I pushed for this to happen, so I’m not really going to blame the other guys for not talking me out of it. But, today against our collective better judgement, and because the race organizer said that the snow was rapidly melting, six of us drove up to Mount Hood Meadows and embarked on a mission.
There is almost always some comedy involved in a long bike ride. The perps today were Tony Dirks, John Kenney, Eric Sletmoe, Mike Jones, Jeff Lorenzen and me – on this day, AKA The Six Stooges.
It was a pretty simple idea, really – ride the Road Race course for the
upcoming (starts a week from Thursday) Mount Hood Cycling Classic stage race. What could go wrong? MHCC Race Website.
It’s a lot of climbing, and in this case hiking. This is a stage that belongs on a Grand Tour (it would be a hard day in The Tour of California, anyway), and I feel fortunate (usually after a couple of martinis) to have the opportunity to race a course like this – and in my own back yard!!!
It makes sense to have a look first, and a look we had. The race organizer (Chad, who is rapidly becoming one of the most prolific race organizers in the country) now knows the true situation (where the rubber doesn’t actually meet the road because there is 3 ft of snow between them), and there is still time to sort it out. The expedition, it turns out, was a brilliant idea.