Spencer "sitting in" on the front...

In the PRO race, Brant Buchholz hung with the leaders as they lapped the main field and battled away at ridiculous speeds for such a tight course. Therapeutic Associates, Inc. was a sponsor of the race and it was great to have our riders so well represented in both fields. Nice job to everyone who had the courage to race such a notoriously hard race!

David Oliphant in the thick of it

Thanks to Turner and Melissa for the photos!

i started the race with a small field. due to the
points format, the race was active the entire time. a
number of breakes formed with river city and half fast
velo sending people out every chance they got.
whenever i bridged or attacked, someone from river
city or half fast closed down the whole break.
i bridged solo to a break of 5 over a 30 second gap
only to see rivercity pulling me back.

after all of that, i elected to sit in. racing on my own, i tried
to team up with kenji sugahara, and patrick marzullo.
that way someone would cover breaks ( and i didnt have
to cover everyone). when the 1st sprint came around,
we had stayed as a group. since i was sprinting for
the bonus points and had no chance of a leadout i
freelanced behind rivercity and came around at 200
meters and powered to the line first.
shortly thereafter 2 riders attacked and we all let
them go because there were no bonus sprints to be had
for 25 miles or so. eventually their lead grew to 2
minutes and about 8 of us all worked a paceline to
pull it back. none of the teams or favorites were in
the break and we wanted the bonus points. about 3
miles from the sprint (right where brandon pulled the
mother of all yellow line infractions at the piece of
cake) 2 guys went off. they dangled and stayed off.
just as we were at about 800 meters to go, austin
arguello ( the little finnegans rider) drilled it and
was off solo right before the sprint. i was forced to
lead myself out from 1k to about 750, kenji and
patrick came around. i rested a little bit and then
let loose with 450 to go. it was the longest sprint
i’ve ever won. i gapped everyone but then died with
50 to go, wade goff just about snuck past me at the
line but i held him off.
After the sprints, patrick marzullo and seth
attacked off the front. everyone let them go because
those guys climb like goats anyway. my group hit the
climb and i limited the damage finishing 7th across
the line. the last mile was brutal out of the saddle
grinding (about 1.5 times pilot butte and steeper)

all in all it was an exciting race. the tables were
finally turned on me and i dont want to race without
the rest of you guys again. those guys were picking
on me. the points kept everyone active. there were
few wheel suckers.

spencer

With 7 riders in the cat3 State Crit race we tried some different tactics because the race was rather eventful with tires blowing up, several crashes and we knew we had the strongest team in there. Spencer and I sat at front for most of the race and Scott Gray threw in some good attacks with 6 and 5 to go. I was tangled in a crash and someone knocked my rear wheel of out the dropouts with 5 to go so I was able to get in after a free lap. I attacked with 2 to go and made everyone chase me down. Tim Jones sat in the chase group and as they caught me with 1/4 lap to go he shot off the front like a rocket for the win. Tim said, “I knew Spencer and Bill were working hard at the front so I knew I had to win the race. I sprinted and was thinking, ‘No, I’m in too big a gear’ but I just kept looking for shadows behind me and nobody was coming, so I just killed myself across the line.”

We’re lucky to have a talented and fun cat3 group right now. Spencer and Scott will finish this season as 3’s and upgrade for the start of the 2008 season.

Jeff Standish has completed his upgrade and is now a cat3 — congratulations!

We will be opening the team roster for next year very soon. If you’d like to ride for TAI please send an email to bill at taicycling.com.