2009 Tour of California

[Lifesgreat]

Can you imagine them doing Sonora or Tioga Passes?? They haven't got anything in France/etc. that's 10,000 feet.

Been on Sonora Pass, but not Tioga. The dropoffs were S C A R Y! How about a very short time trial up the Old Priest Grade Road by Moccasin?

I am going to spectate at this event in a couple of weeks (Garmin-Chipotle and Rock Racing are two of the seventeen participating teams):

"The Larry H. Miller Tour of Utah is an internationally recognized rival to some of the most revered professional cycling races in the world. Positioned along the Rocky Mountain’s Wasatch Front mountain range, the 5-day, 5-stage, 336 mile race with 30,000 feet of climbing will all take place within a 100-mile radius, encompassing Salt Lake City, Nephi and Ogden. The Tour’s various downtown venues and high altitude mountain climbs to will create a race that is exhilarating for spectators and extremely challenging for the professional cyclists.

Set for August 13th – August 17th, 2008, the Larry H. Miller Tour of Utah will be part of the prestigious 2008 USA Cycling National Racing Calendar. The National Racing Calendar acts as a showcase for the highest level of domestic events in the United States and provides season-long points series to determine the top riders and teams in the nation. National cycling teams will compete for a $75,000 purse, including a new car."

[BikeMomma]

Been on Sonora Pass, but not Tioga. The dropoffs were S C A R Y! How about a very short time trial up the Old Priest Grade Road by Moccasin?

I am going to spectate at this event in a couple of weeks (Garmin-Chipotle and Rock Racing are two of the seventeen participating teams):

The Tour of Utah sounds cool. Post a link if you can.

Old Priest - ha! A legendary hill in these parts. It's on, or rather next to, one of the roads we ride on very often: New Priest Grade. For those who have never been in the area, Old Priest is one steep mo-fo...I believe 12% for a short eternity. It's so steep, water is stored by locals at nearly every possible turn-out in case their cars overheat going up, and the stench of burning brakes permeates the air -- oh yeah, it's a monster. On a ride a couple Sundays ago, one of the "old-timers" of our group (45 yrs young) bet one of the "new-timers" (26 yrs even younger) twenty dollars that he could beat the new-timer up New Priest faster than he (the new-timer) could go up the feared Old Priest. We all chipped in $10 each to the bet and the purse grew to $60. Ha! - the new-timer beat the old-timer by about a minute, even with WALKING the last 100ft when he could no longer breathe (!). But, now he's one of the coveted few who have made it to the top (one guy did it in his 23!...but he had to take a whole week off to recover! ). They're already talking about a rematch, but this time the rule is NO walking allowed. lol

I love New Priest -- it's about 5 miles long at about 6-6.5%. Nice & steady. I'm reeeally hoping they include it in the Amgen. It's quite possible they will -- I'm not so sure Old Priest will be on the menu, but THAT would totally blow the race apart. Wow....

I wish they'd ultimately change the date of the event and do some REAL mountains. That would be SO cool!!! Can you imagine them doing Sonora or Tioga Passes?? They haven't got anything in France/etc. that's 10,000 feet.

Oh yeah....that would be sooo awesome! But alas, Tioga rarely opens before May/June. Dang! I really hope they can get permits to do a Yosemite Nat'l Park stage some year. Imagine the pictures from that! The peloton with El Capitan and Half Dome in the background. But again, snow/ice might prevent that too.

~Kim