Cascade Cycling Classic
Published 5:00 am Sunday, July 14, 2013
It is not only the longest-running professional cycling stage race in North America, it is the most challenging.
The 34th annual Bend Memorial Clinic Cascade Cycling Classic runs Tuesday through next Sunday across roads in Central Oregon, and once again the country’s best pros are set to battle on some of the toughest climbs in the West.
The CCC is one of six races on USA Cycling’s prestigious National Racing Calendar (NRC), and the field for this year’s Cascade is robust: nearly 200 pro men’s riders and nearly 100 pro women.
“There’s no other NRC race that has this level of climbing,” says Cascade race director Chad Sperry.
“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 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 on-the-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.
The CCC, at a glance
What: The Cascade Cycling Classic is a multiday cycling race with a prologue and five stages.
When: Tuesday, July 16-Sunday, July 21
Where: Locations across Central Oregon; turn the page over for maps and more information on every stage.
On the web: Race overage at www.bendbulletin.com/ccc; official website is www.cascade-classic.org