Spencer Bushnell took 2nd place in the Woodland Cat3 Road Race on August 19. It was a points race, so here’s his explaination of the day:

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