Excited this race started today but bummed I couldn't get out of work to head down to the Springs for the Prologue. http://www.usaprocyclingchallenge.com/ Patrick Gretsch of HTC won the prologue with VandeVelde coming in second. Good runs by Leipheimer, Van Garderen, and Evans as well. Tomorrow they ride from Salida in the southern mountains up to Crested Butte with Monarch Pass the main peak at 11K'. Versus coverage was okay except they kept commenting on Pike's Peak without actually showing a skyline shot of it. My wife's family lives right off the course today, so it was neat to see an area I'm familiar with being raced by some of the best. Q
Stage 1: Leipheimer crushes the uphill finish in Crested Butte to pull on the yellow jersey. Andy Schlek looks to be the big loser, he attacked 2km out and cracked. He ended up losing a minute on Leipheimer. Tomorrow is the monster ride as they climb two 12K foot peaks. Q
Stage one passed within 25 yards of the apartment I used to live in when I lived in CB. It was nice to see it again on video. Beautiful place. Nice race by Levi, VDV, Tejay and Cadel. I'm pulling for VDV to win this. He's had so much bad luck over the years he's earned some nice palmares. Stage two figures to be burly, going over two very high passes, both over 12,000 feet, which is higher than anything any Grand Tour. Should be beautiful. [ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZEtQCFr9K54"]Highlights from Stage One[/ame]
[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jZaulkDqEOY"]Stage 4: Start[/ame] Some video I took at the start of the 4th stage in Avon yesterday. It's amazing how fast they're going, even through the ceremonial parade through town. They're up to speed so quickly. Got to see the 5th stage finish in Breckenridge today. Andy Schlek and Ivan Basso were in the 4-man breakaway today after the first big climb. Andy held off the pelaton until 400m to the end, right in front of where we were watching. Vivianni won his second straight with a big sprint. The crowd gave its biggest cheer for Andy when he pulled on the most aggressive rider jersey. He's quite popular here and it was nice to see him and Basso, who had fallen out of overall contention, push to make today special. Tejay Van Garderen was out signing autographs after the race. He's also a hit with the fans. The crowd today was massive which is nice and a good sign for the future of the tour. Tomorrow morning in Denver with six laps around the downtown should be amazing. Q
Levi won the yellow today. Elia Viviani of Liquigas remarkably sat up and gave the stage win to his lead out man Daniel Oss rather than claim his third straight. He ended up with the points jersey easily but still a generous move. Tejay Van Garderen put a nice push in to try to win but couldn't break away from Leipheimer at the end. Made it to downtown and staked out one of the corners on the loop with family. It was a lot of fun but incredibly hot out. Pretty great to see the huge crowds all along the way and up at Civic Center Park when I went home to watch the coverage. It was a lot of fun heading out along the course for a few days. If I can get away next year, I'd like to go up and watch one of the climbs. Q
The crowds looked awesome. Sounds like it was a great event all the way around. Hope they find a title sponsor next year. I'd imagine sponsors would be interested considering how many people turned up.
