Lucas Euser (SpiderTech p/b C10), right, crossed the Stage 3 finish line two seconds behind the stage winner
In July several Boulder-area pro-cyclists joined BMC Racing Team’s Taylor Phinney in a training camp that sprang from a program designed to prepare Phinney for the Olympics. Lucas Euser (SpiderTech p/b C10) participated in the camp, which was dubbed “Golden Eagle Camp” after a golden eagle sailed over the cyclists’ heads during a ride.
The training camp tested the guys with 250 kilometer rides at race pace. In fact the difficulty of the program readied Euser so well for August racing, mid-way through the Larry H. Miller Tour of Utah he mentioned he found that event so far easy by comparison. Euser also attributed his fitness to changing his personal training program over the previous two months.
“I’ve worked hard for this,” he said, referring to his strong showing in the Tour of Utah which included attacking on the climbs and high finishes on the stages. His Tour of Utah ended with an eighth place overall.
As a sports director once said, “When you’re going good, you have to use it.” This week Euser is putting his form to work in the USA Pro Challenge in Colorado. “I came here with big ambitions. I had a plan for each stage and I’ve executed exactly how I wanted to each stage,” he said after completing Stage 3 with the lead group that finished two seconds off of Tom Danielson’s winning time.
It’s tempting to imagine that Euser’s found a new place within himself, a reservoir of power and courage drawn from the eagle that’s taking his racing to a new level. According to one source, Native American culture posits that the eagle “represents a state of grace that is reached through inner work, understanding and passing the initiation tests that result from reclaiming our personal power.”
Lucas Euser (SpiderTech p/b C10) rests after Stage 3 of the USA Pro Challenge
His plan for Stage 3 meant attacking on the second to last switchback on Independence Pass, with a tailwind. After mentioning BMC Racing Team encountered trouble on the way up Independence Pass, Euser added, “So I had to go, you gotta try. Tejay and I are friends but we’re also competitors, so we respect that we can both ride a bike and that you gotta try. And that was my plan today, to try. I tried really good and…I think I put some guys in difficulty.”
What will Euser’s plan be for Stage 4? The fourth day of racing travels from Aspen to Beaver Creek Resort and ends with a 4 kilometer uphill finish at an average grade of 5.3%. Today Euser described his plan for the next day: “Hide, hide until the end.” He laughed at his comment.
Following an afternoon of putting his nose out in the wind, it’s an understandable answer. But given Euser’s ambitions in the race, he’s likely to find himself in the leading group up to Beaver Creek, chasing a high placement on the day. After all, other Native American meanings attributed to the eagle include the spirit of tenacity and the patience to wait for the right moment.
Camilo Castiblanco (EPM-UNE) after USA Pro Challenge Stage 2
There’s a battle underway for the KOM jersey at the USA Pro Challenge and Camilo Castiblanco (EPM-UNE) is ready to fight for it.
He said after the Stage 2 finish at Mt. Crested Butte that after taking maximum points on the first two climbs of the day he was content with his place on the stage. He came in 34th, 46 seconds behind stage winner Tejay van Garderen (BMC Racing Team). The riders faced the first two climbs yesterday, the category 3 Cerro Summit and Blue Mesa Summit, early in the 159 kilometer stage. The third and final climb to the finish also received a category 3 rating.
“Tomorrow, I’ll try another time in the escape to fight for the mountains jersey; it’s more important for my team and for me,” he said.
As a climber Castiblanco was also happy with his tenth place in the Stage 1 sprint finish.
Chalkers celebrated EPM-UNE on the run-up to the Mt. Crested Butte finish
Castiblanco sounded optimistic about achieving better results in Colorado than the recently completed Larry H. Miller Tour of Utah. “All the time I feel better because we have more time here in the USA,” he said, “so I hope that tomorrow also will be a good day for my team.”
After Stage 2 the Colombian ranked 32nd on GC, 46 seconds behind van Garderen. He holds 3rd in the KOM competition with 18 points. Matt Cooke (Team Exergy) is in second with 20 points and Tom Danielson (Garmin-Sharp) leads with 23 points.
A battle between Cooke and Castiblanco for mountain points could take place today. Cooke earned second place points over the first two climbs Castiblanco won yesterday.
Rafael Infantino (EPM-UNE) won the Most Aggressive jersey on Stage 2
In yesterday’s press conference, teammate Rafael Infantino named daily participation in break-aways as one of EPM-UNE’s goals in the USA Pro Challenge. Infantino also rode in the break yesterday and received the most aggressive rider jersey.
Matthew Busche after Stage 2 finish, 2012 USA Pro Challenge
Matthew Busche (Radioshack-Nissan-Trek) faced at least two firsts on Tuesday. He tackled the first of three uphill finishes in the USA Pro Challenge, Stage 2’s finale into Mt. Crested Butte. After crossing the line, leaning over his bike to find a bit of rest, he shared his thoughts on the finish he rode for the first time. Busche did not participate in the USA Pro Challenge last year.
“I didn’t know what to expect exactly,” he said. “I think I’ve been trying to find my legs again after Utah. It was a hard week in-between [Utah and Colorado]. I was definitely tired.”
Chris Horner after Stage 2 finish, 2012 USA Pro Challenge
Busche found at least one of his legs, if not nearly both, crossing the finish line with a handful of riders that included teammate Chris Horner and just 12 seconds behind stage winner Tejay van Garderen (BMC Racing Team).
After losing his position when riders bunched up at the bottom of the final 3.4 kilometer climb he found his way “relatively easily” back to the front of the leading group.
“The climb, it just started fast and I think it just got faster and faster. I tried to stay within myself but I knew that I couldn’t lose too much time. I think I lost 10 or 11 seconds on the line, but I’m still pretty happy with the finish.”
Speaking about the legs that carried him to a second overall in the Tour of Utah, Busche said, “Hopefully they’re coming around here, in the next few stages I’ll be good and can stay with the guys in the front.”
His efforts on the first two stages keep Busche in the race as a “surprise favorite” for a podium finish in Denver. He sits 13th on GC twelve seconds off the lead with five days of racing still ahead.
View down course from Mt. Crested Butte USA Pro Challenge finish line
Assuming seconds and not minutes will again separate the leaders like last year’s edition of the race, another favorite, Rory Sutherland (UnitedHealthcare) fell out of contention today for a top three overall result when he gave up 53 seconds. Cadel Evans (BMC Racing Team) lost contact with the top contenders when he finished 12:43 back into Telluride on Monday in the first stage, as did Vincenzo Nibali (Liquigas-Cannondale) who lost 1:46 there.
On the way to Crested Butte
Kiel Reijnen (Team Type 1)
Boulder resident and Team Type 1-SANOFI rider Kiel Reijnen missed the USA Pro Challenge last year as he was still recovering from an infection that set back almost his entire season. “It was heart-breaking,” he said, to not participate in a race on his home roads. Watching his Colorado pro-cyclist friends race was exciting, with his disappointment the exact opposite.
Kiel rode for Jelly Belly from 2008 to 2010 before signing with Team Type 1-SANOFI in 2011. He’s raced all over the world. While he’s perhaps best known for his overall Tour of Rwanda victory in 2011, he’s finished third twice in the U.S. nationals road race and earned third and this year ninth in the GC at the high-altitude Tour of Qinghai Lake in China.
This year Kiel’s racing in Colorado. He got off to an auspicious start by finishing Stage 1 into Telluride in seventh place. It’s right where he needs to be, high on the general classification from the get-go, because this under-the-radar rider holds high ambitions for this race.
He feels the course in general suits him. Calling himself an all-arounder who can climb better than the sprinters and sprint better than the climbers, “I’ve done well in all the different disciplines and I certainly train to continue to excel in all three of them,” he said the weekend before the race, referring to climbing, sprinting, and time trialing.
Kiel sees opportunities for a stage win in Colorado. “If I can get through a couple of these really difficult hilly stages and it’s a flat finish or even just a slight rise to the finish but it’s a group of 20 or 15 guys sprinting, I stand a really good chance of getting a stage result from that.” He’s targeting the Mt. Crested Butte finish today as well as Stage 3 into Aspen. According to Kiel, many of the sprinters will suffer on the Stage 3 Cottonwood and Independence Passes, setting up the finish for a small group sprint similar to the conclusion of the same stage in 2011.
“I’d like to get a good general classification result,” he said. “There’s some phenomenal riders here so it won’t be easy.”
The ascent up Flagstaff on Stage 6, Kiel believes, could produce the biggest time gaps in the race; he thinks that’s where the GC will be decided. “I know that climb by heart, I‘ve done it more times than I can count. It’s a really difficult climb. The steepest pitch is at the bottom, so it’s real easy to go in too hard and blow up,” he said. “The [course] before you even get to the climb is so difficult. Lee Hill is right behind my house, and so I know that climb really well; I know that descent really well.”
Kiel continued, “The run into the Flagstaff climb is probably going to be the most difficult part. You go up 10th Street and it’s a legitimate climb before you even get to the climb. So you have to be attentive at the front and not suffering up that to even have a chance at doing something on Flagstaff.” He expects riding by friends and family will fill his tank with extra motivation.
However the event as a whole is difficult enough, he said, that any stage could prove to be the most difficult, especially factoring in how the sixteen teams’ strategies and the prizes they’re aiming for on each stage can shift tactics on the road.
Kiel Reijnen (Team Type 1) left, with teammate Alessandro Bazzana sprinting to second on Stage 1 of the 2012 USA Pro Challenge
During the week prior to the overall start Kiel’s Team Type 1-SANOFI teammates joined him in Boulder where he shared his knowledge about local roads. “I’m trying to provide as much intel to the team as I can,” he said, “because the more they know the better off they’ll be and the better off they are the better off we are as a unit.”
Kiel gains a lot of satisfaction out of working as part of a team. As he crossed the finish line in Stage 1 of the USA Pro Challenge, he wore a big smile as he realized teammate Alessandro Bazzana would stand on the podium in Team Type 1 colors because he had pulled out a second place on the stage.
[updated 8/20/12]
The “surprise favorite.” The dark horse. These are the competitors that aren’t favored to win, but just might pull off a podium performance.
The favorites for a top three overall in the 2012 USA Pro Cycling Challenge are Tejay van Garderen (BMC), Levi Leipheimer (Omega Pharma–Quick-Step), Christian Vande Velde and Tom Danielson of Garmin-Sharp, Cadel Evans (BMC), and Vincenzo Nibali (Liquigas-Cannondale). Nibali said in the opening press conference that the Europeans usually don’t do well at altitude; we’ll find out in a few days if he was sandbagging or not.
Matthew Busche (Radioshack-Nissan-Trek), Johann Tschopp (BMC Racing Team), Leopold Koenig (Team NetApp), l to r, 2nd, 1st, 3d in 2012 Tour of Utah
The Tour of Utah ended with a surprise favorite podium of Johann Tschopp (BMC), Matthew Busche (Radioshack-Nissan-Trek), and Leopold Koenig. The favorites may just deliver great results in Colorado. Then again, some surprise favorites may rise to the top.
A favorite for Colorado should be a good climber with great time trial skills. But anything can happen in a race and if those saying Flagstaff on Stage 6 will be the decisive finish, a great climber with good time trial skills could land on the podium in Denver. So this list of surprise favorites includes guys who could be called all-arounders as well as guys known to go fast uphill.
Joe Dombrowski (Bontrager-Livestrong) after Stage1 USA Pro Challenge sign-in
Surprise favorites for the USA Pro Cycling Challenge include three riders on Radioshack-Nissan-Trek: Andreas Kloden, Jakob Fuglsang, and Matthew Busche. Add to the list Rory Sutherland (UnitedHealthcare) and Joe Dombrowski (Bontrager-Livestrong). Kiel Reijnen (Team Type 1) can climb well, sprint well in a selective group, and deliver a good time trial and could factor in the GC by the final day. If he’s not working for Liquigas-Cannondale teammate Nibali, Timmy Duggan could do well, too, as his time trialing skills are pretty strong.
Rory Sutherland (UnitedHealthcare) at the Tour of the Gila
Sutherland is a good time trialist and showed in Utah that he’s climbing well. A top three by Sutherland might not be the result his team has been planning for.
In Utah sports director Mike Tamayo said regarding the Colorado race, “I think in general as a team we know that our strengths come in the stages versus the overall, versus racing for GC. So that’s what we’ve been looking at, the individual stages.” The team has brought riders that had been racing or training at altitude in July. “Half of the squad went to Qinghai Lake and half the squad went to Austria,” Tamayo said. “And then both the squads met together here in Utah and then we go to Colorado. So it’s a build-up into Utah/ Colorado and it’s all been at altitude.”
Matthew Busche (Radioshack-Nissan-Trek) finishes the Tour of Utah Stage 6 with the yellow jersey group
Busche said before the start of Stage 1 in Durango that he hopes he’s recovered well from his efforts in Utah and aims to “continue what I did at Utah here.” When asked if his ride in Utah was a surprise, Busche replied, “I don’t know if surprise is the proper word. I know when I’m on good form I can ride well in the mountains and in a tough race like that. I was very happy with the result and I believed I could be there and I knew prior to the race my sensations were really good on the bike. I don’t know if it was so much as a surprise but not necessarily expected at the same time.” Busche rated his time trialing skills as above average and added, “I sometimes can pull out a really good time trial, and usually I can time trial good enough to at least hopefully stay in contention.”
Durango, Colorado treated visitors in town for the first stage of the 2012 USA Pro Challenge to colorful, artsy, and fun-loving man-made displays as well as natural beauty.
Banner over Main Avenue near start line
View from Fort Lewis College where the riders lodged
Bike baguette downtown
Unique and USA Pro Challenge tee-shirts for sale
River walk art
Metal cyclists
Durango Bigfoot — donate and he’ll have breakfast tomorrow
Start line stage on Main Ave in Durango
Not one somber face left the Community Concert Hall on the Fort Lewis College campus after the USA Pro Challenge’s opening press conference today. Those in attendance exited smiling and retelling one liners from Levi Leipheimer (Omega Pharma — Quick-Step), Tom Danielson (Garmin-Sharp), and others about to participate in the seven-day event.
Tom Danielson (Garmin-Sharp, lower left) responds to cheers at 2012 USA Pro Challenge opening press conference
Huge cheers filled the large auditorium when a Durango official mentioned Danielson’s affiliation with the college and a city he still calls “home,” a description teammate Christian Vande Velde would rib Danielson about several times.
Danielson waxed so emotional, he pledged to move back to Durango, and entreated the audience to help him convince his extended family that resides together under one roof to move from Boulder. After listing everyone but one who had to buy into the move, he concluded by saying, “And if you see my mother-in-law – she’s a short, French-looking lady, please try to convince her we need to move here.”
When a journalist later questioned Vande Velde about the Garmin-Sharp team’s depth, he replied, “Yes, we have depth – Tommy’s living from coast-to-coast, that’s depth.” Danielson trained in Malibu, California earlier this winter and loved the canyon-riding nearby.
Matthew Busche (Radioshack-Nissan-Trek), Johann Tschopp (BMC Racing Team), Leopold Koenig (Team NetApp), l to r, 2nd, 1st, 3d in 2012 Tour of Utah
Leipheimer refused to answer a question about which surprise riders could land on the final podium. That question has been simmering in experts’ minds since Johann Tschopp (BMC Racing Team), Matthew Busche (Radioshack-Nissan-Trek), and Leopold Koenig (Team NetApp) celebrated first, second, and third overall by spraying champagne over the crowd after the final day of the recent Tour of Utah, leaving such race favorites as Leipheimer and Chris Horner (Radioshack-Nissan-Trek) off the stage.
“Oh, I’m not falling for that; this isn’t my first time in the rodeo,” Leipheimer said. “If I answer and leave someone out, I’ll get roasted.”
Tejay van Garderen (BMC Racing Team) called his 2011 Tour de France experience “fun.” Then he added, “Well, it was fun now that it’s over.”
Some serious answers filled in the spaces between the guffaws. The audience learned Cadel Evans (BMC Racing Team) arrived a week ago to acclimate to the altitude and prepare. Van Garderen said this year he’s “hoping to pull it off in the TT and take the yellow jersey home,” although his later statements suggested he’s not sure if he’s recovered from the fatigue of the TDF followed by the Olympics.
Tejay van Garderen (BMC Racing Team) seated by the yellow jersey at the 2012 USA Pro Challenge opening press conference. An omen?
Questions and answers that focused on the importance of the Flagstaff finish on Stage 6 gave rise to an query about whether other stages would be as decisive in determining the overall winner. Vande Velde responded without naming another stage. “It will be nickels and dimes all week,” he said, echoing teammate Peter Stetina’s assessment of the 2012 USA Pro Challenge as a game of seconds, not minutes.
The gaps between leaders could widen if one or more of the contenders experiences a bad day or pulls off a super-hero effort on a stage. It’s quite possible spectators will witness the latter on that Flagstaff climb when about 17 Boulder-based or born riders in the race tackle it. In a video produced for the race, Danielson said of that day, “Flagstaff is my favorite climb. I think it’s going to be a pretty special experience and I probably won’t feel a whole lot of pain that day.”
Flagstaff Mountain Amphitheater entrance
[updated 8/17/2012]
The last two days. That’s what the riders said would matter most in the 2012 Larry H. Miller Tour of Utah. The same assessment fits the 2012 USA Pro Cycling Challenge (UPCC) in Colorado. Ask the climbers about decisive moments in the race, and they mention Flagstaff, the 6.9 km climb on Stage 6 of the UPCC. Then they mention the 15.3 km time trial on the final day. Here’s why.
Stage 6, Golden to Boulder, 165 km with 3,057 meters of elevation gain
Of the three uphill finishes in 2012 – compared to just one in 2011, Flagstaff ranks as the longest and the steepest.
Stage 2 Mt. Crested Butte finishing climb: 3.4 km, 3.9% average grade with maximum pitch of 4% at top. Levi Leipheimer gained 7 or more seconds on the favorites in this finish last year by attacking near the end of the ascent.
Stage 4 Beaver Creek finishing climb: 4.0 km, 5.3% average grade with maximum pitch of 7% in middle and near bottom.
Stage 6 Flagstaff finishing climb (to the Amphitheatre): 6.9 km, 5.7% average grade with maximum pitch of 10% near bottom. [average gradient is higher if starting from Chautauqua Park]
Joe Dombrowski (Bontrager-Livestrong) earned the Best Young Rider’s jersey at the 2012 Tour of Utah
Joe Dombrowski (Bontrager-Livestrong): “The day we finish on Flagstaff, it’s not a long climb, but it’s a pretty hard stage going into it, so I think that will be pretty decisive.”
Peter Stetina (Garmin-Sharp) finishes the 2012 Tour of Utah
Peter Stetina (Garmin-Sharp): “Flagstaff is significant. That’s a hard climb, and especially since we’re climbing from down on Canyon instead of where the climb normally starts on Chautauqua Park so you almost have to add 5 minutes to the climb.” [the 6.9 km is measured from Baseline Rd. and 13th St. – ed.]
Nathan Haas, Christian Vande Velde, Tom Danielson (l to r)
Tom Danielson (Garmin-Sharp): “We’re going to see a ferocious battle on Flagstaff.”
Stage 7, Denver, individual time trial, 15.3 kilometers, flat
Judging by the flat time trials this year at Tirreno-Adriatico (9.3 km) and the Tour of Austria (24.1 km), the 15.3 km UPCC time trial could separate the leaders by twenty seconds or more. “Colorado favors a good climber with a strong time trial,” Burke Swindlehurst, assistant sports director for the Champion System Team, said during the Tour of Utah.
Dombrowski doesn’t think he’ll fair as well as strong time trialers on the flats, like Levi Leipheimer (Omega Pharma – Quick-Step) for example. But he said the time trial is short enough that he doesn’t expect to lose too much time. While he didn’t say as much, he could aim to make up time on Flagstaff.
Garmin-Sharp before Stage 4 Tour of Utah start, Charlie Wegelius (standing, left), Peter Stetina, Christian Vande Velde, Nathan Haas
Christian Vande Velde (Garmin-Sharp), who wrapped up the UPCC last year in second overall, should contend for the overall again this year. He didn’t climb as well as Leipheimer and Dombrowski in Utah. It’s hard to speculate about the reasons for Vande Velde’s performance on the Utah climbs, which are generally steeper compared to the mountains included in the Colorado course.
Charlie Wegelius, Garmin-Sharp sports director, commented before Stage 5 at the Tour of Utah on Vande Velde’s possibilities in Colorado. “Obviously he is in super condition so when you have condition like that you have to use it and I don’t think he’s going to be holding anything back next week in Colorado,” Wegelius said, “and I think the individual TT favors him, he’s a good time trialist.”
Last year eleven seconds separated Leipheimer’s overall win from Vande Velde’s second. UPCC executives have said they designed this year’s course to produce a nail-biter down to the final stage, where the yellow jersey could change shoulders.
At least one rider agrees it’s going to be a close race again. “The race is going to be a game of seconds, not minutes,” Stetina said in Utah.
Levi Leipheimer (Omega Pharma — Quick-Step) wins Stage 6 of Tour of Utah. Can he repeat overall victory in Colorado?
EPM-UNE before Stage 4, Tour of Utah
EPM-UNE, a continental team based in Colombia, raced well in the Larry H. Miller Tour of Utah, placing three riders in the top 30 in the final general classification. The team’s lowest positioned rider on GC was Robigson Oyola in 47th place out of the 93 riders that completed the race.
Daved Towle speaks with Camilo Castiblanco during sign-in for Stage 1 Tour of Utah
Like most teams EPM-UNE believed the last two days of the race would be the most important for results. Camilo Castiblanco said he tried for a top finish on the Stage 5 climb up to Snowbird, but couldn’t match the strength of the Garmin-Sharp team. He said the field’s overall strength challenged his team in general in Utah.
EPM-UNE aimed for a stage win on the final day which included the toughest ascent in the event. Castiblanco launched out of the break-way on the first climb and gained a gap of 35 seconds on the group behind him. He lost his lead when the break caught him on the descent. Teammate Francisco Colorado was the first EPM-UNE rider to cross the Park City finish line, in 16th place. The team raced aggressively during the week as its riders typically featured in break-aways.
Francisco Colorado (EPM-UNE center) after the Stage 6 finish in Park City, with Christian Vande Velde (Garmin-Sharp) and George Bennett (Radioshack-Nissan-Trek)
When asked what he enjoyed so far about racing in the U.S. for the first time, Castiblanco said he liked the mountains. The heat though, was another story. “In Colombia we have a lot of mountains and good altitude, so here it is the same…In my town in Colombia we have only about 20 degrees Celsius, so here is very hot for me and my team,” he said. [20 degress Celsius is 68 degrees Fahrenheit. Temperatures reached 35 Celsius in Utah. — ed.]
Camilo Castiblanco (EPM-UNE) at the Tour of Utah
Castiblanco said he’s looking forward to racing in Colorado in the USA Pro Challenge. With 877 kilometers of Utah roads for preparation and a couple of weeks’ adjustment to being in the U.S., he feels the team can hope for better results in Colorado.
Stage 1 Tour of Utah break-away on first KOM, Ben Jacques-Maynes (Bissell), Edward Beltran (EPM-UNE), Caleb Fairly (SpiderTech), David Williams (Competitive Cyclist) (l to r)
EPM-UNE in the Larry H. Miller Tour of Utah and the USA Pro Cycling Challenge
Rafael Infantino
Camilo Castiblanco
Francisco Colorado
Ramiro Rincon
Robigson Oyola
Fredy Piamonte
Edward Beltran
Javier Gomez
Bontrager-Livestrong on TTT course at Miller Motorsports Park, Tour of Utah
After each stage of the 2012 Larry H. Miller Tour of Utah, Joe Dombrowski on the Bontrager-Livestrong Cycling Team shared a word to describe his day. All six in total are collected below and paired with a ProVéloPassion summary of each stage.
Stage 1: “Boring.”
132 miles of racing that started in Ogden, Stage 1 reached southwest to Henefer before returning to Ogden for the finish. A break gained as much as twelve minutes on the field which rode as a solid pack, five guys wide, over the first KOM. The racing didn’t begin until the last climb when a select group of about 25 pulled away. In that group after 5 hours and 25 minutes on the bike were Joe Dombrowski, Ian Boswell, Lawson Craddock, and Josh Atkins for Bontrager-Livestrong.
Stage 2: “Fun.”
Dombrowski rode his first team time trial competition with Bontrager-Livestrong on Stage 2 at Miller Motorsports Park over three laps of 4.5 miles each. Taking the eleven turns of each lap at 35 mph, the day’s 23 minutes and 43 seconds of adrenaline and pure speed provided the perfect antidote for yesterday’s stage. Bontrager-Livestrong finished ninth among the 17 teams, one of only two teams that completed the TTT with their entire squad.
Teammate Connor O’Leary held onto the Best Utah Rider jersey he had earned in Stage 1.
Connor O’Leary wore the Miller Lite Best Utah Rider jersey for two days
James Oram on Little Mountain, Tour of Utah Stage 3
Stage 3: “Hot.”
The 86 mile Stage 3 challenged the riders almost immediately with an ascent up North Ogden Divide’s 10% grade that shattered the peloton. Dombrowski found position among those in the front up that climb. “It was so hot up the first climb,” Dombrowski said, “I drank two bottles in the first 40 minutes.”
The team left the finish line in Salt Lake City with Josh Atkins 24th, Boswell 25th, and Dombrowski 26th on GC.
Ian Boswell before Stage 4, Tour of Utah
Stage 4: “Relaxed.”
Many riders felt fatigued from the previous days’ heat and climbing as the fourth day of racing got underway from Lehi. The longest day at 134 miles was also the flattest day and a trek into a dusty no-man’s land that returned along part of the historic Pony Express route to finish in downtown Salt Lake City. Bontrager-Livestrong’s Jasper Stuyven rode in the break-away until the sprinters’ teams caught the break just 800 meters from the finish line.
Stuyven ended the day with the Most Aggressive Rider jersey. True to plan Dombrowski and Boswell remained in the pack, trying to stay out of the wind.
Jasper Stuyven (center) won the Most Aggressive Rider jersey for Stage 4, Tour of Utah
Stage 5: “Follow.”
Boswell and Dombrowski turned onto the Snowbird climb in the leader’s group. Boswell, who raced in honor of a friend, launched an attack. Dombrowski, Levi Leipheimer (Omega Pharma—Quick-Step), and Leopold Koenig (NetApp) reached Boswell before the finish.
At the end of the stage Dombrowski described what happened after Koenig attacked: “Levi wanted us to pull because he wanted to win the stage and he knows we’re in for GC, but there’s still a race to go so I thought it would be good to be a bit more conservative, and eventually a couple of attacks went and I followed.”
Gavin Mannion and Ian Bowell after Stage 5, Tour of Utah
Boswell and Dombrowski finished third and fourth on the day. They grabbed water bottles from their soigneur before Leipheimer, Christian Vande Velde (Garmin-Sharp), and Chris Horner (Radioshack-Nissan-Trek) crossed the finish line.
Dombrowski’s efforts awarded him the Best Young Rider jersey and a place at the table in the press conference.
Josh Atkins and Joe Dombrowski relaxing in Kimball Junction before Stage 5, Tour of Utah
Stage 6: “Done.”
The final day with 77 miles of racing included a climb commentator Frankie Andreu compared to the feared Angliru that features in the Vuelta a Espana. Burke Swindlehurst called Empire Pass a.k.a. Guardsman Pass the most difficult climb in all of America. Dombrowski and Boswell crested it and crossed the Park City finish line with a small yellow jersey group just behind the sole man in front, Leipheimer.
Dombrowki enjoyed another kiss from the podium girls in the Best Young Rider’s jersey (“This is the best part,” he said during the podium kiss the day before). He left for Durango, Colorado via Trek World with a fourth place on GC. Boswell headed to France for the Tour de l’Avenir, right behind his teammate on GC with fifth. Atkins, Craddock, O’Leary, Oram, and Mannion moved on to Durango to be joined by Ryan Eastman and Charlie Avis for the USA Pro Cycling Challenge.
Joe Dombrowski (center) and Ian Boswell (right), Stage 6 Tour of Utah finish
2012 Larry H. Miller Tour of Utah stage winners and race leaders by stage
Winner on Stage 1: Rory Sutherland (UnitedHealthcare)
Race leader: Rory Sutherland
Winner on Stage 2 (TTT): Garmin-Sharp
Race leader: Christian Vande Velde (Garmin-Sharp)
Winner on Stage 3: Michael Matthews (Rabobank)
Race leader: Christian Vande Velde
Winner on Stage 4: Jake Keough (UnitedHealthcare)
Race leader: Christian Vande Velde
Winner on Stage 5: Johann Tschopp (BMC Racing Team)
Race leader: Johann Tschopp
Winner on Stage 6: Levi Leipheimer (Omega Pharma—Quick-Step)
Overall Race leader: Johann Tschopp
Joe Dombrowski, Best Young Rider, at press conference after Stage 5, Tour of Utah
ProVéloPassion 