There’s something indelible about the Cascade Cycling Classic Criterium, held in downtown Bend. The closed-course, high-octane bicycle race has been held most summers since 1980. It’s an “Old Bend” event that has ushered local cycling through the sport’s various booms and busts — and certainly through the myriad transformations that make up “New Bend.” Local bicycle racing is also, for many, a clarion call: Summer is here — what are you waiting for?!
Slotted for June 14, the CCC Criterium is presented by Horner Cycling Foundation, a local nonprofit junior road racing development program. Race organizers bumped the date to late spring so as not to bottleneck tourist traffic, which has been a variable when past iterations were held later in summer.
Race director Molly Cogswell-Kelley anticipates similar race fields as last year, which drew about 170 racers. Course director Bart Bowen expects more — not least of which for the $20,000 prize purse, which will be divvied among podium finishers in all categories. The purse is the largest in the country for a single-day bicycle race this year, organizers said.
Yet the emphasis at the CCC Criterium, particularly since it shrank from the five-day stage race, as it was as recently in 2019, to a single-day event since 2024, is on the kids.
Junior age categories begin at nine years old and are staggered two years through age 18. Elite races and lower categories for men, women and, since last year, non-binary categories, round out the race schedule.
“This is really about the kids getting an opportunity to ride in front of their parents right in front of their hometown,” Bowen said. “Hopefully some other kids will get excited. Road cycling comes back to the forefront by having events like the CCC Criterium in front of people.”
So…What’s a Criterium?
Criteriums are simple, efficient race machines. Racers on road bikes lap a closed course as many times as they can in a time determined by their category, ranging from 20 minutes (the Kiddie Bike Sprint) to 80 minutes (the Open 1/2 race). At the more advanced levels, criteriums resemble traditional road races — but in free-base form.
Attacks and counter attacks are constant, and most fail when the peloton — or the rider pack — reabsorbs them. But breakaways do stick, often because racers on separate teams will work together for a chance to win primes (pronounced “preems”), or lap prizes denoted by an official’s bell — if not the overall race itself.
Course director Bowen knows a thing or two about winning at CCC. In 1993, he was the overall champion when the CCC was a multi-course stage race. He won the CCC Criterium a couple times, too, he said. Last year, despite a day of heavy race preparation that began at 7 am, Bowen, now 58, competed in the Masters 40+ category, finishing ninth.
“I wasn’t exactly motivated to pin on a race number,” Bowen said with a laugh.
Bowen gives tips for this year’s course, which traces an L-shape along NW Wall, Oregon, Bond, Minnesota, Lava and Franklin Streets. At nearly a mile per lap, the course is fast yet technical and will undoubtedly stretch out the peloton. That stretch is actually safer than riders pedaling four abreast, but it can make for tricky passing, Bowen said.
“In addition to the speed and the color and the passion, there’s just so much joy in crit racing. A criterium is the most uniquely American form of bike racing.” — Dave Campbell
“You have to be good at holding your position,” he said. “You have to be strong enough to stay toward the front without wasting energy.”
Depending on skill/age categories, racers can reach speeds nearing 40 mph on the straightaways. Cornering is critical — a mistake can cause a rider to clip a pedal on the pavement and potentially crash. A notorious corner lies where NW Lava Street meets NW Franklin Avenue, Cogswell-Kelley said, due to a brief 5% rise, affecting riders’ center of gravity.
And don’t forget — the finish-line sprint out of the final corner is a short one, Bowen added.
CCC Criterium race commentator Dave Campbell is also attuned to these race dynamics. A competitive cyclist since his youth and a race commentator since 1992, Campbell, 56, said bicycle races, and particularly criteriums, bring a flood of memories.
“In addition to the speed and the color and the passion, there’s just so much joy in crit racing,” he said. “A criterium is the most uniquely American form of bike racing. It’s the kind of cycling that really exploded in the 1980s.”
Campbell says Europeans’ fascination with road racing — for which they’ll line remote country roads in all kinds of weather — never quite translated to American sports fans, who prefer to congregate at arenas, ballparks and bars. But criteriums, with their short, closed course, offer spectators rich and frequent action that pairs well with snacks from curbside food carts, not to mention beer pulls from Worthy Brewing — the CCC Criterium’s title sponsor.
Campbell is also a former Oregon State Criterium Champion and 1992 Olympic Trials qualifier in road racing. As a retired high school teacher, he’s kept busy as an amateur cycling historian who writes for “Cycling West” and for his Instagram account @clips_and_straps, which he also dedicates to the golden era of cycling.
Campbell says the key to providing successful race commentary is to honor the diehards with nuance yet to speak broadly enough that casual spectators can glean the action.
“I try to bring a lot of enthusiasm to it,” Campbell said. “I want everyone to be involved. I want to bring in people walking down the street.”
Campbell does that by pointing out the ever-evolving race tactics. He lumps criterium racers into one of two camps: the hammers who go off the front, hoping to stay there, and the more calculating sprinters who conserve energy in the pack and pick cunning moments to attack — often in the critical, heart-popping final laps.
In his commentary, Campbell calls out the breakaway racers, cajoling the crowd to cheer them on. He notes this dynamic — competitors from different teams working together — as distinct among American sports.
“I think a lot of casual observers think crits are like marathon running, in terms of pacing, but it’s not,” Campbell said. “If you’re my rival and we go off the front together — we’ve got a way better chance to win working together than we do if we get reshuffled back into the pack. Suddenly, we’re going to give everything for each other because it’s mutually beneficial.”
Campbell recalls a funny instance while commentating at a criterium. Two riders from opposing teams were in a breakaway together, yet each time they passed Campbell’s perch, he saw that one rider was doing all the work while the other hid in his slipstream, conserving energy. The announcer got the crowd in on it, heckling the second rider to pull his weight.
“I got a little too fired up,” Campbell recalled with a laugh. “I got the crowd going, ‘Hey! Let’s make this guy take a pull!'”
The rider’s coach rushed Campbell to tell him he had it all wrong.
“‘My guy’s doing all the pulling on the far side!'” Campbell recalled him saying. “The coach was a sport about it, but it was a good lesson.”
A change of the guard
— kind of
CCC Criterium race director Cogswell-Kelley is a longstanding pillar of Central Oregon event promotion and, in particular, local bicycle race organizing. As the former financial and events director for Mt. Bachelor Sports Education Foundation, Cogswell-Kelley has stood before start lines, welcoming racers and detailing rules, sponsors and prizes, for nearly 20 years. At the local Thrilla Cyclocross Series, which Cogswell-Kelley had directed through MBSEF and now Horner Cycling Foundation, she often decorates the course obstacles with pieces of flair, such as, memorably, rabbit plush toys that she fixed to the four-by-four blocks that once made up a “bunny hop” section. And don’t forget the eclectic playlist of ’80s hits that Cogswell-Kelley blasts from speakers.
“If you’re my rival and we go off the front together — we’ve got a way better chance to win working together than we do if we get reshuffled back into the pack. Suddenly, we’re going to give everything for each other because it’s mutually beneficial.” — Dave Campbell
“I had a dream last night about my playlist,” Cogswell-Kelley said with laugh.
She left MBSEF in late 2022, soon finding a similar, yet cycling-dedicated role with the Horner Cycling Foundation, which former professional cyclist Chris Horner and wife Megan Horner, both retired professional cyclists, began in 2023. The job switch allows Cogswell-Kelley to feel more focused on promoting bike racing, particularly junior racing. The CCC Criterium is less a fundraiser for the junior development team than a catalyzing experience.
“We just want to have this amazing show,” Cogswell-Kelley said. “And have our Horner cycling program and kids in others come race and feel like, ‘Wow! This is what a real race feels like.'”
Megan Horner, who is a former professional cyclist, like her husband and nonprofit co-founder Chris Horner, has a special place for any variety of criterium racing in Bend. She remembers racing the CCC Criterium during her pro days.
“It was my favorite criterium in the world because I felt like it truly showcased the best of Bend — a beautiful downtown with the incredible and enthusiastic support of amazing people,” Horner said. “Cycling is a great way to bring the community together… It’s a sport that can be enjoyed for a lifetime.”
Bart Bowen, this year’s course director, was previously the CCC’s head honcho, when he brought the five-course stage race back in 2019 after a year hiatus. The stage race had been the longest-running multiday bike race in the country. With a budget around $200,000, Bowen, along with an army of volunteers, put on a national-caliber event. The Painted Hills Road Race was staged near Mitchell and dipped into the John Day River Canyon. Other circuit races wrapped through Awbrey Butte and near Tumalo, respectively. The challenging terrain had the professional racers licking their wounds.
One memorable instance happened during the Pro/1/2 Sul Fiume Criterium that rolled near McKay Park in Bend that year. After cresting a steep hill, several racers in a tight group locked handlebars and crashed to the pavement. One rider, with torn spandex and scraped skin, untangled his bike, visibly frustrated.
“Why does this course have to be so f***ing tough!” he yelled.
The feedback didn’t faze Bowen.
“That course was difficult for those who have a tough time cornering,” he said. “We had the race there to create a fun environment for the fans and young riders.”
“It was tough to watch the [disappearance] of road racing and crits. I was stoked to see the CCC Criterium return last year. …It’s a special experience racing downtown.” — Eric McKinley
While the stage race was a success by all appearances, Bowen, who had invested personal cash to shore up the series, came up short in the end, he said. He declined to discuss the damage.
“I’m a small business owner, you know,” he said. “I’m not a millionaire who can just write off the loss.”
Bowen and his team strategized to bring the CCC back in 2020, but the pandemic happened. Bicycle races, like all large public gatherings, were prohibited. Even with its unique mix of prestige and homegrown roots, the CCC was not immune from the quarantine mandate.
The loss of local bike racing, and particularly the CCC, put a big hole not just in racers’ calendars, but in the social cohesiveness that these events provide a community. Bend cyclist Eric McKinley, who races on the Thiq Crit Daddiez team, said Covid was difficult.
“It was tough to watch the [disappearance] of road racing and crits,” McKinley said. “I was stoked to see the CCC Criterium return last year to give me a chance to race it. It’s a special experience racing downtown.”
McKinley, like most criterium racers, is more used to racing in remote places, like industrial parks. “It’s awesome to get people who don’t know anything about bike racing spectating. They bring an enthusiasm and genuine interest that is refreshing. I’ll definitely be lining up again this year.”
Bend Summer Criterium Series
Has the Cascade Cycling Classic Criterium got you curious about rolling up to your first start line? The usual suspects — Cogswell-Kelley and Horner Cycling Foundation — will organize the Bend Summer Criterium Series, beginning each Wednesday between June 25 and July 23. The key features of a successful inaugural season of criterium racing include arriving well-trained, relative to your ability, knowledge of safe group riding and passing practices and an ego that can withstand the embarrassment getting popped off the back of the peloton.
This year, the Bend Summer Criterium Series loops High Lakes Elementary School, near Compass Park in Northwest Crossing. It’s a mile-long course that old-schoolers will remember from years past. Most recently, the criterium wrapped around the Pacific Crest Middle School campus. Very much grassroots, the Bend Summer Criterium Series offers less pomp and circumstance and more inclusive access to quality racing experiences, on a more forgiving course than the CCC Criterium. Commentator Dave Campbell will also be on hand to work the microphone.
When Cogswell-Kelley joined Horner Cycling Foundation as director in 2023, she brought with her the popular four-date Thrilla Cyclocross Series and resurrected the Bend Summer Criterium Series, which didn’t happen in 2022. The responsibility of the latter five-date event had traded hands between can-do local promoters and racers less like a hot potato than, say, a cherished Fabergé Egg. [Full disclosure: I promoted the Bend Criterium Series in 2019 and 2021.]
While some racers prioritize top criterium performances, other hardcore cyclocross racers make a point of sharpening their leg speed with a few criterium races. Cyclocross season arrives in Central Oregon with Thrilla at the Athletic Club of Bend on Sept. 10.
The advantages that criterium skills lend to cyclocross aren’t lost on Bowen, who’s a national champion in road, cyclocross and mountain bike disciplines. Criteriums’ requirements of top-end strength, handling skills and comfort in a pack lend themselves to the subsequent cyclocross season, he said.
This article appears in Source Weekly May 1st, 2025.
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