Cascade Cycling Classic preview • Sunday, July 14 • The Bulletin
The CCC, stage-by-stage Prologue: Tetherow
Stage 1: McKenzie Pass Road Race
The 34th annual Bend Memorial Clinic Cascade Cycling Classic starts Tuesday evening and concludes on Sunday. Below is a description and a map of each stage (maps by Greg Cross / The Bulletin):
Stage 2: Prineville Time Trial 26
Prineville 26
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Start:
Crooked River Park
Finish 27
Crooked River Highway
Tuesday night: Pro women, 6 p.m. start, 2.8 miles; pro men, start time TBA after women, 2.8 miles Breaking down the stage: The prologue (short individual time trial) starts on Meeks Trail in Tetherow Golf Club just off Skyline Ranch Road near Century Drive in southwest Bend. Riders will race on Metolius Drive and along Skyline Ranch Road before the finish at the Tetherow clubhouse. The cyclists will ride the course — somewhat circular and almost a complete loop — counterclockwise, starting and finishing near the southern end of the golf course. A prologue is typically held at the beginning of a stage race and serves to determine which rider wears the leader’s jersey during the first stage.
Wednesday: Pro men, 10 a.m., 74 miles; pro women, 10:10 a.m., 74 miles Breaking down the stage: The men’s and women’s fields have separate starting locations. The men start at Big Springs Sno-park, and the women start from Maxwell Butte Sno-park 10 minutes later. This stage features the scenery of lava rock fields and the switchbacks of McKenzie Pass along with two gradual climbs. The first of the climbs is about 20 miles long through the switchbacks on state Highway 242. The second climb, about 10 miles long, comes at the end of the stage to the finish at Three Creek Sno-park south of Sisters. 22
Metoliu s Dr.
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Start Santiam Pass 20
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Turnaround Thursday: Pro men, 10 a.m. start, Crooked 16 miles; pro women, start time River Prineville TBA after men, 16 miles Reservoir Breaking down the stage: The time trial stage for the second MILES straight year is based out of 0 1 2 Crooked River Park in Prineville. Cyclists will race on an out-andback route on the Crooked River Highway, which follows the path of the Crooked River. The route is relatively flat but gently rises on the way out and descends on the way back. Participants will ride out only about halfway toward Prineville Reservoir before turning around and heading back to Prineville.
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Stage 4: Downtown Twilight Criterium
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Saturday: Pro women, 5:45 p.m. start, 50 minutes; pro men, 7 p.m. start, 75 minutes Breaking down the stage: This always-popular stage brings the cycling action into the heart of downtown Bend. The start/finish line for the criterium is located on Wall Street between Oregon and Minnesota avenues. Each lap includes four 90-degree turns as the fields make their way around and around Wall Street, Oregon Avenue, Bond Street and Idaho Avenue. Expect high speeds on the straightaways and plenty of action along the way as riders fight for sprint points at intermediate stages of the race.
Tyler Rd.
Friday: Pro men, 8:30 a.m. start, 92 miles; pro women, 9:30 a.m. start, 70 miles Breaking down the stage: The start and finish for both races is at Mt. Bachelor’s West Village Lodge. Both fields will head south toward Sunriver on Forest Service Road 45 before riding turning onto Forest Service Road 40. The women’s field will then ride once around Crane Prairie Reservoir, and the men will circle the reservoir twice before the Cascade Lakes Highway climbs back to Mt. Bachelor and the finish.
Sunday: Pro men, 1 p.m. start, five laps, 83 miles; pro women, 1:05 p.m. start, four laps, 67 miles Breaking down the stage: The hilly, looping final stage of the Cascade Cycling Classic starts and finishes at Summit High School in west Bend. The course passes by both Shevlin Park and Tumalo State Park and includes a stiff climb up Archie Briggs Road — where cyclists often make their moves — toward the end of each circuit.
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Stage 3: Cascade Lakes Road Race
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Stage 5: Awbrey Butte Circuit Race
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“It’s by far the toughest race on the NRC this year. We’re down to only six NRC races, and Cascade is definitely the premier race on the NRC, there’s no question about it. And it’s the toughest race on the NRC, hands down. I think that’s why you’re seeing these kinds of numbers. Nobody else draws this big of fields for men and women.” The five-stage CCC has long served as a steppingstone race for up-and-coming cyclists who aim to one day race in Europe and the Tour de France — but it is also a race that is circled on the calendar of every seasoned pro who makes a living racing on the domestic circuit. “There’s a whole host of guys that used Cascade to get to Europe and hone their skills,” Sperry says. “Anybody who’s anybody in cycling has come through Cascade. Every major pro at some point has raced the Cascade.” The 2013 CCC will include the exact same pro stages as the 2012 version. A fundraiser for the Mt. Bachelor Sports Education Foundation, the Cascade begins Tuesday with
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the 2.8-mile prologue at Tetherow Golf Club west of Bend. The first official stage for the pros is the McKenzie Pass Road Race on Wednesday. Spectators wishing to see cyclists atop the pass should get there by 11:30 a.m., according to Brad Ross, the onthe-road race director. Ross says that due to road and traffic constraints, this could be the final year that the McKenzie Pass race will be a part of the Cascade Cycling Classic. “We’ve got another stage that we’ve been looking at for a few years, and I think possibly for 2014 we’re going to pull the trigger on something completely new and different, which I think is going to be even better,” Ross says. Asked to elaborate on the location of the prospective new stage, Ross says only that it is “south.” Thursday’s second stage of the CCC is the Prineville Time Trial, starting and finishing at Crooked River Park. This time trial made its debut at last year’s Cascade to rave reviews from the riders. Ross says they liked the pavement and the rolling nature of the course, a scenic route along the rugged Crooked River canyon. The third stage, the Cascade Lakes Road Race,
takes place Friday. The race starts at Mt. Bachelor ski area with a long descent on Forest Road 45. The featured climb begins about 6 miles from the finish at Sparks Lake. “The coolest place to watch that race is on the Sparks grade,” Ross says. “There’s been more and more spectators on that climb every year. That’s probably the hardest climb of the (entire) race.” Saturday night features the ever-popular Downtown Twilight Criterium, a race notorious for crashes. But Ross says the course is quite safe. Most of the crashes occur on the corner of Idaho Avenue and Wall Street, when the cyclists are racing at relatively slow speeds. “It’s so tight and there’s such a bottleneck that the crashes tend to not be that catastrophic,” Ross says. “They’re going pretty slow out of Idaho, but then they’re totally getting on the gas hard to get back up to speed to go that whole five blocks all the way down Wall Street.” Sunday’s final stage, the Awbrey Butte Circuit Race, has long been a rider favorite, according to Ross. “That could really be a world championship
course,” Ross says. “It’s hard, but the best climber is not necessarily going to win. You have to be tactical and be a smart bike racer and a good bike handler in order to do well there.” In addition to the pros, some 500 amateur riders will compete in the Cascade Lakes Road Race on Friday, a time trial and criterium on Saturday, and the Awbrey Butte Circuit Race on Sunday. One of those amateur categories, the 40-and-over masters, draws competitors from across the country. “They’re not used to racing in really high quality long-distance stage races like the Cascade Classic,” Ross says, referring to the masters. “So it’s a pretty big deal. And we get some of the best masters riders from around the United States to come race in that.” Sperry says the best thing about the Cascade Cycling Classic is its long history. A race director of many different cycling events throughout the West, Sperry says most such events are lucky to last five to seven years. “To have 34 years in a row, and still going strong,” Sperry says, “is just a huge testament to the support of the community.” — Reporter: 541-383-0318, mmorical@bendbulletin.com.