Cascade Cycling Classic Stage 1

Riders: Aaron Schneider
Race: Road; 71 miles
Finish: Mountain top; 24th

So today was the first stage for us cat 2's at the Cascade Cycling Classic. It started off with a 71 mile road race that dropped us off at some ski slopes. The race was easy enough for the first 60 miles. The weather was perfect and the scenery (from what I could see) was amazing. I spent most of the race chatting with a friend, knowing that the last climb would be hard enough...no need to burn all my energy on the first stage. There was only one little hiccup. I was planning on having someone at the final feed zone to hand me some coke and water, but to my surprise there was nobody there and I couldn't get a neutral feed (don't worry anonymous, I forgive you). So with 25 miles still to race and a quarter of a bottle of water left lets just say it was interesting, considering the last 12 miles were all uphill. Seeing as every little hill on the course gave me a bit of trouble, and I was pedaling squares, I just had to grit my teeth and do what I could. At the start o f the final climb I found myself characteristically in a bad position and had to hop from rider to rider for about 2 miles and managed to reach the front select group. If any of you know how a yo-yo works then you'll understand what I mean when I say I yo-yo'ed back and forth off the back of the group. Thankfully the group either didn't know how to really race uphill or they were just too tired whenever the road leveled out, but either way I'm thankful because it gave me the opportunity to catch back on. Unfortunately, I never got a break because by the time I would catch back on they would hit it again, so by the finish I had nothing left, but I refused to be the last finisher in the group...so I was the second to last ;)

More to come tomorrow.
A