Emiliano Jordan, who won one of two grand prizes, stands with one of the Electra bikes.

By Emiliano Jordan

I moved here for the community, not for the racing. Don’t get me wrong, the racing is hard and competitive; the courses are challenging and beautiful and the calendar is full. But if I only wanted racing, I would have moved to Southern California or stayed in Tucson. It’s the community that surrounds bike racing — the cycling community at large — that drew me to Portland. It’s the number of cyclists, the amount of bike paths and the recognition of cycling as a legitimate form of transportation and even materials transportation.

At the center of this is the Bicycle Transportation Alliance (BTA), the beneficiary of a fund-raising raffle that took place Friday night at Bike n Hike with generous donations from companies like Chris King, Rapha, Showers Pass, Endura, Doctor Will Bar, Ortlieb and, of course, a double grand-prize donation of two $1,100 Ticino city bikes from Electra. The raffle brought together an eclectic crowed that mixed bike racers, promoters and coaches with recreational or soon-to-be recreation riders, and even a Frank Zappa look-alike in old school pink BMX pants.

The specific goal of this fundraiser was to help the BTA with the “Build It” project, a project aiming to add 600-700 miles of bike paths to Portland with the end goal of seeing 25 percent of Portlanders using a bicycle as a habitual form of travel. I was happy to see Brad Ross of the Cross Crusades and the Portland Twilight Criterium, Chris Swan of Upper Echelon Coaching and a slew of other promoters, coaches and racers supporting the BTA. (more…)

The Cherry Blossom Classic features four stages in and around The Dalles.

The Cherry Blossom Cycling Classic, which offers four stages over three days April 23-25 in The Dalles, has added a new course and a slightly re-arranged race schedule. The 2010 version will feature road races the first two days and culminate with a time trial/criterium doubleheader on Sunday.

Cherry Blossom will start as it did in 2009, with the Columbia Hills Road Race on the barren rolling hills southeast of The Dalles. Bissell Pro Cycling Team’s Paul Mach rode away from the men’s pro/1/2 field last year on this opening stage and gained enough time to secure the overall victory.

With the time trial and criterium moved to Sunday, the 2010 edition will serve up its second road race on Saturday, but the Columbia Gorge Road Race course of 2009 and its repeated ascents of the aptly named Seven-Mile Hill is gone. In its place, the Orchard Run Circuit Race will take riders through the cherry orchards in the hills above town.

“After hearing comments like ‘burning legs,’ ‘forsaken hill’ and ‘demoralizing,’ we knew we had to make some changes,” race director Chad Sperry said of last year’s difficult climb. “After all, this isn’t June, and it’s not the Mt. Hood Cycling Classic.”

Sperry said the new course features a roller coaster ride through cherry orchards that should be in full bloom. Views of Mt. Adams, Mt. Hood and the Columbia River will greet riders as they power up a series of short big-ring climbs and over rolling terrain. The Sunday morning time trial and afternoon/evening criterium will wrap things up.

For more information on the stages, click “more” to go to the next page … (more…)

Rob Britton, from the Canadian Trek/Red Truck Cycling Team, played off the leaders' battle for the overall and took the Wy'East stage win at a still-snow-covered Mt. Hood Meadows during the 2009 Mt. Hood Cycling Classic.

HOOD RIVER — Oregon’s nationally regarded Mt. Hood Cycling Classic has some big changes in store for 2010. Although the pro men’s race is growing from four stages to six — two of them planned for Portland — this year’s event won’t have a pro/elite race for the women.

Promoter Chad Sperry said conflicts with other NRC races draw away too much top female talent, making Hood’s elite women fields too small to be viable right now. But Sperry also guaranteed the pro/elite women will return to the 2011 line-up when organizers attempt to get the race back on the National Race Calendar schedule — possibly adopting the late-May dates vacated by the now-defunct UCI-ranked races in Montreal.

As it stands now on the calendar, Mt. Hood competes for top-tier women racers with Philadelphia’s Liberty Classic, a huge draw for women’s team’s because it is the only remaining UCI race for women in North America. Besides the Liberty Classic on June 6, Hood’s six-day schedule clashes with other NRC races, including the Richmond Twilight Criterium on June 3 and Tulsa Tough June 4-6. Mt. Hood fielded 52 pro/elite women riders in 2008 when it was on the NRC schedule, but that number dipped to just 25 in 2009 when Mt. Hood dropped off the national calendar. (more…)

PORTLAND — The Bicycle Transportation Alliance has spent 20 years working on the behalf of cyclists. To celebrate these efforts and help promote community involvement, Bike n Hike is raffling two Electra Ticino Bicycles and thousands of dollars worth of bike gear.

The Festival di Ticino begins tonight at 7 p.m. at the downtown Bike n Hike at 400 S.E. Grand Ave.

“The evening’s theme is bicycle artistry, and the grand prize for the raffle is an Electra Ticino Lux – a bicycle inspired by the work of Portland’s bicycle and accessory building community. Come and enjoy live music and organic refreshments, and Electra Ticino series bicycles “dressed up” with accessories by bicycle companies from Portland and beyond.”

Admission is $4, which includes refreshments courtesy of Hopworks and a raffle ticket. Additional raffle tickets will be available for purchase for $3,. All proceeds will go directly to the BTA.

WHEN: Friday, Feb. 5, 7-10 p.m.

WHERE: Bike N Hike, Bike N Hike, 400 S.E. Grand Ave., Portland

The article featured this photo from Cameron's post-podium cool down at the Washington County Cross Crusade.

Oregon’s off-the-hook cyclocross scene grabbed even more attention this month. Issue 8 of Cylocross Magazine features Molly Cameron, Portland’s own “iconic” cross racer.

The in-depth article by Josh Cohen covers Cameron’s gender identity, world travels and life in general as a bike-shop-owning pro cyclocross racer. From the article:

“A lot of guys were like, ‘what the f***?’ at first, but when they got to know me, they were like, ‘OK, this isn’t something weird.’”

Find a copy and check it out!

Large, enthusiastic crowds typified the '09 championships in Bend. Photo courtesy of Matthew Haughey.

BEND — Last December’s four-day USA Cycling Cyclocross National Championships in Bend generated $1.09 million in direct tourist spending, officials said Monday.

Based on the final economic impact study conducted by VisitBend during the Dec. 10-13 championships, 2,460 tourists visited Bend for an average of 3.6 nights.

“We could not have asked for a better turnout for these championships during one of Bend’s slowest tourism periods of the year,” said Doug LaPlaca, president and CEO of Visit Bend. “Not only was the short-term economic impact significant, but the editorial coverage and word-of-mouth exposure will have significant long-term benefits for the community as well.”

The championships generated a total of 2,090 paid lodging nights at 56 different lodging properties during that time. In addition, visitors from 43 states traveled to Bend, with only 14 percent of visits coming from within Oregon. Forty-two percent of attendees at the USA Cycling Cyclocross National Championships were first time visitors to Bend.

“If we can get someone to visit Bend one time, we are confident that not only will they return, but they will encourage their friends and family to visit the destination as well,” LaPlaca said. “What’s more, with such a high percentage of event attendees indicating that they were likely to consider moving to Bend or buying real estate as a result of attending Cyclocross Nationals, there is an additional long-term real estate benefit to hosting events such as this.”

Participants completed a total of 713 written surveys in person during the event, and 761 people completed a post-event online survey. The latter provides a research sample representing 54 percent of contestants, not including local participants.

Read the complete study results HERE.

The next time inclement weather or time restraints force you onto a trainer, don’t despair, even The Cannibal rode the rollers.

Don’t like buying online, the Oregon Cycling Action 2010 Wall Calendar is now available in these retail outlets:

PORTLAND METRO

Athlete’s Lounge
2600 Northwest Vaughn Street
Portland, OR 97210-2224
(503) 477-5906

Bike n Hike Portland
400 S.E. Grand Ave.
Portland, OR 97214
(503) 736-1074

Lakeside Bicycles
428 North State Street
Lake Oswego, OR 97034-3113
(503) 699-8665

Sellwood Cycle Repair
7639 Southeast Milwaukie Avenue
Portland, OR 97202-6114
(503) 233-9392

Veloshop Portland
211 Southwest 9th Avenue
Portland, OR 97205-2801
(503) 335-8356

EUGENE

Collins Cycle Shop
60 East 11th Ave.
Eugene, OR 97401-3538
(541) 342-4878

Lifecycle Bike Shop
1733 Pearl Street
Eugene, OR 97401
(541) 686-2994

Rubicon-ORBEA riders were a familiar sight at the front of Oregon races in 2009.

PORTLAND — Rubicon-ORBEA this week announced its 2010 elite rider roster and a tentative schedule for National Race Calendar events. The Portland-based team, which raced last year in the easily recognizable green-and-yellow kits of the Land Rover logo, will have a new title sponsor for 2010 but will retain its core group of talented young riders.

Once again riding in support of the Lance Armstrong Foundation, Rubicon-ORBEA will feature a distinctly kiwi flavor with New Zealand riders Roman van Uden, Mike Northey and Aaron Tuckerman returning for 2010. They’ll be joined this year by Paddy Bevin, New Zealand’s 2009 U19 rider of the year.

U.S. riders Josh Bartlett and trackie Dean Tracy will also return for 2010, joined by Salem native Omer Kem, a familiar face in NRC races as a domestique for the Bissell Pro Cycling Team. Newcomer Quinn Keogh will join the squad for 2010 after returning from his own cancer battle. One more rider spot will be announced later this year. (more…)

The view along the Maui Loop ride. Photo courtesy of Josh Liberles.

OBRA’s Josh Liberles, who previously wrote about the 2009 Tour of the Gila for this site, recently spent more than a week training on Maui in the Hawaiian Islands. His comprehensive report about this relatively little-used training resource can be found on VeloNews.com.

Liberles’ budget-minded travelogue includes information about affordable accommodations, awesome rides and the secrets that draw some of the world’s top riders to the Islands.

Check out Liberles’ photo gallery HERE.

Check out the complete article HERE.