Eric Moody: Cherry Blossom Classic Stage Race

The sun was shining all weekend in Hood River and even hit the 70 mark for the first time this year!! We took advantage of the great weather too!

It was a biking weekend for Camden and I. He did a little mountain biking and road biking this weekend and I did a ton of road biking in the form of a 4 stage road race: The Cherry Blossom Classic. 4 races in 3 days.

Camden hit the dirt track above the skate park this week with absolutely no fear. We have been going there a bunch lately with the great weather as it is a great place for him to ride his bike, scooter or skate board!

I raced in the Cat 4 (http://allanti.com/page.cfm?pageID=128) group for this race. I had not planned on racing this weekend until just last Monday when I showed up for a group ride with the bike shop I take my bikes to here in Hood River: Mountain View cycles, and they asked if I wanted to join them. I jumped at the chance as I have been wanting to get more involved in the local cycling scene.

The guys were great and we all rode pretty well together. On the first day, I was a bit anxious as I was not sure where my fitness level was this early in the year and I had not raced since last March because of our move last year.

Lining up for stage 1

Amy drove out Friday to see me off on the first stage. Our nine-man team led out the 86 racers for the day and stayed at the front for the first 7 miles or so. Then the race turned a corner into the wind and the first of two climbs on the 40 mile day. A couple guys jumped for a break and I tried jumping after them - this was a mistake! My heart rate was already through the roof before that just from being anxious and now I totally maxed it trying to catch these guys. It ruined me for the race. I fell back on that first climb and then finally fell in with a small group that had 2 of my teammates in it. We worked together well and I led up the next climb feeling much better. I sprinted to the line with a small group - racing for 60th place on the day!! (why?)

The next day was a short time trial in the morning and a criterium in downtown The Dalles that afternoon. I did OK on the time trial but was amazed at how many cat 4 riders showed up with TT bikes and even disc wheels!! Come on - it's a cat 4 race!!

I was nervous for the crit as it was my first one and my plan was to sit back on the main group and try to hang on with them.

This is early in the crit - I am in the left/rear of photo (the only guy looking for the camera and not watching the race in front of me!!)

The crit was super fast - registering 28 mph when I looked at the radar gun! Being at the back was hard as it was a constant sprint - brake - sprint - brake! I got pulled with 3 laps to go. Cam saw me come across in the finish alone and stop when the official pulled me and thought I won (as long as he thought so - that's all that matters to me!)

By the end of two days of racing I was 63rd out of 86 starters - pretty bad!! Going into the last day I felt pretty good and it was finally my type of race. Long and with two big climbs!

I felt better today and held on with some of the guys on our team that were way ahead of me in the overall standings. I almost wrecked coming down the first climb when I pulled my foot out of its cleat and went into the oncoming traffic lane at about 40 mph. I held on but lost the group I was with.

I caught up to that group later in the day when one of my teammates and two other guys caught me and we shared some really hard pulls to catch up to the group in front of us that had our other teammates. We all stayed together for the final climb and most of the way to the finish. Our small group splintered up a bit the last few miles and I finished by myself.

It was an OK day for me and I finished the overall race 53rd out of the original 86. In my team of 9 guys I had 4 finish ahead of me and 4 behind me so I feel pretty good about riding with these guys. I need to start training more if I'm going to do more but this was a good test for me to see where I was fitness wise. I have been riding pretty good but mostly just to enjoy it and not really training - time to change that!

Hopefully these guys will keep inviting me. they seem like a really good group and I enjoy riding with and hanging out with them all.

After the race, Amy's parents came out to enjoy the great weather with us. We took Camden and his bike to the Old Columbia Highway where it is closed to cars and let him ride it while we walked (or ran after him) and enjoyed the day.

Camden thought it was so funny to go way ahead of us and make us run to catch him - which my legs were not helping me with after the race, so grandma had to go!

The Happy Family!!