PEDAL DANCER GUIDE PAGES

▼

28 August 2012

USA Pro Withdrawals

Are you missing the race already?
Going through withdrawals now that the USA Pro Challenge in over and we have no more TV coverage (and no longer have to figure out if the coverage is on NBC or NBC sports network). I miss watching the race after non-stop months of cycling coverage. First it was the Spring Classics in Belgium, the One-Day Classics, Giro d'Italia, Tour de France, Olympics, and then the USA Pro Cycling Challenge. What do we do now that it is over?
Well in case you missed some race coverage, these sources are worth going back to have a gander. Photos below by Karen of Pedal Dancer®

The Denver Post has compiled a summary of images from every stage by their photographers: The Best Photos from the USA Pro Cycling Challenge

For more excellent photography my choice would be to view the hard work of Darrell Parks (www.darrellparks.com) of Pez Cycling. I am guessing, if you were at the race, you probably saw Darrell on the route at some point during the week.
Darrell Parks walking the streets
Darrell (R) loaded down, ready for a day as a professional photographer
Would you believe a man put his name in as a volunteer for the 2012 USA Pro Challenge in Durango to help in any way he could and ended up being assigned to drive the Omega Pharma-Quickstep team RV all week long? This is a true story, his name is Jim MacKay and he started a blog to write about his adventures with the team. You can read back over his stories from the week: Driving Omega Pharma Quick-Step
Jim the volunteer driver of team Omega Pharma-Quickstep
The rent-a Team RV that Jim drove
You just gotta go back and read the zaniness of the New Belgium guys at the race: their blog, and their videos. I think you will enjoy their coverage (more about fun than racing) including some great on-the-road footage.   
They know more about beer than bike races, but they are getting into the sport
Did you know that Mike Friedman, one of the riders on Team Optum-Kelly Benefit Strategies, was writing a daily blog for Bicycling.com. You can read his daily entries:
Mike Friedman  Photo found on the team website
Did you miss any of the Bicycling.com videos featuring Joe Lindsey and Frankie Andreu? No worries, catch up on their race interviews here: Frankie and Joe do tons of interviews at the USA Pro Challenge. Including the Chris Horner Diaries (videos from each stage).
Frankie Andreu (cute as a button)
Joe Lindsey
If you missed any race footage you can find some clips on Steephill.TV just look for the red video logo.
Got a habit of watching cycling?
The USA Pro Cycling Challenge official website has a gallery of photos and videos: www.usaprocyclingchallenge.com/gallery
now that is cool!  (one of the staff car doors)
Enjoy this very good album of race photos from the time trial in Denver by a local I met at the race - Ryan Wallace of RevLine Photo: Revline Photo Stage 7 Denver Time Trial USA Pro Cycling Challenge
Revline Photo   ©Photo by Ryan Wallace
And finally Neal Rogers, Editor of Velo Magazine, recommends these two videos - the elation of victory (Rory Sutherland) and the agony of defeat (Tejay van Garderen). This is competition!

Video: Sutherland says ‘that’s the one’ - video immediately after his win on Flagstaff.
Tejay realizes he lost the yellow jersey by 21 seconds - Tejay near the finish line in Denver awaiting the arrival of Christian Vande Velde.

In the end, the Boulder Daily Camera newspaper reported that about 10,000 people were on Flagstaff to witness Stage 6.
Neal Rogers. Thanks Neal for your coverage of the USA Pro Challenge (and his hair looked good every day)
Some of the other journalists and media covering the 2012 USA Pro Cycling Challenge for the week were: The Denver Post (John Henderson), CyclingNews.com, Bicycling.com, VeloNews.com, PezCycling.com, CyclingFans.com, FloridaCyclingMagazine.com, ProVeloPassion.com, 5280 Magazine, KSUT, PedalDancer.com, many local newspapers, and more. Also read Podium Cafe's very good Five Cool Things About the USA Pro Challenge By Jen See, an accurate, if distant, view of the race. 

Also the Vuelta a España is going on August 18th-September 9th, Steephill.TV, VeloNews.com and CyclingNews.com are covering that race, the final Grand Tour of the year.  Route: 2012 Vuelta a España route leaked 

You can read the A Day at the Race and Photo Highlights coverage by Pedal Dancer. And thanks @Ride_Argyle for retweeting my photo of Tyler Farrar at the start line in Monstrose, it was good to see him in yellow.

2012 posts by Pedal Dancer® - after the race

2012 posts by Pedal Dancer® - at the race
Cipo was at the race?
I would personally like to summarize my week of chasing this tour and getting 4-5 hours of sleep a night, sleeping on the ground, hungry and dehydrated daily (but having a blast), by saying this ... CIPO was in Denver?! If I had known Mario Cipollini would be in the VIP tent in Denver, I would have forgone 10 days at the tour, forked over the big bucks and pulled up a chair under the shady VIP tent to stare at this gorgeous hunk of a man. With cyclists whizzing by in the background, sipping a glass of chilled white wine - what more could I want? Who are we kidding, competition is competition, but bike racers are heavenly. There are two racers I never got to see race a bike - Miguel Indurain and Mario Cipollini. This would have been good enough.
sorry my number was busy when you called Mario
See you next year!  Somebody please tell me if Mario will be there ...
.