Rapids In KC, Author in Hawaii

Haleakala Crater, Maui

North Shore, Oahu

So yeah, I've got better things to do than a game preview.  ;)

Prediction: 1-1 draw, goal by Torres.

Final Wrap-Up of the USA Pro Challenge

Sorry for the delay. As expected Peter Sagan won the Denver stage, giving him 4 wins in 7 stages at his first USA Pro Challenge. Ben King got the day's most aggressive rider jersey, and no other changes happened in the standings.

Your final podium:
1st - Teejay Van Garderen - BMC (USA)
2nd - Mathas Frank - BMC (SUI) - 1'30"
3rd - Tom Danielson - Garmin-SHARP (USA) - 1'42"

Sprint Jersey - Peter Sagan - Cannondale (SVK)
King of the Mountains Jersey - Matt Cooke - Jamis-Hagens Berman (USA)
Young Rider Jersey - Lachlan Morton - Garmin-SHARP (AUS)
Team Classification - BMC

Sagan Wins His Third Stage

As expected if the break didn't succeed, Peter Sagan too the bunch sprint in Fort Collins.  No changes to any of the standings and Simon Geschke of Argos-Shimano was given the orange jersey for the day for the work he put into the break.  With no mountains today Matt Cooke has wrapped up the red King of the Mountains jersey and Sagan ha a insurmountable lead in the green Sprint jersey.

Today's stage is a circuit race in downtown Denver, otherwise known as the Peter Sagan victory tour, where he'll almost certainly get his 4th win.

Teejay Sets New Course Record

As the last rider of the day Van Garderen had a tall task, as Garmin-SHARP's Andrew Talansky had crushed the course record by 42", setting a time of 25' 05".  It appeared that he wasn't quite up to the task as the coverage showed him crossing the line at 25' 15" but the time was immediately announced as 25' 01" giving Teejay the stage win, a new course record, and a race lead of a minute and a half over his teammate Mathias Frank.  Tommy D finished 3rd on the stage, 1' 02" back, and is also 3rd overall int he race, 1' 42" back.  None of the ongoing jerseys changed today, and Talansky was given the orange most aggressive jersey as a consolation prize.

At this point, barring a complete tactical blunder by BMC, Teejay has won the race.  That sets tomorrow up as a great day for a break to get away and win and that usually means Jens Voigt.  Since the group staying together would mean a bunch sprint, only Cannondale is likely to chance since no other team will want to help set up Peter Sagan.  His closest competitor, Greg Van Avermaet, races for BMC who will be more interested in protecting Teejay's yellow jersey than hunting down a break.

Van Garderen Takes Race Lead, Probably For Good

As expected Garmin-SHARP attacked today to try to take the race away from BMC's Teejay Van Garderen, who was in the best position going into tomorrow's Vail time trial if nothing changed.  After riding a brisk tempo all day to catch Radio shack-Leopard-TREK's Tony Gallopin Garmin surged to the front at the base of the Bachelor Gulch climb.  First Christian Vande Velde and then race leader Lachlan Morton pressed the tempo to set up Tommy D.  Danielson was unable to shake Van Garderen though and once they topped the climb Teejay sped away with him on the decent, along side Jamis-Hagen's Jainer Acevedo.  Acevedo took the stage and Teejay took the yellow jersey.  Van Garderen now has a 30 second lead over everyone other than his own teammate, Mathias Frank, who's only 4 seconds behind.  Van Garderen has improved from 2 years ago, the last time this time trial course was used, and then he finished 6th, 51 seconds behind Vande Velde (currently more than 2 minutes back) and 18 seconds behind Tommy D, who's now 40 seconds behind Teejay going into tomorrow' time trial.

Short of Teejay falling off his bike or something equally unlikely he will still be the race leader after tomorrow's stage.  With Saturday and Sunday likely to be bunch sprints, Teejay has all but sewn up the race win with today's performance.  Matt Cooke has solidified his lead in the climbers competition, but there's still mountains to get over on Saturday.  Peter Sagan keeps the sprinters jersey but hasn't locked it up, though I'd be shocked if anyone took it.  I wasn't paying attention the last two days as Lachlan Morton had both the yellow and blue (young riders) jersey, not Peter Sagan.  Morton lost the yellow but keeps a 45 second lead int he blue jersey, probably enough to win it.  Team lead stays with BMC.  Michael Rodgers gets today's most aggressive orange jersey.