ToWW end of an Era. PNW Stage Race Series Coninues

[Brian Cimmiyotti]

OBRA Racers,

Scott's Cycle and Sports and Baker City Cycling Classic want to thank Michael and Kathryn Austin for decades of work putting on the Tour of Walla Walla. 24 years is a pretty good run. Tour of Walla Walla has ment a lot to many riders the memories and racing moments will always be remembered.

The PNW Stage Race Series continues with Tour de Bloom and Baker City Cycling Classic. These two races will bring the excitement of Road Bike Stage Racing to the Northwest and keep the tremendous sport of road racing going strong.

For racers just finding out Kathyn and Michael made the difficult decision to cancel this years Tour of Walla and are working on refunding riders that have currently registered.

In the meantime I wanted to put my thoughts into the state of road racing. First of all I do not think road racing is dead or even close in any way. If anything road racing is starting to make an upswing, especailly in the West Coast, with Northern California and the Pacific Northwest starting to see races come back and numbers increase. Some interest has shifted with the popularity of gravel racing but this all good for bicycle racing in general. Overall I see more and more riders starting to get stoked on road racing again or for the first time. For example many new riders have tried gravel racing and are looking for new challenges and sporting aspects of cycling. Road bike racing offers the most dynamic, engaging, interesting and rewarding form of bicycle racing in my opinion. Racing road will gain riders skills, tactics, speed and fitness that will beneifit all other forms of bicycle racing MTB, Cyclocross and Gravel. Best of all it's were cycling really becomes a team sport and the comradery of racing really becomes a group effort. Wether you are racing on a team or just racing with your riding buddies, their is nothing like riding in the pack and feeling like you are part of the peloton.

As now race director of Baker City Cycling Classic I want to let people know how special road racing is and what it has ment to me as a cyclist. First of all I was never very fast and had little to no chance of a winning move or any sort of top finish. That doesn't matter to me I still love to ride in the pack, try and hold a wheel, pull a friend back into the mix and just do things within the race even if that means I might fall of the back and struggle to the finish line. These are the fun things that every rider will encounter within the sport of road racing. In this way every rider can feel good or at least satisfied about how their race went within road racing. The peloton is so dynamic and combined with all the different courses, things always work out in different ways that makes a rider want to go again and again. My hope is all northwest cyclists get to experience road racing and that OBRA riders continue to keep this powerful form of racing enclusive to all level of riders that want to join the pack.

Thanks for your support, Baker City Cycling Classic is hear to stay and thanks to all the racers that have all ready signed up for this years race June 23rd-25th

If you haven't allready signed up you can register now for Baker City Cycling Classic at https://www.bikereg.com/baker-city-cycling-classic

Brian Cimmiyotti

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