June 16/07 4:44 am - No Women's Race at 2007 Cascade Cycling Classic

Posted by Editoress on 06/16/07
 

The following notice is published on the website of the Cascade Cycling Classic to run July 11-15th.

Cascade Cycling Classic Postpones Women’s Race Until 2008

In what has been one of the toughest decisions in recent history for the organizers of the Cascade Cycling Classic a decision was made this week to postpone the women’s Pro 1-2 race until 2008. A conflict with scheduling has forced this difficult decision as this year’s Cascade Cycling Classic competes for the same time slot as the USA Cycling Elite National Championships in Seven Springs Pennsylvania. “We are just heart broken about this situation,” says Chad Sperry this year’s race director for Cascade. “Last fall I sat down with the owners of the event, Mt. Bachelor Sports Education Foundation (MBSEF), and we had decided to take the women’s race to a whole new level adding an additional stage and boosting the prize purse. We were so excited about 2007 and then the schedule for Nats came out this last winter and we saw the scheduling conflict for the elite women and it was incredibly demoralizing”. The USA Cycling National Road Festival women’s elite time trial falls on Friday July 13th and the road race on Monday July 16th. With this event being a huge focus for every pro women’s team and nearly every elite team in the country it has left little to no competitors available to race elsewhere. “We would have made the decision to postpone the event earlier but we wanted to make absolutely sure the field would not going to be there. We were hoping that there would still be a fair number of women riders not attending nationals but in recent weeks it has become very clear that nationals is the highest priority on the women’s U.S. racing calendar” says Sperry.

It is important to note that 2008 will see the women’s race back bigger and better than ever as MBSEF has made the commitment to make the Cascade Cycling Classic one of the premier women’s races in the country. “Though we are very disappointed as to what has transpired this year we are already in the works planning next year’s event for the women” says Sperry. “We have talked with USA Cycling and they have assured us that we have their support for next year and there will not be another scheduling conflict with elite nationals”. So stay tuned in early 2008 to some exciting new changes to the women’s race and an even bigger and better event than ever.

With nationals still a couple months away for the pro men, their race looks to be another very exciting event. Last year saw a battle of epic proportion as a hard charging Chris Wherry from Toyota United picked up a time bonus on the last stage to beat Jeff Louder from Health Net by less than a second. Chris and Toyota will be back to defend their title and will again have a tremendous fight on there hands as Cascade looks to be the decisive race for this year’s hotly contested NRC series. Look for Health Net, Toyota United, Navigators, and Priority Health to all bring their top squads as the NRC men’s individual and team standings are still anyone’s for the taking. “We are super excited at the pro men’s field this year,” says Sperry. “We have not seen the NRC men’s individual or team standings this close to call in year’s”. With Cascade being on the tail end of the NRC series you can count on some very hard racing by the top teams in the U.S. as they try to collect every series point they can get. It is looking like another epic battle shaping up in the Oregon Cascades. For info on the race or to follow results be sure to check us out on the web at www.cascade-classic.org

Chad Sperry
Race Director
Cascade Cycling Classic
541-980-2344