Alisha Lion sustained a first degree separated shoulder after a crash 10km into the Philadelphia Liberty Classic. While her injuries were relatively mild to others who were in the same crash, she has been sidelined by the doctor for Nature Valley.

Alisha is currently in North Carolina resting and healing her shoulder before getting back on the bike at the end of the week. She will be cheering and following her Webcor-Platinum Teamates from her parents’ home.

Her thoughts are with all the girls who will be duking it out at Nature Valley this week… go Webcor-Platinum!

Alisha had an extended stay this year after the Mt Hood Cycling Classic in Hood River Oregon. Read about her reasons for staying in her “hometown” of Hood River in the local paper, The Hood River News.

Alisha Lion wins the Queen Stage of the 2006 Mt Hood Cycling Classic.

With 7500ft of climbing in 75 miles, the Three Summit Road Race is the most difficult race of the season (in terms of climbing) aside from Elite Road Nationals to be held later in early July.

The race began with a long descent into the city of Parkdale and rolled to the bottom of the first epic climb to Lost Lake. This climb took riders on logging roads covered in moss and completely closed to traffic. In this climb alone the elevation gain was 2300ft.

Leah Goldstein (Symmetrics), Alisha, and Mara Abbott (Rio Grande/Sports Garage) crested the first climb together after sprinting for the KOM. Allison Powers (Rio Grande/Sports Garage) blazed past the trio on the descent, with Alisha the only one to be able to grab her wheel.

The riders then hit the second climb leading up to Vista Ridge. This was the steepest climb of the day with sections of a 15% grade and total elevation gain 2100ft.
The second climb was much the same, with Leah, Alisha, and Mara riding away from Allison early in the climb and Brooke Oruda (Colavita-Cooking Light) after the KOM. The group came back together at the end of the 2nd long descent and headed into the 3rd and final climb of the day.

The last climb returns the riders back to the Cooper Spur Ski Resort. The elevation gain is 2400ft over more than 10 miles. The finish is on a steep 200m stretch that really sticks it to the riders’ legs after all the previous climbing.

Leah and Alisha took turns surging and powering up the climb to gain as much time on Allison as possible to overtake her in the General Classification. Mara was smart and just sat on the pace, conserving and trying to protect Allison’s lead.

In the final 3km Mara tried to attack Alisha and Leah, but was unsucessful. Alisha countered Mara’s attacks, but was also unsucessful after the long tempo set on the climb up to the ski resort. Deciding to leave it for a stage win, Alisha powered with all her might up the final steep 200m for the first NRC win of her career.

Mara held on for 2nd, and Leah was 3rd securing her overall win for the second straight year in a row.

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Alisha dedicated her stage win to Dotsie Bausch who crashed out of the Downtown Criterium the previous night and sustained a broken collarbone.

In the downtown Hood River criterium tonight Dotsie crashed in the downhill corkscrew turn. Alisha would like to personally wish Dotsie a quick and speedy recovery, as her crash effectively took her out of the race.

A crash is never something that a racer wishes on anyone, and it is very sad that the peleton is loosing such a strong racer for this event. Get well Dotsie and hope to see you back in the pack soon!

Amber Rais had a fantastic sprint for 3rd place in the second stage of the Mt Hood Cycling Classic yesterday.

In today’s race, Alisha Lion took 3rd place honors sprinting at the end of a difficult 11 mile climb. Her finish effectively moved her into 3rd overall.

Tomorrow the battle for the GC is underway with a 10 mile individual time trial and a late night downtown criterium. The Webcor-Platinum ladies are up for the challenge!