Monday, August 20, 2012

UPCC Stage 1 - Durango to Telluride

Image from the Garmin team website

Today's first stage of the UPCC was more intense that expected.  An early break including many of the big names of the race like Tommy D, Nibali, Hincapie. Dave Z, and Peter Stetina forced a very fast pace resulting in the racer eaching the finish line in Telluride a full hour ahead of schedule!  The final riders in the break, Tommy D and Peter Stetina, were caught just 3 miles from the finish leading to a bunch sprint.  The stage was won by Garmin-SHARP's Tyler Farrar resulting in a great day for the local Garmin boys.  Since a large part of the peloton finished in a bunch sprint everyone int he group got the same time and there's no time differences so the jerseys were awarded based on finishing position.

Stage results:
1st: Tyler Farrar - USA - Garmin-SHARP
2nd: Alessandro Bazzana - Italy - Team-Type 1
3rd: Damiano Caruso - Italy - Liquigas-Cannondale

Leader - Tyler Farrar - USA - Garmin-SHARP
Sprinter - Tyler Farrar - USA - Garmin-SHARP (Since Tyler is wearing yellow, this will be worn by the rider in 2nd place in the competition, Alessandro Bazzana - Italy - Team-Type 1)
King of the Mountains - Tom Danielson - USA - Garmin-SHARP
Young Rider - Gavin Mannion - USA - Bontrager-Livestrong
Most Agressive - Peter Stetina - USA - Garmin-SHARP
Team - Optum Pro Cycling

A few top racers have essentially been eliminated from the overall race due to finishing 12 or more minutes behind the field.  Taylor Phinney, Ivan Basso, Cadel Evans, Danny Summerhill, Dave Zabriskie, and Ben Jacques-Maynes are all now racing to support teammates or for things like the King of the Mountains jersey as they're no longer a threat to the overall title.  Defending champion Levi Leipheimer is also in a bit of trouble.  He finished with the group but his team only sent 7 of a possible 8 riders to the race, 1 of which didn't start and 1 of which didn't finish.  So he only has 4 teammates while most of the other top challengers still have all 7 teammates with them.

Tomorrow's stage takes the riders from Montrose to Crested Butte with two King of the Mountains climbs early.  If the group stays together over those early climbs you can expect another bunch sprint in Crested Butte.

No comments: