CCC

I met up with my friend Marco in Bend this weekend to race the Cascade Cycling Classic. If former Spanish National Champion, Climber extraordinaire, Oscar Sevilla say a race is, "Really, really, really hard" then you know that there is something to it.

Although the stage races had 4 races, the Aubrey Butte Circuit race was the Piece de Resistance of the weekend. 4 laps with ~1000 ft of climbing per lap, this races is arguably the most difficult race I have ever done. The trick is to keep good position on the decent and flat sections and reach the climbs in the first five positions. Very hard and very mentally draining.

I arrived with the lead group of ~40 (out of 100) at the start of the climb on the last lap. I was on the rivet. I needed to make it over the KOM climb and two other climbs to arrive to the flame rouge. I made it within 10 peddle strokes to the top of the KOM. Implosion. Fin. Finished 37th and 35th in the GC.

I have only raced 9 races this year and 4 were this weekend. It would have been nice to get another couple stage races in the legs before that one.

Here is a link to a video of me passing some dude at the 1 km Mark at the TT, I am almost certain that he was drafting me.