The State Championships for the Cat3’s were yesterday in Eugene and we had 7 of us in the field. In mile 5 or so, Sean Passage attacked on a small roller and found himself a few hundred meters out front without much effort. I decided to roll out with him for a bit, so I bridged up. A few minutes later we saw 2 people chasing us down. Jason Riffle (River City) and Spencer Bushnell. Now there were 4 of us and 3 from our team. We decided to go for it.

We rode really well together until Jason broke a spoke at mile 25 or so. Now there were 3 TAI riders off the front. Could we do it? Our gap was 1:40. We rode pretty hard, with me suffering a bit on the bigger hills but having no problem taking my pulls on the flats. But then I started to feel pretty crappy around mile 40 and our gap had shrunken to less than a minute despite the best efforts of Scott Gray and Erik Bergstrom to cover all the moves back in the chase peloton. We were all caught on the 3rd lap at about mile 47. Soon, in the tailwind section, Mark Hibbard (unattached) attacked so Tim Jones and another rider went after him. 1.5 laps to go it looked great to have Tim off the front with 2 others. They could stick it and Tim can sprint like no other… Unfortunately, Mark gapped Tim on the feed zone climb on the last lap and didn’t look back. He soloed to the finish, and Tim, Sean and Spencer all finished behind the main group. I dropped out. Erik and Scott finished in the sprint. We took some really big risks and rode like a team. I was impressed with the strength and tactics of our riders even though things didn’t quite work out as we had hoped. But, really, how many times can you get 3 teammates off the front for the majority of the race and have one of the best workouts of the year with 45 guys chasing you down? It was kind of fun!

Nice job to Brant Buchholz in the 1/2 race — he’s riding really strong right now.

Also, David Oliphant, Jeff Standish, Jon Pearson all did well in their categories, and Duncan Oliphant took 3rd in the 30-39 masters race!

And TJ needs to get over his viral bronchitis before he starts racing again!