By LISA BRITTON

Baker City Herald

David Henry gets all the blame – but in a nice, parental sort of way.

“He said let’s do it, so we started training,” says his mom, Sue.

“He’s the one who got us to enter. We’re going to see if we can actually survive the thing,” says his dad, Loren.

“It” is the Elkhorn Classic Bicycle Stage Race, which happens this weekend in Baker City.

This year the Elkhorn registration of 400 includes seven local riders:

Sue Henry, Loren Henry, David Henry, Colleen Hessel, Beverly Calder,

Corrine Vegter and Brian Vegter.

This is the largest local participation in the Elkhorn’s eight years.

The Henrys – all three of them – began training in April.

“It’s been such a wet cold year,” said Sue, 47.

She and Loren are fairly new to bicycles – she was runner for 21 years until back surgery at age 40.

“That was the end of running for me,” she said.

She and Loren stayed active with hiking and mountaineering, and then bought a tandem race bike for their 25th wedding anniversary two years ago.

Last June Loren bought Sue her own road bike.

“I rode a few times last summer and fall,” Sue said.

Last summer their son David, 24, moved back to Baker with his wife, Alyssa. The couple had lived in Portland prior to moving, and they’d depended on bicycles for their in-town transportation.

They moved to Baker just in time for the annual bicycle race.

“I’d heard about the Classic, and watched it last year,” David said. “We kept biking, and I got involved in biking with some of the guys here.”

This spring he talked his parents into registering for the race.

“I didn’t realize you could just do it – I thought you had to be an elite racer,” Sue said.

They started training.

“I probably went a little light – I’m not going to sacrifice anything major in my personal life,” David said.

All seven racers say the Wednesday night bicycle rides were important for their preparation.

“It’s definitely a different dynamic riding with a group,” Loren said. “There’s a lot of strategy involved.”

The new-to-racing riders looked to the Vegters, who competed in the 2008 Elkhorn Classic, for training advice.

“Brian and Corrine have been key in that,” Sue said. “They organized the longer weekend rides.”

The Vegters approached this year’s race a bit differently than the last.

“We did a lot more that was fun,” Brian, 37, said.

He rode five days a week, and she rode four to five. Both added weightlifting to their routine, as well as swimming and mountain biking.

The group’s weekend rides have covered the distance stages of the Elkhorn – the 75-mile Oregon Trail Road Race that goes through North Powder, Union, Medical Springs and back to Baker, and the 105-mile Dooley Mountain Road Race that ends on top of Dooley Mountain.

The locals are ready for that climb.

“You know what we do for fun? Double Dooleys. That’s a Baker thing,” Calder said.

A “Double Dooley” means the bicyclists ride up and over the mountain into Burnt River Valley, then turn around and repeat the climb.

Calder, 48, was challenged (in a friendly way) to ride the Elkhorn two years ago by several women racers.

She made it a goal to race before she turned 50 – and then told everyone.

“The only way I can accomplish anything outside my comfort zone is to tell people I’m going to do it,” she said.

She got into bicycling in the mid-’90s, then three years ago her business, Bella, became a sponsor of the Elkhorn. Last year she helped provide matching prize money for the women racers.

“What Nathan (Hobson) gave us was an incredible event,” she said. “Everything about it is good for the community.”

Calder and Colleen Hessel, 42, started riding this spring “once the snow was off the road,” Hessel said.

Hessel is a cross-country skier, and in the off-snow season joins the weekly bike rides for years.

“I love getting out on my bike,” she said.

As for the Elkhorn, she’s excited for this weekend – and excited for it to be done.

“I’m just looking forward to doing it,” she said. “I wouldn’t call it a bike race for me – just a personal challenge.”

That goal is echoed by the others.

“My goal is to finish,” Sue Henry said.

“I just want to finish – no wrecks,” David Henry said.

Though they’ve covered the stages for Friday and Sunday, there’s really no way to practice for the Criterium, the 1km high-speed race around the streets of downtown Baker.

“Stay out of trouble, that’s my goal,” Sue said.

David feels a bit different due to his background of racing dirt bikes.

“I’m actually looking forward to it,” he said. “You can’t normally go around Main Street that freely.”

Loren Henry said this weekend is all about the experience.

“This will be a real learning curve for us,” he said. “I don’t think we have any false illusions that we’ll be up front.”

ELKHORN CLASSIC SCHEDULE

Stage 1: Groups of racers leave Baker High School starting at noon Friday and head north on Highway 30.

Stage 2: This year’s Time Trial will begin at 8 a.m. Saturday the edge of town (Elm and Indiana streets), and finish on Main Street in front of the Geiser Grand Hotel. Prior to their starts, the bicyclists will warm up along Main Street.

Stage 3: The Gold Rush Criterium is Saturday afternoon, beginning about 3 p.m.

Stage 4: Racers leave Baker City at 8 a.m. Sunday and ride the 105-mile race to finish at the top of Dooley Mountain.