3 riders, 2 wheels, 1 family

The Henrys are ready to ride in this weekend's Elkhorn Classic Bicycle Race. From left, son David, dad Loren, and son Stephen

The Henrys — dad Loren and his sons, David and Stephen — tend to stick out from most any crowd.

“For cyclists, we’re pretty tall,” said David, who stands about 6 feet, 4 inches.

Loren is just a half inch shorter, and Stephen is about 6 feet, 3 inches tall.

All three will be racing in the men’s category 4/5.

And they, along with the other Elkhorn riders, are hoping to see downtown lined with spectators on Saturday.

“I think it helps a lot,” David said. “Last year, you could hear every once in a while, ‘Go David!’ ”

David and Loren, who both live in Baker City, rode the Elkhorn last year; this is Stephen’s first (he lives in Hawaii).

David said he and his dad followed a different training plan this year based on last year’s race.

“The biggest thing was more consistency in an actual plan,” David said.

He said last year “we just didn’t know race tactics — it was just try to survive it.”

“I think it’ll be more fun than last year because we know what to expect,” he said.

The stages on Friday and Saturday are road races that start at Baker High School and head out of town. The roads are all open to traffic, so it’s a bit tough to see the race.

Not so on Saturday.

“Saturday’s a spectator-friendly day,” said Brian Vegter of Baker City, who competed in 2008 and 2009, as did his wife, Corrine. This year they are in charge of the finish festival atop Dooley Mountain.

Vegter said having a crowd on Main Street made all the difference.

“To have people cheering for me made it that much more enjoyable,” he said. “Every time you round a corner and someone’s cheering ‘You can bridge that gap!’ you think ‘I can!’ ”

Saturday’s first stage is the time trial at 8 a.m. The best place to watch is the finish on Main Street.

The Gold Rush Criterium begins at 3 p.m. and ends about 6:45 p.m. The start and finish is at Main Street and Washington Avenue. Each category of riders will race a route around downtown for a set amount of time — from 20 minutes for the women to an hour for the pros.

And they go fast.

“For that hour of the pro men’s race, that’s 30 miles,” Vegter said. “It’s nonstop the entire time. Racing the downtown Crit is all-out from the gun.”

Nathan Hobson, a Baker native who started the race nine years ago, also hopes to see a crowd downtown.

“It means everything, it really does,” he said. “Nothing will make you ride faster than people hootin’, hollerin’ and ringing cow bells.”

But in the five years he directed the race (the last three of those he organized and participated), he couldn’t find a foolproof way to entice locals downtown.

“My biggest frustration was to have this amazing Criterium and have so few people from Baker out watching,” Hobson said.

And he says it doesn’t matter if you don’t know the riders.

“It’s kind of like picking a horse. When you see the riders line up, pick a number — ‘That’s my guy’ or ‘That’s my gal.’ ”

The Crit, he said, is a chance to watch some pretty fit athletes.

“Anybody can ride a bike, but not everybody can ride a bike at 30 miles per hour for an hour,” he said.

If nothing else, he said that coming downtown can show appreciation for the money the Elkhorn Classic brings to Baker City.

Hobson arrives with an entourage of 14 people — he’s the only one racing — who get five hotel rooms and spend as much as $3,000 during the weekend.

“It’s one of their weekends in Baker City that they do only because of the Elkhorn Classic,” he said. “It’s good outside money for Baker.”

Race director Ernie Conway estimates that each year the Elkhorn Classic pumps at least $25,000 into the local economy.