USAPCC Stage 2: Gunnison to Aspen 209.8km (24/8)

[mewmewmew13]

Boo evil Lance

Ha...there he was all in black...a shadowy figure......

 

[theyoungest]

Hincapie wins the queen stage, Stef Clement finishes with the favourites... that's all we need to know really. Just a great big bowl of meh.

Only exception: Tejay van Garderen. Really impressive at altitude.

 

[mewmewmew13]

All-US top five on GC now. Tejay should have this in the bag, he'll probably extend his lead tomorrow. I hope we get some fun sprints in the last few stages at least.

would love to see Tejay grab this

 

[Havetts]

would love to see Tejay grab this

He's been the most agressive so it wouldnt be undeserving.

 

[Dekker_Tifosi]

Hincapie wins the queen stage, Stef Clement finishes with the favourites... that's all we need to know really. Just a great big bowl of meh.

Only exception: Tejay van Garderen. Really impressive at altitude.

Maybe. Could also say, Van Garderen impressive on power climbs of 5% and below..

It's not a suprise that 3 strong TT specialists, Leipheimer v Garderen and Vandevelde... rode away on the last part.
Power guys >> climbers

 

[Tank Engine]

Well played TJ. Should be enough to win overall.

 

[BillytheKid]

How the flying @#$@# did LL, VV, Evans, etc. lose 45 seconds on the final part of the downhill to the finish? That's pathetic. Radioshack had the responsibility to keep a break from getting away from the yellow jersey and they failed completely at a most ridiculous time.

Of course none of us have any clue how it happened because all coverage cut out. No moto-cams could broadcast? Nothing? Not even audio? Awful technical failures. Unacceptable.

I am glad I missed it. Maybe the recap show will have something. A total embarrassment on the coverage. Even Phil and Paul must be ready to walk out.

 

[cyclingPRpro]

There's only so much you can do when an airplane's wings start to ice over. What they should do in the future is have ground based relay stations as back ups in case of severe wx.

 

[on3m@n@rmy]

All-US top five on GC now. Tejay should have this in the bag, he'll probably extend his lead tomorrow. I hope we get some fun sprints in the last few stages at least.

would love to see Tejay grab this

He's been the most agressive so it wouldnt be undeserving.

Wow! Big George back at it. Good for him.

Tejay's a good pick, no doubt, and would love seeing him snatch overall victory.

Also, watch out for Tommy D. (now 3rd overall). If there's one beef I have about the parcours in this USAPCC is placement of the climbs... far before the stage finishes and no mountain top finishes. So that may not suit Tommy as much.

 

[Tuarts]

Anyone like to give a recap of what happened? No way am I reading 16 pages. You'd think this was more popular than the Vuelta going by this forum. Any highlights anywhere that aren't geo-restricted?

 

[jobiwan]

Anybody see this quote in the CN report??
It's from Tejay!

"There is no big summit finish or big day that will separate a lot of time so you have to take time where every you can," said Van Garderen. "All due respect to Levi [Leipheimer], he’s not the strongest descender and he sometimes loses his nerve a little bit. That is one of my strong suits, I can..I have balls. I just went for it and when I saw I had a gap I just drove it."

 

[max_powers]

There's only so much you can do when an airplane's wings start to ice over. What they should do in the future is have ground based relay stations as back ups in case of severe wx.

I aint no expert, but how about digital back up recording, where they can at least edit them in for the later broadcast. Or a fast download to show something during the live broadcast.

 

[woodburn]

Versus coverage very disappointing. Skipped all the details of the final climb and moved to 17km to go when they had no live pictures. Who wants to watch 40 minutes of them telling us they have no pictures?

 

[Deagol]

Just got back from watching this stage on Independence Pass. Cold, awesome, crazy experience. Got rained on on the descent. Saw the Support (Mavic ?) motorcycle crash above the last switchback.. Did they mention that in the report?
Hard to get good pictures... I got some video, but it was aimed wrong (had to hold camera up above the crowd, hard to know it's pointing in the right direction).. catching up on details missed due to being out on the course... long day...

 

[Maxiton]

Crap, I was stuck at work and missed the entire stage. Anybody know where some video highlights are?

 

[cyclingPRpro]

I aint no expert, but how about digital back up recording, where they can at least edit them in for the later broadcast. Or a fast download to show something during the live broadcast.

Both of those depend of having a stable signal back to the broadcast truck.

There are new systems coming out where a camera's signal can travel over 4g cell service, but out in the mountains... no cell service. Now. What they can do is have temporary ground relay towers set up along the course, they are easily transportable on small trailers. But that costs major amounts of money. One thing that could work is get a telecommunications company to be a major sponsor and have them donate that.

Or...

Have 2 fixed wing aircraft to shoot the microwave signals up to from the helicopters and motos instead of only one.

 

[weremichael]

Crap, I was stuck at work and missed the entire stage. Anybody know where some video highlights are?

Go for cycling torrents from Holland, you can get the entire race from them.

 

[Deagol]

We saw this crash. Or the aftermath, at least. Hard to tell if it was holding riders up. saw the plane flying over the pass, did not know it was to relay signal. It was raining off and on and cold. Lots of people up there..

Just reading all these comments. For better or worse, some of you are fixated on steepness of a climb.


As promised, some pics and very very short videos of the climb on the pass, near the summit. It's very hard to get good pics/video with all the chaos from the fans...



The view of the top... not steep by Euro standards, but over 12,000 feet. (a few hours before race, not crowded yet)
EDIT: it says "ANDY" in the snow if you look closely. A guy, I actually think it was Dave Weins ?? said that he made it..

Looking from upper slopes down to 1st switchback

The alpine valley before the climb- the racers came from upper-right to lower left along the road. Note the building clouds

 

[Deagol]

Colombian off the front.

Yellow jersey chase group, Tejay is already ahead of them ...

Andy Schleck behind front group

 

[Deagol]

Two Colombians and Garmin rider (Hesjedal ?)
... need to fix link.....
Autobus

Hopefully a few very short videos tomorrow

 

[just some guy]

Steephill highlights stage 2

 

[Kwibus]

We saw this crash. Or the aftermath, at least. Hard to tell if it was holding riders up. saw the plane flying over the pass, did not know it was to relay signal. It was raining off and on and cold. Lots of people up there..

Just reading all these comments. For better or worse, some of you are fixated on steepness of a climb.


As promised, some pics and very very short videos of the climb on the pass, near the summit. It's very hard to get good pics/video with all the chaos from the fans...



The view of the top... not steep by Euro standards, but over 12,000 feet. (a few hours before race, not crowded yet)

It's mostly the fact that they are riding on very high altitude with a great field. This creates expectations. Unfortunately the climbs were nearly 'flat' which just isn't hard enough to shatter the field which is kinda dissapointing.
Add Paul & Phil in the mix and people start to go crazy, because a. The race isn't as exciting as hoped for and b. the commentators are incredibly stupid.

I'm sure you had a great time up the mountain. Don't let those negative comments take that away from you

Let's hope that if this race comes back next year they bring in a MTF or atleast some harder climbs. If you are able to get such a strong competitive field then make a course for it.

 

[Mellow Velo]

Thank goodness I left the tracker and was able to ff all the blank screen.
This persistent problem is an ongoing headache for the race.

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.

 

[theyoungest]

Rabo DS Nico Verhoeven:

"We were all here with the idea that we would experience a great climbers' race, but I have to admit that the course is a little disappointing. There's no real uphill finish. The climbs are very high, but I haven't seen any steep sections. The time trial is called a mountain time trial, but isn't really one. Although it's nice. On a varied course and once again on high altitude. But I expect that the GC race is largely finished on Thursday. The last three days don't really feature any selective stages. Too bad."

Maybe next time check the profiles before you sign up for a race.

 

[auscyclefan94]

How the flying @#$@# did LL, VV, Evans, etc. lose 45 seconds on the final part of the downhill to the finish? That's pathetic. Radioshack had the responsibility to keep a break from getting away from the yellow jersey and they failed completely at a most ridiculous time.

Of course none of us have any clue how it happened because all coverage cut out. No moto-cams could broadcast? Nothing? Not even audio? Awful technical failures. Unacceptable.

They actually attacked a bit before the summit I think. Anyway CVV and Cadel had team mates up the road who were high on gc so it isn't a big deal for them in terms of the gc. A bit different for guys like Levi, Frank Schleck and Gesink.