Tomorrow I’ll head out to Hood River, where I’ll be staying with teammates for the Cherry Blossom Cycling Classic, a 3 day, 4 stage race.  I’m excited about the race.  I’ve done lots of omniums and 1 day races, but this will be my first stage race ever, surprisingly enough.

The blog will probably be light on updates over the weekend, but I’ll get a good recap up of how things go.  That or I may try out my new WordPress iPhone application.

Here’s a rundown:

Getting there on Thursday afternoon will give us a chance to get settled in, pick up race packets, and explore the area a bit.

Stage 1 on Friday is a relatively short (just under 40 miles) road race with one decently large climb per lap (2 laps).  The thing that could make this course interesting is the wind.  Pat sent this out earlier today:

This means the race could potentially be slow, or fast, or dangerous (in the case of gusting 54MPH sidewinds).  The course is to the east of the Dalles, so hopefully it’ll be more sheltered than the city itself and the area in the Gorge.

Stage 2 on Saturday is an 8 mile individual time trial.  It’ll be me and my aero gear versus the clock.  This will be my first time trial of the year.  Always painful, but one of my favorite type of events.

Stage 3, also on Saturday, is a criterium in The Dalles right downtown.  It sounds like it’s a nice flat wide-open 4 corner course, so it should be fast.  This will be my first criterium of the year, which I’m guessing will be the case for much of the rest of the field as well.

Stage 4 on Sunday will be the final stage, and without a doubt the most epic.  It’s a 55 mile road race that includes two laps up 7 mile hill (a 5+ mile climb gaining some 1700 feet in elevation) and part of historic highway 30 in the Gorge.  Wind could once again be a factor, and by my guess anything could happen in this stage.  The group could stay together the entire time as many cat 4 fields do, or there’s a good chance it could get completely blown apart by the climbs and weather.  Either way, I’m stoked.