Cherry Blossom Cycling Classic mixes it up for 2010
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…)
