2007 Cascade Cycling Classic

I heard rumors that the race was cancelled for women this year due to low turnout. That is a shame.

Edit: not a rumor anymore:
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