Got A Great Surprise This Week
Last week @blackbottoms ran a contest on Twitter. After he announced the winners (I wasn’t one) I tweeted, “I suck at these Twitter contests.” Then @weiland proceeded to tell me about the contests he had won on Twitter. I thanked him for rubbing it in. A short while later I got a direct message from @blackbottoms (Matt) letting me know that they had a tshirt for me and to send them an email with my address. Way cool! I exchanged a couple of emails with Matt and he wasn’t sure he had one in my size (we all know I’m girth challenged) but he would see what he could do.
Tour of Utah Leader's Jersey
On Wednesday I received a package from Blackbottoms. I immediately ripped it open and didn’t find a tshirt. I found a yellow leaders jersey from the Tour of Utah! I was totally blown away! How cool is that? I was shocked. Blackbottoms has been the designer of the leaders jersey for the Tour of Utah for a few years now and it looks sweet.
I tried it on and it didn’t fit. I was bummed, but not surprised, because I’m really hard to fit in cycling jerseys. That left me with a dilemma….what to do with the jersey. I came up with a few ideas:
- I could offer it up as a giveaway to my Twitter followers but I didn’t like that idea (I liked it too much).
- Maybe I could go the Fat Cyclist route and auction it off to help pay for a new bike since mine is broken and out of commission. While I think the jersey is awesome I just don’t think I’d get the frenzy that Eldon does because, let’s face it, it’s not a trip to the Tour de France or a $7,000 bicycle. But it’s a Tour of Utah Yellow Jersey!
- What if I gave it away by raising money for LiveStrong? I think that would be a good cause.
- Lastly, what if I just kept it and used it as a goal for the upcoming new year to be able to fit into it by the end of the year? I think that would be a great physical challenge and it wouldn’t be easy. A great motivator.
I’m leaning very heavily towards #4 because I need a physical challenge like that. I’m hoping to be able to get a new bike in the next few weeks (I now I keep saying that but life keeps getting in the way of funds) so that’ll be taken care of.
For Matt at Blackbottoms – thanks. You totally shocked me (which is hard to do) and I sincerely appreciate it.
Read MoreBlake Caldwell of Garmin-Chipotle Wins Stage 2 of the Tour of Utah
What is it with this team? Jason Donald takes Stage 1 and Blake Caldwell, also of Garmin-Chipotle, comes back today to take Stage 2 of the 2008 Tour of Utah. With the stage win, Blake takes the GC lead.
Stage 2 of the Tour of Utah found the peleton starting in Ogden, UT and traveling 85 miles to Salt Lake City. Sounds easy right? Wrong! Between the start and finish were three climbs totaling 10,585 feet. The last climb occurred at mile 68 with the remainder down hill to the finish.
All the information I’ve read says the action was fast and furious on the entire stage with breaks starting early, getting caught, and more attacks after that. 60 mph descents were commonplace with several crashes forcing riders out of the race. There were 12 riders who did not finish. Unfortunately, it looks like Scott Nydam (BMC Pro Cycling) was one of the casualties when he went down hard and breaking a collar bone.
Caldwell and Lill made it over the last climb first with a 20-second advantage over an eleven man chase group. With only a 15-mile descent to Salt Lake City and the finish line you would think the group of eleven riders would have no problem catching the two leaders. That wasn’t the case though. There seemed to be a lot of confusion in the chase group nobody willing to pull them together to work as a cohesive unit until it was too late. That cost them and enabled Caldwell and Lill to open the gap back up to one minute. At the finish line it was Blake Caldwell beating Darren Lill by four seconds.
The current top ten in the GC are:
1. Blake Caldwell (Garmin-Chipotle) 07:37:40
2. Darren Lill (BMC Pro Cycling) 00:00:04
3. Jason Donald (Garmin/Chipotle) 00:00:18
4. Jeffry Louder (BMC Pro Cycling) 00:00:24
5. Brent Brookwalter (BMC Pro Cycling)
6. Glen Chadwick (Team Type 1)
7. Phil Zajicek (Team Health Net)
8. Cesar Grajales (Rock Racing)
9. Tyler Hamilton (Rock Racing)
10. Oscar Rivera (Rock Racing) 00:00:28
The team standings are:
1. BMC Pro Cycling Team 22:54:06
2. Garmin/Chipotle 22:54:06
3. Rock Racing 22:54:24
4. Toyota?United 22:57:02
5. Team Type 1 22:57:02
6. Team Health Net 22:57:02
7. Bissell Pro Cycling Team 23:00:52
8. The Fan Sports Network 23:01:51
9. Jittery Joe’s Pro Cycling Team 23:02:11
10. Successful Living.com 23:05:04
Tomorrow’s twilight criterium should be a little easier on the riders but stage 4 with it’s 14,000 feet of climbing and mountain top finish at Snowbird are looming.
For a very detailed stage 2 race report, see this article by Neal Rogers at VeloNews.
Read MoreSportsmanship in the Tour of Utah Peleton
Everyday we see stories in the sporting world that just just don’t pass the moral or sportsmanship litmus test. Incidents like doping (TdF, Olympics, Baseball), gambling (NBA referees), and recruiting violations (NCAA) to name just a few. I think anyone would be hard pressed to find a sport that hasn’t been tarnished in some form, or fashion, over the last decade. What does this have to do with the 2008 Tour of Utah? Read on.
Read MoreTour of Utah – Stage 1 Won by Jason Donald of Garmin-Chipotle
Click to Enlarge
The Tour of Utah kicked off today with Stage 1 that started and finished in Nelphi City Park. This opening stage was 102 miles in length and contained 4,800 feet of climbing. There were four intermediate sprints at miles 40, 72, and 87. With only one climb counting towards the King of the Mountains competition, riders will have had to work hard to collect maximum points as I expected these early KOM points to be hotly contested.
The early report is that Jason Donald of Garmin-Chipotle is the winner of Stage 1 of the Tour of Utah. He apparently found his way into an early breakaway group and managed to take the stage victory by distancing himself with 400 meters to go. Along with the early GC lead, Jason has also taken the lead in the King of the Mountains race.
The final results of Stage 1 are out. Here’s the top ten:
1. Jason Donald (Garmin-Chipotle) 4:07:09.04
2. Sheldon Denny (The Fan Sports Network) + 0:00:00.7
3. Bradley White (Team SuccessfulLiving.com) + 0:00:01.8
4. Ricardo Escuela (Team SuccessfulLiving.com) +0:00:19.7
5. Jonnie Clarke (Toyota-United) +0:00:20.0
6. Frank Pipp (Team Health Net) +0:00:20.1
7. Ryan Anderson (Land Rover-Orbea) +0:00:20.1
8. Alessandro Bazzana (Team SuccessfulLiving.com) +0:00:20.2
9. Bryson Perry (American R.A.D.D.) +0:00:20.2
10. Michael Grabinger (Team SuccessfulLiving.com) +0:00:20.3
Other Notables:
14. Fred Rodriguez (Rock Racing) +00:00:20.4
25. Oscar Sevilla (Rock Racing) +00:00:21.4
61. Tyler Hamilton (Rock Racing) +00:00:22.0
112. Danny Pate (Garmin-Chipotle) +00:00:22.9
Two riders did not finish. They are:
Logan Hunn (Land Rover-Orbea)
Kevin Rowe (Team Bobs-Bicycles.com)
The full Stage 1 results can be found over on the Tour of Utah site.
Those are some seriously small time gaps in the top ten. I hope there’s some video that surfaces that shows the final sprint. Looking at the overall time gaps, it looks like most of the field finished together no more than 25 seconds behind the stage winner.
How about the showing of the SuccessfulLiving.com riders in the top ten. That’s a great showing for them and has got to leave them feeling confident after this opening stage.
As soon as pics and video are available, I’ll get it posted.
Read MoreTour of Utah Standings Widget Added
Over on the right side of the blog, under the categories section, you should be able to see a Tour of Utah Standings widget will show you at a glance who the leaders are in each of the categories. Images were provided by Blackbottoms Cyclewear. Coding provided by yours truly.
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