USA Pro Cycling Challenge

camerone

I just tweeted Carlton and he read it out! Well some of it I had the word shite in it so he cut it short

slimreaper

Blimey, live feed!

prawny

These are all that's left after the bear attack, shame.

Le Commentateur

Big/Gorgeous takes it!

slimreaper

Schleck well back. He loves descending in the wet.

seemunkee

They should have done it somewhere on the East coast. Close to NYC, Philly, DC and B'more, you know where there are major markets. I would rather fly over to France, Italy or Belgium to watch a race than go out to Colorado.

kcrawley

There is no better place to do the USA pro cycling tour then Colorado. Once they figure out the live coverage the race will be a success. The only thing that would make it more boring would be moving the race to the east coast. NYC, Philly, DC. I'd rather watch the Jersey Shore. East coast elitist.

inkyfingers

They certainly have the right terrain and the right scenery, but they have to sort out the broadcasting or the fans and more importantly the sponsors will run a mile. We've seen that sort of problem in the giro mountains before, but the Giro has 100 years or so of history so can afford the odd disrupted TV broadcast, this race probably can't.

blazing_saddles

Independence Pass just isn't selective enough, regardless of altitude.
George Hincapie claiming the win, is testimony to this fact.
Well done to TJvG for animating what had become an extremely dull affair.
Once again, Levi gets caught out on a descent, so the GC is wide open again.

FJS

Blazing Saddles wrote:

Independence Pass just isn't selective enough, regardless of altitude.
George Hincapie claiming the win, is testimony to this fact.
Well done to TJvG for animating what had become an extremely dull affair.

+1
The Tour of Utah route was much better; even Tour of California is more mountainous. This race seems designed for a TTist who can hang in on the climbs (and perhaps that was the idea...).
Can't believe they're riding from ski resort to ski resort for 7 days and don't have a single selective mountain stage. Send them up Pikes Peak next year :twisted:

Greggyr

http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/callega ... -two-crash

Team Type 1's Callegarin was the chap who fared worst in the crash, I hope he's OK.

Riding over a cattle guard in a bike race ?!?!?

rick_chasey

This is America.

It's like their food. Large in quantity, low in taste. Their coffee, buckets of the stuff, but it doesn't taste of anything.

Their mountain stages - weak and unselective - but they have 7 of them!

It's either that or comic book style unnecessarily extreme stuff. They'll probably send them up that steepest road in America in San Fran in the Tour of Cal next to make up for poor racing.

bilirubin

afx237vi wrote:

Doobz wrote:

Le Commentateur wrote:

Wow he literally bit the road!

Eugh that was nasty..

Laurens ten Dam V2 but on the pave and not the grass.. Not cool to see..

Who?

Just as well its not in the UK, he would have been towed away being on a double yellow ;-)

frenchfighter

Scenery is quite something in this area.

Getty

slimreaper

frenchfighter wrote:

Scenery is quite something in this area.

Getty

Shame you couldn't see it on the TV coverage.

Gazzetta67

Obviously they are paying the schlecks,evans,basso good appearance money.
This race will die a death if its not improved. why dont they get the french or italians in and show them how to cover a race. Actually felt sorry for Alan Partridge oops i mean Carlton Kirby and Brain (tour Deeee France) smith . ...- Word of advice Brian drop the transatlantic accent.....it`s bad enough from other scots i.e. Andy Murray.Gerard Butler.

avoidingmyphd

I am well impressed that kcrawley signed up just to get involved in a US geopolitical spat.
I am less impressed with the tv coverage of this race. I could probably find my way round Aspen now though.

RichN95.

Gazzetta67 wrote:

Obviously they are paying the schlecks,evans,basso good appearance money.

It's possible, but you should remember that Evans rides for a US team and both the Schlecks and Basso have US bike companies as team title sponsors. They're just doing the job they're paid to do.

seemunkee

kcrawley wrote:

There is no better place to do the USA pro cycling tour then Colorado. Once they figure out the live coverage the race will be a success. The only thing that would make it more boring would be moving the race to the east coast. NYC, Philly, DC. I'd rather watch the Jersey Shore. East coast elitist.

You joined just to call me an East coast elitist?

kcrawley

Your right I shouldn't have called you that. Still what an awful suggestion. There is no larger cycling market in the U.S. then in states like California, Colorado, and Utah. Plus the most rugged terrain in the U.S. is in the Rocky Mountains.

rick_chasey

The US is too big for point-to-point cycling.

There's a reason it never properly took off there.

Le Commentateur

Hehehe, loved Carlton's story of how he got told off by Cadel. I remember that bit of commentary.

blazing_saddles

Another stage with just awful coverage last night.
It's so bad, even Kirby can joke about it and not seem as if the pot is calling the kettle black.

rebs

Whenthe pictures have worked the area does look amazing.

Don't think the route is that bad. Just dont think their are many climbers here who really have the form or just cant be arsed which has made it a little flat.... Well to be fair it hasn't been that bad. Think I'm really just pointing out that it'll be the riders who light this race up not the route.

inkyfingers

The Tour Of California was a more interesting race in my opinion, plus it looked better in HD and with no breakup. They have the raw materials for a good race, they just need a better route and some investment in the broadcasting technology.

The other problem is that most of the big name riders are there for a holiday; Basso, Evans, the Schlecks are clearly not in good shape and are probably only there because their sponsors wanted them to go. Which means that you just have the Americans battling it out amongst themselves, those seriously looking to build form for the worlds are all at The Vuelta so it becomes more like a domestic US race. Plus when you haver a stellar field but very few actually racing it's always going to seem like a dissapointment.

frenchfighter

Some of the most beautiful scenery I have seen in a bike race:

http://www.steephill.tv/2011/usa-pro-cy ... /stage-01/
http://www.steephill.tv/2011/usa-pro-cy ... /stage-02/

Tusher

Utterly gorgeous.

Y'know, it's not a place I ever thought I would want to go to, but having looked at the photographs (thanks ff), I find myself googling the cost of flights.


Ho-hum. I dream on.

rick_chasey

Looks like they're cycling through red dead redemption.

Ah, life imitating art eh?

squired

Well, the profiles for the remaining stages look disappointing. Big climbs at the start of stages, which is always completely pointless.

If the US could get itself in order it could be a serious threat to cycling in Europe. TOC, Utah, Colorado and then up to Canada for the World Tour race there. I wouldn't be surprised if one or two other races are in the works.

With some route tinkering and serious work on the quality of tv coverage, Colorado could be a good race in coming years. I do find the American fans at the side of the road extremely annoying though. They are far more worried about getting on tv than the actual race, so I'm surprised no cyclists have been taken down by one of the idiots in fancy dress yet.

greeny12

Finishes tonight in Steamboat Springs, a fantastic place I've been to a couple of times for skiing holidays. Routt County is a very picturesque spot in winter, will be interesting to see how it looks with no snow on the ground!