New U.S. stage race in Colorado?

[DirtyWorks]

Quiznos Quits Colorado Event

Resurecting this thread for an update...

According to Velonews, the UCI 2.HC event in Colorado has lost its title sponsor Quiznos precious few weeks before the event is supposed to happen.

The wording of the article makes no sense at all. From way out here, it looks like they lost Quiznos and fired someone for losing the sponsor. But, it appears they have secured a block of media time through Versus. Mission accomplished for Weisel!

Meanwhile, USAC makes potential Yankee sponsors feel safe by kicking the Tour of Utah down a few notches to make room for selling some broadcast rights.

 

[Muzzin]

Denver Post says that Quiznos is still a major sponsor but the name was changed "based on creating more of a global brand for the race.".

NBC will broadcast the final stage with 25 hours of coverage between NBC and VS. And we get the "joy" of the P&P show.

http://www.denverpost.com/outdoors/ci_17775248

 

[mulletCobra]

Just please.. No Bob Roll. I get angry when I have to see his face with it's eternal smugness.

 

[Califootman]

From the article:

"The two will broadcast the race for Versus, the top cycling network in the world, Aug. 22-27 and for NBC on the final stage Aug. 28."

Don't you hate it when you laugh and vomit at the same time?

 

[Deagol]

http://velonews.competitor.com/2011...hallenge-route-little-bit-for-everyone_177347


thought this thread was worth re-visiting now that the route has been announced ......

 

[jobiwan]

http://velonews.competitor.com/2011...hallenge-route-little-bit-for-everyone_177347


thought this thread was worth re-visiting now that the route has been announced ......

Seems like a nice route. The Stage 3 TT looks like fun.

 

[danjo007]

roads in europe are no wider than common bike paths in the US. lol at the euro-trash jealousy.

 

[Jamsque]

roads in europe are no wider than common bike paths in the US. lol at the euro-trash jealousy.

What? I don't even...

 

[Deagol]

some of the locals think stages 4 & 5 might be duds. I am not so strongly opinionated, though. I guess they make sense for logistical reasons. I'm on the fence on whether I will brave the crowds to watch any of the stages.

I watched the Saturn Classic years ago in person, was on the Guanella Pass downhill (road bikes riding down a rough, dusty, bumpy dirt road, a few top riders switched to mountain bikes). What a disaster that was .....

Team cars weaving through the pack to get the switched road bikes back to the lead riders for the return to pavement. Riders covered in dust, taco-ed wheel, flats....

 

[jobiwan]

some of the locals think stages 4 & 5 might be duds. I am not so strongly opinionated, though. I guess they make sense for logistical reasons. I'm on the fence on whether I will brave the crowds to watch any of the stages.

I do wonder how many top sprinters will show up. Obviously you'll get many of the US-based guys, but with it being during the Vuelta and with the Worlds being a sprint fest this year, I'm not sure who will feature.

So with that said, the sprint stages might be a little harder to predict than the California sprints.

 

[Deagol]

I do wonder how many top sprinters will show up. Obviously you'll get many of the US-based guys, but with it being during the Vuelta and with the Worlds being a sprint fest this year, I'm not sure who will feature.

So with that said, the sprint stages might be a little harder to predict than the California sprints.

good question. I don't know what teams are racing yet. I thought Fly V Australia had some good sprinters and they won't be at the Vuelta. We'll have to see.

I wonder if the sprinters will not like the climbs? They are not steep, but high altitude.

 

[Libertine Seguros]

If you don't want to use the Vuelta to warm up though, where else would you go? I suppose the flattish Tour of Britain and its windy, road-furniture filled finishes might be better than this for dealing with Copenhagen, but certainly the US-based teams will want to show well and maybe secondary sprinters in those teams will show up, especially those not too afraid of having to deal with hills - maybe Leigh Howard or Matt Goss, and Alexander Kristoff, for example.

It's strange; until we see the profiles I'm going to reserve judgement. I can't help the feeling that the race is being run in reverse though, a bit like how the Österreichrundfahrt is always a bit flat as a finish since after the early mountains you have a couple of flat stages, then a TT, then another flat stage.

Just from the descriptions I worry that it will be like four days of GC action then three days in a holding pattern, but again I'm not going to commit myself totally to that reading until I've seen what these finishes look like.

 

[Lupetto]

Teams

Team RadioShack (Horner)
Team Garmin-Cervelo
HTC-Highroad
BMC Racing Team
Rabobank Cycling Team (Gesink, Mollema, LLS, Freire)
Saxo Bank-SunGard
Liquigas-Cannondale
Leopard Trek

UnitedHealthcare Pro Cycling Team
Team Type 1-sanofi aventis
Skil-Shimano
Team Spidertech Powered by C10

Jelly Belly Cycling
Bissell Cycling
Team Exergy (Mancebo)
EPM-UNE
Gobernacion de Antioquia (Henao)

 

[craig1985]

I thought Gesink and Freire are doing the Vuelta?

 

[Amsterhammer]

I thought Gesink and Freire are doing the Vuelta?

Freire almost certainly is, Gesink is not. Gesink wanted to ride the Vuelta, but the Rabo bosses think differently.

 

[Bala Verde]

official site here

http://www.usaprocyclingchallenge.com/

too bad they don't have image versions of the profiles.

 

[perico]

we used to have good one here with the Tour of Georgia. Pretty good turn outs and some good names but the economy killed it.

The Tour of Georgia was a great race. Not on the level of the big ones, but it was a solid race with a solid field. Funnily, before the 2005 TT in Rome, all the fans focus was on Lance, and Floyd, to a lesser extent, so I got to hang out with CSC and Van de Velde, Zabriskie, both Schlecks, the mighty Jens, and their captain for the race, Bobby Julich while they warmed up. Vande Velde is one of the nicest guys in the peloton, as I've met him numerous times over the years. Also talked to the Bottle himself.

 

[Clemson Cycling]

Is this going to be the toughest 6 stage race on the schedule this year?

 

[Libertine Seguros]

Is this going to be the toughest 6 stage race on the schedule this year?

Don't know really. I mean, there's a lot of tough climbing in there, but only stage 2 looks like it's really going to break stuff apart; stage 1 seems to have the tough climb but it's a long way from the finish, and it's hard to tell just how uphill the stage 1 and 5 finishes are from those profiles. The altitude will certainly make it hard.

It might depend on how it's raced. The Vuelta al País Vasco is 6 stages long too, which will provide stiff opposition.

 

[Alpe d'Huez]

What happened to Quiznos? Still think Red Zinger should sponsor this, or Coors.

No Morgul-Bismarck. No Tour of the Moon. Still, great to see a grand stage race in Colorado with name pros racing it. Great for the sport. Hopefully it will get shown on Universal.

 

[Phoenix23]

The parcours look alright. I haven't seen a lot of South American racing so I'm excited to see what the Columbians can do here. The fact that it will be on Versus and the likelyhood that there probably won't be much Eurosport coverage to provide an alternative is a downer though.

 

[this_is_edie]

Teams

Team RadioShack (Horner)
Team Garmin-Cervelo
HTC-Highroad
BMC Racing Team
Rabobank Cycling Team (Gesink, Mollema, LLS, Freire)
Saxo Bank-SunGard
Liquigas-Cannondale
Leopard Trek

UnitedHealthcare Pro Cycling Team
Team Type 1-sanofi aventis
Skil-Shimano
Team Spidertech Powered by C10

Jelly Belly Cycling
Bissell Cycling
Team Exergy (Mancebo)
EPM-UNE
Gobernacion de Antioquia (Henao)

Mancebo rides for realcyclist which was not invited.

 

[craig1985]

Freire almost certainly is, Gesink is not. Gesink wanted to ride the Vuelta, but the Rabo bosses think differently.

Fair enough. Just went from this: http://www.cyclingnews.com/news/gesink-to-ride-the-tour-and-vuelta-in-2011

I suppose it's normal that there would be a change in plans between now and then.

 

[Ruudz0r]

Danielson wants to be good here aswell!

 

[Alpe d'Huez]

I imagine Tommy is completely exhausted right now after a terrific Tour performance, but I'd love to see him win this race.