Proud Papa

The Utah cross season got off to a great start yesterday. We had true cross weather, a nice venue, a very good turn out and some good racing. I got to play the proud parent as Tanner had a breakout race to win the men's B in dominate fashion. He led up the start hill, opened a gap and never looked back. He did an impressive solo TT to build a lead of nearly a minute. Even with a last lap crash, he won by nearly 45 seconds. The best news was he did this in a solid B field with some very good riders.

I was running around the course taking pictures and yelling encouragement. I was telling anyone who would listen that was my son out there throwing down. I was happier than if I would have won and really proud of Tanner's effort. He's worked hard to improve and it will be fun to watch him this season.

Some other observations for yesterday's race:

• Even with a cold, steady rain all day, the turnout was really good. The fields were big and the spectators vocal. I'll have to ask Matt, but I would guess it was a record number of racers.
• Cross in Utah has grown substantially in the few years I've raced. My first year, it was very low key and no one took it too seriously. Yesterday, our team, Revolution, Timpanogus Cyclery, Mona Vie, Bighams, Canyon and others had full compounds set up with canopy's, trainers and team support. Pretty cool.
• Porcupine / Specialized had a record 10 racers. Chris and Eric went 2nd and 4th in the A's, DH, Sohm and Kevin were in the battle, Ben was 5th in the 35+ A in his first cross race while Greg, Mitch and I were in the mix. The best part was just having my bros around and sharing the experience. Much more fun than flying solo.
• Fox was handling out money lap and blasting the Techno. He keeps things interesting.
• I had a good race but lost some places with mechanical issues. The most entertaining was slowly losing my brakes as the sandy mud wore away my brake pads. I was sitting 6th closing on Ben with 2 laps to go. Unfortunately, I had basically no brakes at that point and was forced to go off the course and lay it down in the grass at the bottom of the fast downhill to stop. I had no chance of making the corner. I'm sure it looked really funny. The crash and the resulting last lap bike change, cost me a couple of positions.
• I'm now 3 for 3 races with machanicals requiring bike changes. Maybe next week will be clean.
• The 35+ A is much faster this year with some familiar faces joining the cross wars. It's great to have more guys and it makes me go faster.
• I've got to get some better wet weather gear to watch Tanner. I seem to forget that standing in the rain gets you very wet.
• I followed Bart's advice and got some neoprene gloves (Specialized now has a 3mm neoprene model). They are great. My hands stayed warm and the grip was very good.
• Steve Warsocki wins for the best cowbell. It sounded like a bell in a church tower. Good stuff.

Here's a couple of pictures. See Tanner's blog for lots more.

Tanner off on his own putting the hurt on.

Dave launching Chris up the start hill.
Warming up in the Porculized Compound.
I had my pain face on at the top of hill each lap.