Joy on Bike: Cascade Cycling Classic: What a difference a year makes

Oh Cascade! Bend, OR was my favorite city to visit in 2011 with Boise, ID a close 2nd. Putting the two cities on the same trip, and at the virtual end of the season, makes this trip really special. Brian and I had a great time traveling there last year with CashCall and we were really excited to do it again.

But things don't always go as planned. Life calls, and June unfolded to be very stressful and ended on a very difficult note. As I have said in previous posts, Brian and I were hitting all the big races in June, but in an odd alternating fashion that had us missing each other at each stop along the way. By late June, it became apparent that Brian's Grandmother who was also his mother figure, was succumbing to a rapid onset of aggressive cancer. We spent almost 2 weeks sleeping on her floor, helping with the hospice nurses and around the clock care along with his family as the matriarch of the family made a peaceful transition, with all of her family by her side. The short nights and insurmountable stress took it's toll on Brian, and the decision was made that he would fore go the PNW trip.

I was extremely sad and nervous to continue with our plan. Not that I can not travel without him, but I didn't want to leave him behind. But knowing we are set up with an amazing network where he would find hours of therapy and release on the bike in the mountains and working on his grandfathers wood working tools, we decided I should tackle the last big event of the season along with Brian's CashCall teammates.

I had several composite team options to race at Cascade. However, last year I raced solo and I had a blast. None of the set-ups intrigued me, so I stuck to my guns to play by myself. Until I got the call Monday night that a rider for the FCS/Rouse professional team had become sick and couldn't be at the event. Now THIS was an option that I could go for! Being a free-agent I have found I am a type of mercenary, hired gun to come in and take care of business. Quickly my focus went from sitting in seeing how well I could place solo, to riding my tail off at the front of each stage for the greater good of a team that had the potential to place riders in the top 5 each stage.

Last year I was excited to finish 50th on stages and remember pedaling past the 'workers' of the larger teams without a full understanding of what they had endured for the last 3 hours. Now that experience would be mine, and I was more than ready!

I was a bit stressed to join an elite roster at the last minute, which created some very restless and sleepless nights and moderate anxiety. Could I be up to the task? Could I follow through? Would I let them down? What was I doing!! Thanks to Kathryn Donovan and Anna Sanders of the Rouse team, I had been offered the open slot, and by no means did I want to let them down.

Going into the prologue, I didn't quite know what to expect even though I had pre-ridden it several times. It was a short 2.5 mile course suited well for the time trial bike and power and speed. One would think I could rip on these short and hard efforts. However, I was jittery and scattered and botched a good trainer warm up before hand. I really believe for these 6 minute "races" I just have to spend 60+ minutes flogging myself in a warm up to get my body ready for the demands of the event. I placed a disappointing 81st, but knowing I now had the job of a worker and teammates had placed much higher in the GC, I was content and able to find some rest to prepare for the next stage.

To add to the bummer of not having Brian along for the trip, I got to stay in a EuroVan. Weird, I know. At these big races, we are set up with Host Housing. I coordinate all the housing for CashCall, and this host would take 3 riders. 2 in the house in private bedrooms, and one outside in the EuroVan camper. I raised my hand for outside! Brian LOVES EuroVans. I told the boys I wanted to try it out and tell Brian all about it. Justin wisely told me "If it sucks, don't be stupid and tell Brian about it. You don't want to crush his dreams." Good to know...

I ended up on the couch inside one night, however, due to an INSANE!!! thunder and lighting storm. The Van felt like a tent and the crack of thunder were right on top of the lightning. The brightness of the strikes were almost blinding and the pelting rain made quite the clatter on the roof.

The other nights posed much more therapeutic sleep rituals with wind chimes, flowing water, and wind in the trees.