prove it.









Here's the new tunnel from below the tram to Mineral Basin. Kind of cool.












Ash and Tanner on the Zip Line. Again, going fast.












In preparation for the rodeo, tanner and I gave the machanical bull a go. My knees and hand are still sore.











Thursday morning was spent at the zoo. Here's a cammel with hump issues.













We played on the climbing wall at scout camp. I did better going down than up.











Tanner did really well going up and down. He climbed some of the hardest routes on the wall and was much better at it than Dad.

















Tanner playing in the water. The highlight was the swim check in 50 degree water.

Tanner on the shot gun range. We both have the marks on our sholders to prove we shot.

Right above our camp was a little trials course we played on. Wet logs will test your skills a bit.

All in all, a really good couple of weeks. I'm still on a bit of a training break this week. I'll ride some, but nothing too big. I'm back at it next week with the Intermoutain Cup finals. I'm leading my class again this year, so I need one more good race. After that, it's all about cyclocross. I got the cross bike all tuned up this week so I'm excited to start riding it. My entire year has been pointed toward cross racing this year. Should be good.

Finally, whoes in for the White Rim Trail in October. We have camp reservations for the first Friday in October. We'll leave Thursday night and do the ride Friday and Saturday. We can have up to 15 in the camp, so friends are welcome to come. We just need to firm it up in the next month or so.

Later,

Daren

Eugene Update

These are pictures from the Tues. night crit. This is Liam and Hanna (my friend Jason's daughter and the one who took the pictures). The other is of Liam and Avery. Whenever I go around the loop Liam and Avery yell, "Go Daddy!" It is pretty fun.

Daren, I can't believe you took 9 days off the bike - I am impressed. Adam you will have to let me know how you do on the up coming races. I will be continuing my Tues. night crits. There are a couple of other races I hope to be able to get to.

Last Tues. the pace was pretty intense. There wasn't a chance for a breakaway and the speed was set pretty high. Most of our team (the Chain Agents) was there and we were trying to push a mass sprint at the end. I was marking Mckenzie most of the race and working pretty hard at it. With eight laps to go a group got away. I was sitting on the front to slow down the peloton, because one of our guys was in the group. With six laps to go Mckenzie took off and I was on his wheel. He pulled us for 3 km straight to catch up to the group. We were going around 27 mph and it was impressive. I thought maybe it would slow him down in the sprint, but it didn't (he won). With two laps to go I attacked and tried to pick up a gap, but most stayed on and I slowed down to recover with one lap to go. A guy came around me with one lap to go and cruised the lap at 30 mph. We were all trying to get into a good position. Into the last corner I was fourth, but the final sprint was very short and didn't allow for much change. I thought I was in a good position, but we finished how we came out of the corner. I ended up finishing fourth. I am still second overall for the month of July.

I don't think any of us would have predicted Rasmussen as the leader, but I had a feeling Contador would be up there. He is the future of cycling. Dad I guess that Rasmussen story was true after all! Jill was right when she told us. We will see what repercussions it has for Ras.

Keep riding-
Bubba

Back in the Saddle

Well, I managed to stay off the bike for 9 days. This was my planned break and is the longest I've gone without riding in about 15 years. It actually felt good to get away from training for awhile. I spent 3 days at our Varsity Scout camp with Tanner last week and had a good time. I'll post some pictures later this week.

Tanner is now 15 and got a Super Pogo Stick for his birthday. It is a blast to play on and we'll bring it to the next family gathering. As Chris P says, it's just a broken bone waiting to happen.

I'm racing the E100 relay Saturday with the Porcupine / Specialized team. We won last year and need to defend our title. We have a little different team this year. It is Mike Solm, Eric Rasmussen, Chris Bingham, Glen Adams and me. Can you see a weak link here? I can and it is me. We lost Chirs Pietrzak, Aaron Jordin and Steve Warsocki from last year, but Mike, Chris B and Glen are all very strong. I rode my segment last night and it's a long climb and then a bunch of big ring power rollers followed by a super fast downhill. It should be just under 2 hours and fun. I rode with Chris P last night and we were flying on parts of it. Hopefully, I'll have a good day on Saturday.

new pics below

Check out the new pics below. My computer wasn't working very well and wouldn't upload my pics, but they are there now. Since it was a draft it wouldn't let me put them under todays date.

Bubba

No Post

I haven’t posted in a while, because I haven’t been riding much. I’ve been camping a lot however. I was at life camp (Priest activity) the last week in June, then at Mindy’s family reunion from July 5-8^th and don’t forget scout camp this week (I’m leaving after class today). Luckily I’m only hitting the tail of end of camp due to school. I though I was going to be able to ride a lot this summer, but things just haven’t worked out. I’m eager to get back to riding every day, swimming and riding the trainer are ok, but I need the road. I hope I can still make it to a few more crits this summer. On your tour pick, I hope your picks get busted for doping (Alexandre Vinokourov, Andreas Kloeden). I wanted to pick them, but I didn’t because I only wanted to support clean non-doping riders. Bub, I must admit I didn't see that pick for KOM.

Tour DE France/ Race report

Well I couldn't get on the blog all week, but some how tonight it let me access, go figure I did nothing different. Sat. as the Cottle group raced MTB's it was by far the best course I have raced on. Some guy in my group said you Cottle's are taking over MTB ing. I'm thinking what you talking about, I'm a rookie, He said your Brother is leading his group, Tanner is second and your are fourth. I'm thinking how does this guy know all this, I didn't even know, I quess I need to look at the rankings. It was hot and dusty but it was the first MTB race that was fun. I was determined to stay with my age group guys. We took off hard and I was in second right behind the fast guy. I had never ridden the course and after a mile loop you enter the race course and I didn't know it went up hard and as I came around the corner I saw the hill and tried to shift down but I'm not to good at it and shifted both front and rear at the same time and all of a sudden I had no chain. So after I get it on everyone has passed me and I wasn't smart enough to shift the bike when I put the chain back on so I get back on and I have to stand up to make it up the hill as it is to steep to shift. But I got better the next time putting it back on as I dropped it off again. I'm learning . These MTB races are hard.. I took 3rd out of 3, pretty impressive.

Here are the TDF picks:
Doug: l. Vino Daren: 1. Vino Adam: 1. Levi (GO USA)
2. Levi 2. Evans 2. Pereiro
3. Valverde 3. Kloden 3. Evans
4. Evans 4. Levi 4. Moreau
5. Sastre 5. Moreau 5. Valverde
Green: Robby McEwen Robby McEwen McEwen
Mtn: Michael Rassmussen Rassmussen Rassmussen

Brady: 1. Vino
2. Sastre
3. Levi
4. Evans
5. Moreau
McEwen
Frank Schleck

Good Luck

Crit Pic's

Here are some pictures from the crit last week. That is myself and Mckenzie soloing. To answer your question Daren, the crits are only 30 km (18 miles) and need to be atleast 20 miles to count as points to upgrade. So the race only counts as experience points and I need 25 races to move on. That means I don't have enough points yet. I could petition for an upgrade, but I don't know yet if I will. If I move up to a 3 I will have to race all the crits with the 1, 2, and 3's and they go pretty fast. I wouldn't really have much chance to win, I would be hanging on for dear life. I don't know maybe I will try to petition some time.

Bubba

Last 2 Crits!

Tanner that is a pretty cool video! So Doug would you post the tour predictions I want to see who picked who. Daren congrats on the mountain bike race. You did very well. I wasn't able to update last week, so I am updating the last two crits.

Last Tues.
Last week we were racing 30 km (1 km loop, flat, but windy). It was only Jason and I from the Chain Agents there to race. Most of them live in Corvallis (45 minutes away). My friend Jeremy also raced with us. 2 km into the race Mckenzie (Wheel Works) and I take off and break open a lead of about half a lap. We were working very hard to keep the gap. We sprinted for the prime and he beat me. He is a pretty good sprinter and rider. We pulled up after the prime (16 laps into the race) because we didn't think we could hold it. We recovered and tried to attack a couple of times but couldn't get a break. Into the sprint I finished 2 behind Mckenzie, but they made a mistake on number of laps and had 2 laps left up twice. So we had to race through another lap. My friend Jeremy didn't sprint on the first sprint because he wasn't in a position, so he pulled out. But he was unable to beat Mckenzie. I finished 3rd behind Jeremy. The guy felt pretty bad that me messed up the number of laps, but that is life.

This Tues.
The temperature reached a high of 103! It was hot! And I had been roofing in the hot sun all day, so I was content to sit in the group for a while. Unfortunately, no one told that to some of the other riders. In the first lap a strong group of 3 took off and were getting a good lead, so Mckenzie and I bridged the gap. There was a crash and Mckenzie dropped back with the group, so it was 3 of us pulling away from the group, including my friend Jeremy. Mckenzie was able to bridge a 25 second gap all by himself (pretty impressive). The 4 of us worked together to lap the main group! In the sprint I took second behind Mckenzie. Maybe some day I will actually win one. But I am having fun trying.

Bubba

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Ql5kkVbWC8 click on this link to view my latest movie that I made with my friend Kevin. I also would like to say that I am not making any tour picks because they are all dopers, it's just a question of what and how much. I have lost all faith in pro sports especially cycling. Thank you Brady for the wonderful pictures that you sent me.
- Tanner Cottle

Hot Racing

Tanner, Doug and I did the Sherwood Hills ICUP MTB race today. It was hot, but fun. I love this course. It has tons of tight turns in the trees and no long sustained climbs. I had a pretty good race to finish 2nd. Too bad I got worked by Ed Chauner. That guy is fast. He's now 50 years old and he did the Big Cottonwood hill climb in the morning in the 45+ and just got nipped at the line to finish 2nd. He then drove to Sherwood hills and beat me by 7 minutes. Pretty amazing. However, I was satisfied with my race. I did all I could do and rode 4 even laps. It was fun.

Tanner was up most of the night Thursday puking. I didn't know if he would be well enough to race today, but he gave it a go. He put in a good effort and had fun. I'll let Doug tell you about his race. He had a few bike issues but worked hard. It was great to have them both there today. I got to watch them both race because they raced at an earlier time than me. I'm worked tonight, but it was a good day.

4th Pics

Here's Dave's new power training device. He's going to have all of us doing intervals on extreme pogo sticks now.

If you want to entertain a bunch of bike racers and their families for hours, you just need a pogo stick.

Tanner getting some big air.

Not a bad place to ride. Thanks to Chris for the tour.

Tanner vs. Tree

Tanner and I started our 4th by riding MTB's from Chrispy's house. About a minute in, we come to a switch back corner. Too bad Tanner's front brake decided not to work. He over-shot the corner going pretty fast and launched into a stand of oak trees. He didn't seem to be hurt too bad, but had a pretty good scrape. We rode back to the house to clean it up and discovered part of the tree was still in his arm. So, we made a detour to the emergency room were the tree was removed from his arm. We were soon back on the trail for a good ride.

Here's the offending, rather large spliter that was fully lodged in the T-man's arm. It is lying next to the puncher hole it came out of.

Tanner was a tough guy and did the full ride after the trip to the doctor. We actually had a fun ride around the Jeremy Ranch area and he's doing well this evening.

There were 3 others in the urgent care facility, all bike crash victums. The best was a guy getting cleaned up from a road crash. He's either the most dedicated rider in the world or the stupidest. I'm not sure which it is. We over-heard his whole story. He suffers from a rare disorder that has sudden, extreme virtigo attacks. He said he normally gets them while sitting at his desk. However, today's attack came while he was nearing the end of his 2 hour ride. The vertigo hit, he had no balance and plowed into the pavement. Maybe it's just me, but I think I might find another sport. His best line was "I'm glad I wasnt' with a group becauase I would have taken them down". You think? I was going to look for his bike in the parking lot so that I know what to aviod when I'm in Park City.

We're off to the Pietrzak's for the annual team BBQ. More ride pictures later.

Daren

State Champs

Here's the podium for the old guy expert at the Utah State Championships. Congrats to the winner, Jack Dainton (not there for the picture), Rob Westerman in 2nd, Kevin Nelson 3rd, Dana Harrison 5th and Carl 6th. I had a pretty good race to finish 4th. This is a great group to race with the and the top guys go really fast.

Solitude is a difficult race for me. It has lots of steep climbing that kicks my butt. I'm not a climber and it is confirmed each year on this course. However, I rode really hard, did even laps and kept my heart rate at or above threshold pretty much the entire day. That's about all I can ask. The downhill is technical and fast and I love it. Ripping the DH makes the climbs almost worth it.

Tanner had a good race and put in a solid effort to finish 9th. He's come a long way and is a solid mountain biker. It's great to have him along each race.

Wednesday, we took the Varsity Scouts up near Alta to spot deer. We saw about a dozen deer and enjoyed the beautiful views. This one of my favorite places in the world at any season of the year.















I guess I'll join the Tour DE France contest. It's hard to find a top 5 that has no drug connections. I think I'll wait until the last minute to turn my picks in. Who knows who'll get kicked out by then.

Daren