Mt. Hood Cycling Classic
Good Morning OBRA!
The 2008 Mt. Hood Cycling Classic is fast approaching and I wanted to get you up to speed on some important updates.
Registration
To date registration is out of sight for the Pro-1 Men, Pro Women, and CAT 2/3 Men's fields. We are going to see record numbers this year and by far our strongest fields. A number of the nations top teams and riders will be battling at Hood this year from the downtown streets of Portland up into the Gorge and Mt. Hood National Forest. Masters your field is at an all time low. We need to see numbers from you in the next couple of days in order to keep being able to justify splitting categories out or even running a masters field next year. Your attendance this year is critical as I have a ton of CAT 2's and 3's that are making a strong case that we should go with separate categories for them and cut the masters next year. We need to see you at the starting line. Please sign up today. In addition tomorrow is the last day for regular registration. After that you will have a $30 late fee to pay.
Stage 5 Status
I am sure a lot of you are wondering what the current status is for stage #5 so I want to give everyone the latest and greatest information. We have had to make some changes this year to the course do to the record amount of snow. For 2008 we have moved the start of the stage from Cooper Spur Mountain Resort to Mt. Hood Meadow's northern parking annex Hood River Meadows. With 1000+ vehicle capacity it seemed like a great opportunity for riders and teams to have huge amounts of space to park and warm up. The finish of the race is slated for Mt. Hood Meadows Main Parking lot right in front of the lodge. The resort will be open for skiing that day (they still have nearly 17 feet of snow pack) so we are looking to all of you to put on a great show for the thousands of guests who will be up there finishing a day of skiing. This also makes for a super easy transfer of only 2 miles of mostly down hill to get back to your cars after the race. On Sunday I flew recon over the entire course and we are looking at around 30 miles of snow still buried on the course. Unfortunately this would cost thousands more than we could afford to plow. So we have worked out a last minute course change with the Oregon Department of Transportation to run the stage over FS Road 44 to Dufur and Tygh Valley and then down to Maupin taking HWY 216 over to HWY 26 up to HWY 35 and finish at Meadows. We have secured a plowing permit from the Forest Service and will be working to clear Road 44 which currently has roughly 6.5 miles of snow covering it. The end result will be the stage will be 100 miles and over 10,000 feet of elevation. Unfortunately for the women this distance far exceeds the UCI's regulations for course length even with a petition for the maximum length possible so you will be starting in Dufur which will cut nearly 30 miles off the course. Sorry.
We are confident that Stage 5 will mark one of the most if not the most epic days of racing in the country this year. New course maps and info will be posted on our web site shortly.
To all of you who have participated in the past we say thank you for your tremendous support. We are excited at what we have to offer this year and believe we are once again taking this epic event to a whole new level.
Sincerely,
Chad Sperry
Race Director
Mt. Hood Cycling Classic
www.mthoodcyclingclassic.com