A little over a week ago, the USA Pro Cycling Challenge took place all over Colorado. As someone now interested in cycling races and the like (and Colorado stuff – woo!), I wanted to go see a stage of the race last year, but it didn’t work out with work. This year, I had off the last day of the race, which also happened to be the Denver time trial.
So, last Sunday, I rode from my place in the Tech Center downtown to 17th Street to watch the race. I figured 17th would be a good vantage point because riders, after winding around downtown, came up 17th, did a little loop in City Park and came back down 17th en route to the finish near the Capitol. Therefore, you’d get to see riders twice.
There were a lot of riders and a lot of people watching the race. I particularly enjoyed watching this stage because, as a time trial, most of the cyclists rode time trial bikes … essentially the bikes triathletes use, aerobars and all. Therefore, happy, happy bike porn for me. It was also awesome watching how fast those guys were cranking – the stage winner, Taylor Phinney from Boulder, ended up averaging well over 30 mph.
Obviously I took pictures.
Sprinter leader Tyler Farrar.
Taylor Phinney.
Most Aggressive Rider (and Stage 6 winner) Rory Sutherland.
King of the Mountains, Jens Voight.
Best young rider, Tejay Van Garderen
Pro Challenge winner, Christian VandeVelde.
Crowd on 17th watching the race.
Leader (at that point), Levi Leipheimer.
