Friday, August 24, 2012

UPCC Stage 5 - Breckenridge to Colorado Springs

Image from Garmin's Facebook

A relatively quiet stage today in the UPCC.  A small break led by Vincenzo Nibali got away early, but as is pretty typical in these type of stages they were all caught a couple of kilometers, setting up the expected bunch sprint finish.  After having a couple of false starts get cut off Garmin's Tyler Farrar found an opening and took his second stage of the week.  This after going more than a year without winning a race!  Teejay made sure to finish in front of Christian so there were no changes in the overall lead going into tomorrow's big stage.

Stage results:
1st: Tyler Farrar - USA - Garmin-SHARP
2nd: Taylor Phinney - USA - BMC
3rd: Alessandro Bazzana - Italy - Team Type 1-Sanofi

Leader - Teejay Van Garderen - USA - BMC
Sprinter - Tyler Farrar - USA - Garmin-SHARP
King of the Mountains - Tom Danielson - USA - Garmin-SHARP
Young Rider - Joseph Lloyd Dombrowski - USA - Bontrager-Livestrong
Most Agressive - Vincenzo Nibali - Italy - Liquigas-Cannondale
Team - Radio Shack-Nissan-TREK

No changes to any of the hopefuls for the overall win.  All the remaining competitors finished in the bunch sprint.  The race has lost a total of 21 racers at this point.

Tomorrow's stage will the final race for the Sprinter and King of the Mountains jerseys, as there are no points for those contests in Sunday's time trial.  It is also likely to have a huge effect on the overall winner.  Current leader Teejay Van Garderen is one of the top 2 or 3 time trialists in the field, so for riders like Tommy D and Christian Vande Velde to win the race they're going to need to take a lead into Sunday's final stage.  Tomorrow's race starts in Golden and takes the racers through Boulder, up Boulder Canyon to Nederland, and through Left Hand Canyon and up Lee Hill Road before returning to Boulder to finish up the Flagstaff Mountain climb.  Tommy D holds the record for the fasted climb up Flagstaff but I expect a number of riders to be doing their best to beat it tomorrow.

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