USAPCC Stage 1: Salida to Crested Butte 159.9km (23/8/2011)

[Angliru]

Cmon, finishing 2 minutes down in a stage on a high-altitude 2.1 race isn't cause for retiring. I know he hasn't had a very good year but he only won the Giro last year. I'd give him another year of GTs before condemning him.

I'm in full agreement. It's a bit too early to assign him to the scrapheap or to super-domestique duties for Nibali. He's had a bad year but it isn't like he's in his late 30's like some riders.

 

[Angliru]

Maybe I'm just disappointed because I expected him to be much better this year, especially at the Tour. I'm sure he will get the program he wants next year, and a leadership role, too, if he wants it.

My point, though, is that he is much more driven than Sastre, let's say, and he might not want to ride if he thinks it won't be at the head of the race. And Liquigas will of course be counting on him to do exactly that (i.e. be competitive). So next season we might see a Basso who is on much better form. I don't think he wants another season like this one. If for whatever reason he can't raise his game, he may elect to do something else.

Yeah I had high expectations for Basso too. Before his crash ruined his season he was my big hope of stopping AS from winning the Tour. Of course Evans took care of that, of which I'm eternally grateful. Still I know it would be quite difficult for him to give up on his dream of winning the Tour and take competing for the Giro instead as a consolation, while Nibali takes over the Liquigas-Cannondale role as the teams premier grand tour rider. I think regardless of all of Basso's team-first talk, that he would retire before being relegated to 2nd best on the team.

 

[MartinGT]

Just watched the highlights, WOW, great racing, and WOW Levi shot off, thought it was a tad too early, but nice fish!

 

[dlwssonic]

Its always funny watching those fans in the US cycling races, they think its some superbowl or MLB/NBA world champiuosnhip

 

[hiero2]

US Pro Challenge Stage 1: race organizer FAIL

Watched the first stage of the USPro Challenge on versus yesterday - nice to have it on tv. But watching the end of the stage I have to vote the race organizers a FAIL for the day.

After tolerating a broadcast that seemed to spend more time with frozen or missing action than it did with good signal time, we got treated to spectators doing their foolish spectator thing, but inside the 1,000 meter flag! So close to the finish line! Not to mention a motorcycle in the middle of that Crested Butte sprint, and cars still on the course in the last 500 meters. Can you sing M-I-C, K-E-Y M-O-U-S-E?

The organizers may have worked hard - I have no idea of whether they did or not. But they didn't do their homework very well. The poor broadcast quality was certainly not much more than a nuisance - but I have seen many superior internet only broadcasts done in worse conditions. So I won't give a FAIL based on that. No, my primary reason is that race organizers allowed spectators to get in the way of riders so close to the finish, and the vehicles on the road in the middle of the riders!!

Idiocy.

If you saw it differently, please feel free to point that out. I would sure hope that, with as much hype as this production had, these guys (the organizers) had a little more sense than what I saw in that broadcast.

 

[BillytheKid]

The raboboys said that if someone pulled on the first mountain early in the race, only very few would be left. The oxygen debt caused many riders to be on their limit while riding slow already.
Gesink called it a race in slow-motion. You don't notice (see it, the environment) you are riding at high altitude but you feel it

Perfect description. It feels like the bonk or a flat tyre. I rode to under just 11,000 not long ago. I was going pretty good until the last mile of the climb, my heart rate kept dropping, no power, and we had only been riding for a couple of hours.....

 

[theyoungest]

Watched the first stage of the USPro Challenge on versus yesterday - nice to have it on tv. But watching the end of the stage I have to vote the race organizers a FAIL for the day.

After tolerating a broadcast that seemed to spend more time with frozen or missing action than it did with good signal time, we got treated to spectators doing their foolish spectator thing, but inside the 1,000 meter flag! So close to the finish line! Not to mention a motorcycle in the middle of that Crested Butte sprint, and cars still on the course in the last 500 meters. Can you sing M-I-C, K-E-Y M-O-U-S-E?

The organizers may have worked hard - I have no idea of whether they did or not. But they didn't do their homework very well. The poor broadcast quality was certainly not much more than a nuisance - but I have seen many superior internet only broadcasts done in worse conditions. So I won't give a FAIL based on that. No, my primary reason is that race organizers allowed spectators to get in the way of riders so close to the finish, and the vehicles on the road in the middle of the riders!!

Idiocy.

If you saw it differently, please feel free to point that out. I would sure hope that, with as much hype as this production had, these guys (the organizers) had a little more sense than what I saw in that broadcast.

Hey, it's still infinitely better than the Volta a Catalunya, a WorldTour race with hardly any coverage. Or the Tour Down Under, where you get to hear the winner of the stage an hour after the finish.

 

[BillytheKid]

Hey, it's still infinitely better than the Volta a Catalunya, a WorldTour race with hardly any coverage. Or the Tour Down Under, where you get to hear the winner of the stage an hour after the finish.

It's also just foolish to expect the race coverage that some European races achieve. It's been twenty-five years since they've had a race like this in Colorado. The TV freeze was annoying, but cycling has to one of the most expensive sports to broadcast. (uplinks to helos) Lucky to get it at all really.
Actually helicopters are pretty dangerous to fly at altitude. Hopefully they'll get the kinks worked out.

 

[hiero2]

US Pro Challenge Stage 1: race organizer FAIL

Strange - thought I posted this already - but it ain't there. So, I have to rewrite it.

My point is this - I am voting the race organizers of the US Pro Challenge a giant FAIL for stage 1.

Item 1: poor broadcast quality, with frequent interruptions and frozen images.

Item 2: did I miss something, or was that a motorcycle in the MIDDLE of the final sprint in Crested Butte? Talk about interfering!

Item 3: fans/spectators / ROWDIES on the road after the 1,000 meter flag - quite possibly changing the final result for the day! It's not like the riders were 2 or 3K out, this was inside the 1,000 meter banner! NO barriers! NO cops, no volunteers, no crowd control?

Item 4: Cars on the course inside the 500 meter banner with riders on the road.

Can you sing M-I-C, K-E-Y M-O-U-S-E?

Idiocy. My vote is to award the race organizers a big FAIL.

But maybe I missed something because of the camera angle - please help me see it correctly if I got it wrong. With as much hype as this race has had, this seemed pitiful to me.

 

[Escarabajo]

I might agree with you on some things, especially about the way they handle the finish of the stage but,

1- It is the first time that they are organizing a race this big, (Coors Classic is too old to be considered here)
2- Is it really necessary to open a thread for it?

 

[El Pistolero]

Race coverage sucks in Europe too except in France and Belgium. And I guess it's not bad in the Netherlands as well, but they really only have one decent race.

Spain is just horrible. QS has green jerseys in this Vuelta. Or at least that's what you would think by looking at the crappy quality.

 

[Maxiton]

Yeah I had high expectations for Basso too. Before his crash ruined his season he was my big hope of stopping AS from winning the Tour. Of course Evans took care of that, of which I'm eternally grateful. Still I know it would be quite difficult for him to give up on his dream of winning the Tour and take competing for the Giro instead as a consolation, while Nibali takes over the Liquigas-Cannondale role as the teams premier grand tour rider. I think regardless of all of Basso's team-first talk, that he would retire before being relegated to 2nd best on the team.

Thank you. That's really all I was saying. (Well, all I was saying that can be said outside the Clinic, which is probably where I should have brought it up in the first place.)

 

[patrick767]

some people are naturally better at altitude, plain and simple.

I started thinking about my hiking experience in the Rockies a couple years ago. I live at less than a thousand feet and always have. I figured altitude would be an issue, plus I wasn't in great shape. Other than slowing my pace somewhat though, it didn't cause me major problems. Until I got a bit above the tree line on a hike that neared 12,000 feet that is... around 11,500 I felt like I hit a wall. I'd expected it to get gradually harder. It felt more like a total bonk. I think I had plenty of calorie and fluid intake, but that didn't seem to matter.

Anyway, good point. The altitude does strange things to many people. You can feel alright then suddenly hit a wall.

 

[Anonymous]

I thought his holiness have a positive outlook on life.

 

[hiero2]

I might agree with you on some things, especially about the way they handle the finish of the stage but,

1- It is the first time that they are organizing a race this big, (Coors Classic is too old to be considered here)
2- Is it really necessary to open a thread for it?

Back about the time of the Coors, I was a part of the organizer community - it wasn't that large. I understand some of the goings-on backstage. As I tried to say in my post, and it seemingly got lost, was the broadcast quality, while sucky, was the least of my points. There is usually some good reason for a technical problem like that. But I'd bet on that particular crew not being asked back next year. And, it was still sucky enough to merit being added to the list of major problems with the day.

But back to my main point - organizer fail. For the reasons I enumerated - poor crowd control and bad vehicle control - yes, I thought this topic was worth it's own thread, and not to be a relatively anonymous part of this one. I still think so.

I don't think we should point to lack of experience. If it the organizers lacked experience, somebody made a big mistake in the hiring process. We produce top quality races in this country. Experience is available - and experience from the time of the Coors Classic is not dead and passed. Not to mention quite a few races that have lived in the interim - providing organizer experience. Remember the Tour DuPont? How many years has the Tour of California been running now? In Colorado they've got the equipment rented - but they didn't seem to be using the brains needed to deploy those resources. If there is a lack of experience that contributed to the vehicle incidents, and it could be, it would be on the part of the drivers. For the crowd control, I have to lay it completely at the feet of the organizers. No excuses.