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.
“For the health of the race and to keep the Mt. Hood Cycling Classic going,” Sperry said, “we had to make the very, very difficult decision of postponing the women’s race this year to 2011.”
Sperry did leave open the opportunity to reinstate a women’s race this year if a hole suddenly opens in the calendar.
“I know a number of women who, if they’re not doing Liberty, would love to come do Mt. Hood,” he said.
The Mt. Hood Cycling Classic has attracted legendary female riders like Jeanie Longo-Ciprelli and 2009 winner Edwige Pitel (pictured here).
In the meantime, Sperry said that while the race may not be back on the NRC schedule yet, organizers are treating it as if it is. The pro/cat 1 men will get six stages over six days in some of the toughest terrain in the United States. The traditional Queen Stage, the Wy’East Road Race, offers 92 miles and a mountain finish after 10,500 feet of climbing.
“We’re probably going to have the level of competition as if we were a — I wouldn’t say a top-tier NRC event — but easily on par with a Joe Martin and some other NRC races,” he said. “It’s not going to be Cascade (Cycling Classic) or (Tour of) Utah, but we’re still going to see a number of pro teams here.”
The USAC men’s pro/cat 1 race for the 2010 Mt. Hood Cycling Classic will start Tuesday, June 1, in Portland with a prologue time trial. The circuit race will follow at Mt. Tabor before the race heads to the Gorge and the finish on Sunday, June 6. Sperry said the cat 2 men will also start on Tuesday and race all the same stages as the pro/cat 1 men. The amateur OBRA races will begin June 3 in the Gorge and end June 6. The OBRA races will include categories for cat 3/4 women, cat 3 men, cat 4 men and masters men 35+ and 45+.
“If we get into Portland and make a big enough splash,” Sperry said, “I think the market and economy are coming back enough that we could find the sponsorship dollars we need to achieve that NRC status in 2011.”
The route and format will be similar to the 2008 NRC race that visited Portland, drawing the nation’s top domestic teams and riders. HealthNet’s Rory Sutherland won the men’s race that year. Julie Beveridge (Aaron’s) won the women’s race ahead of France’s Jeanie Longo-Ciprelli. Sperry said the circuit race on Mt. Tabor was one of the highlights of the 2008 race.
“Tabor was a huge success in ‘08,” he said. “I was really concerned going into that stage. With that many pro men racing on a very tight course it could have been a disaster. But these are pros and they know how to ride tough courses. The teams took control, went to the front and hammered so hard it kept things strung out, but not so strung out that people were getting shelled off the back. It worked out just perfectly, and it’s an exciting venue. I’m really looking forward to going back there.”
The 2010 race will also be sporting a new title Sponsor. Indie Hops is breeding, growing and developing different types of aroma hops to produce different flavors of beer for Oregon and North America’s many craft and micro breweries. Partners Jim Solberg and Roger Worthington have teamed up with several Willamette Valley farmers and the State of Oregon to build the necessary infrastructure, invest in hops research and breeding in the valley, and gear all of this toward servicing the craft beer market from America’s premium aroma hops terroir- Oregon’s Willamette Valley.
“They were looking for marketing opportunities,” Sperry said. “And they know that bikes and beer go hand in hand in our region. You can’t get a better marriage of two entities.”
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Check out some PHOTOS from last year’s race.
REGISTRATION for the 2010 Mt. Hood Cycling Classic is now open.
More INFORMATION about the race.
