Cascade Cycling Classic

I got back from Bend, Oregon two weeks ago after competing in the Cascade Cycling Classic. For the unfamiliar, this race is one of the longest running and prestigious stage races in the country, with past winners such as Lance Armstrong and Levi Leipheimer. This was the first time I've done the race. Rolling into Bend, my first impression was that the city was very green with lots of trees--and this being the dry (Eastern) side of the Cascade mountain range. By the end of my stay there, I gained an appreciation for Bend, for its beauty, laid back nature, moderate size, bike friendliness, and proximity to a beautiful mountain range.
Before I say anything more, I want to give a big shout out to Anne, my host "mom", who took good care of me during my stay in Bend, and gave me many words of encouragement regarding my racing. People like her make my trips memorable, and allow aspiring amateur racers like myself to attend big races like Cascade.
Unfortunately, my racing didn't start out as I'd hoped. There was a big mixup at the start of the time trial, and seemingly a small mistake by myself was compounded by the officials at the start, leading to me starting my time trial many minutes late. This put me way out of contention for the overall.
The second stage of the race was a criterium in the evening of the day of the time trial. Because of a bad crash in an earlier race, our race got shortened from 40 to 30 minutes. Races this short are a joke when you have 100 plus riders, because you basically finish in the position you started. Also, they tend to give everyone the same time, even though the first guy and last guy in the group could be separated by as much as 30 seconds. Stupid. Anyway, I avoided crashing, and finished around 30th.
The third stage road race went much better. After a pretty moderate first 3/4 of the race, the pace picked up on the final climb and broke the 100+ rider field apart a bit. I made one of the front groups, and with only five or six guys a little up the road, and with my ability to hold off most of twenty or so guys in my group to the finish, I ended up 12th on the stage.
The last stage of the race was another road race. Very uneventful and not hard enough. What's the deal with giving the Cat 2's a shorter course than the pro's? We race with them for most of the season, so we should be able to ride as far as them. Anyway, our race ended in a 60 man bunch sprint. I finished 30th.
This race has a lot of potential, but needs a bit of work--a funny thing to say about a race that's been around so long. This might have been the first year they've done the Cat 2's separate from the Pro/1's, though, so maybe that's the excuse. There's definitely demand for a Cat 2 only field (115 starters--biggest Cat 2 field I've raced this year), so hopefully that'll give them incentive to put together a better race next year.
Out at Cascade, I got to hang out with one of my friends, Brett from Fort Collins, as well as the Rio Grande race team who is also from Colorado. Brett has only been a Cat 2 for part of this season, and is already posting some good results, and in fact has beat me a few times. As I usually travel to these bigger races alone and race alone, it makes things that much better when I see familiar friendly faces in these far off places (hehe, a little rhyme for ya).