Tour of Utah - Opening Day

Just a quick update, Cycling News has posted the page for the Tour of Utah. Check it out here for updates, photos, etc.

So far in stage 1, a breakaway of 3 has gone off the front and one rider bridged up at about mile 55. Breakaway had a gap of about 6 minutes last I heard. Listen online at The Fan Sports Network for updates every 30 minutes or so.

***Update***

The break stayed away but dropped back down to 3 riders.

Final after Stage 1
1st - Jason Donald (Garmin-Chipotle)
2nd - Sheldon Deeney (The Fan Network Composite Team)
3rd - Brad White (Successful Living)

Tomorrow is a fairly big mountain stage with 10,000 feet of vertical climbing. I'll be watching from the top of Big Mountain!

Flashback - 2006 Tour of Utah

Just a few snapshots of mine that I found from the 2006 Tour of Utah.

Heading up the Alpine Loop:


Arriving at Snowbird:

Tour of Utah - Stage 1

When:
Wednesday, August 13, 2008 - 10 am

Stats:
Distance: 162 km (101.2 mi)
Elevation Gain: 1,478m (4851 ft)
3 intermediate sprints (mile 40, 72, 87)
1 intermediate climb (mile 60)

Starts in Nephi and heads towards Fairview canyon.

Best places to watch:
See TOU website here

The Tour of Utah is Back!

After a brief hiatus last year, the Tour of Utah professional bike race is back this year. (next week in fact!) This year is "bigga' and betta' than ever"! A $75,000 prize purse and plenty of bragging rights up for grabs makes this race the "Richest Race in America". The race is now on the National Race Calendar which means that more mainstream professional bike teams will be vying for National points. Over the course of the 5 day/5 stage race, riders will cover 336 miles with 30,000 feet of climbing.

More 4 wheel on this two wheel blog

Finally got the body on!

Prepping new chassis for the body to go on.


Almost on, time for a posed picture of me and my bros.
First "test drive"


I think GB is as excited as I am to have the "Landy" back in commission.

The body is on (mostly).

Saturday Ride

Last night when we were getting ready to go to bed, Gina asked if I thought she could do Big Mountain... I answered by telling her that it would be hard, then I showed her what the profile looks like for that ride:


I was pretty excited when she said she wanted to try. Sure enough, we woke up this morning to a beautiful, cool summer morning with the sun shining and a steady stream of cyclists heading up Emigration Canyon. The wind was a bit strong at first, but didn't last long after we got into the canyon. Up we went. The pedals kept turning over and before we knew it we were at Little Mountain. Gina said she didn't even want to stop until we got to the Reservoir (look in the profile and it's the little dip on the way up). We stopped and ate a bit, drank some water and then it was back on the bike for the steep section. Gina cruised right up the switchbacks of Big Mountain and I think the top looked more beautiful than ever because she had worked so hard. Now for some pics at the top:


Gina taking a short break after a steep switchback section. (almost there!)



Ahhh, the top. (I keep forgetting my camera, so I have to use my crappy cell phone one)

Wasatch Loop (check!)

As a follow up post to this one, I thought I'd post the only picture that I got from our ride of the Wasatch Loop, as I affectionately call it. It was a great ride, there were a few of us from the University of Utah Team (myself, Tyler, and Jon), and one "friend of the program," Trevor. It was great having you guys, we'll have to do some other long rides next time. Thanks for the 5-star lunch at Sundance Gina! It was a welcome pit stop.

Sorry for the camera phone pic, I forgot the camera :-(

Routes Post

This is just a post for me to put links to various bike (mostly road) routes. I'll update this as I discover more fun routes to ride. Check back often.

Salt Lake County
Faultline Ride (Interval workout)
SL Valley Ride 'o Round
Wasatch Mtn. Loop
The Big 5
Marina Run. Some of the flattest riding along the Wasatch Front.
Little Cottonwood Canyon, Utah's own "Alpe d'Huez". Almost the same elevation gain and distance as the famous Tour de France climb.
Big Cottonwood Canyon
Traverse Ridge Rd. (Connect to Suncrest Rd. in Utah County)
Millcreek Canyon (note that half-way up the gate is closed until June and may have snow until then)
SLC to Park City (via Emigration Canyon)
Emigration Canyon (just to Little Mountain)
Emigration Canyon (all the way to Big Mountain)
Rocky Mountain Raceway (RMR) Criterium Course
DMV Criterium Course (course layout can vary from week to week)
Potential 2009 RMCCC Championship Crit Course
My commute to/from work (less ambitious version)
My commute to/from work (more ambitious version)
My commute to/from work (MOST ambitious version)
Tour of Utah Preview ride with Utah County friends

Utah County
Suncrest Rd. (Connect to Traverse Ridge Rd. in Salt Lake County)
Utah Lake Century
The Gauntlet
The Nebo Loop
Sundance Hill Climb Route
Alpine Loop
South Fork Provo Canyon
Squaw Peak

Juab County
Tour of Utah 2008 - Stage 1 Route

Morgan County
East Canyon Road Race 2008

Summit County
Tour of Utah 2008 - Stage 4 Route
Tour of Park City

Tooele County
Potential 2009 RMCCC Championship TTT Course

Weber County
Tour of Utah 2008 - Stage 2 Route
Mt. Ogden Race Course



More to come!

The Wasatch Loop

As a follow up to that last post, here's a bit more info about the ride we're doing this Saturday. It's open to anyone that wants to. Meet at Hogle Zoo at 7:30am.

Map of the route:


And here's an elevation plot to give you an idea of the "fun" we'll be having:

Treasure Map

Unfortunately it's not every day that you find a company willing to help out a single user when it means making a global change to the product. In the case where that change will help other users, this becomes more common, but it is still rare for it to happen quickly. I came across a great service that did just that. TopoRoute is a route mapping software for runners and cyclists (and anybody else that needs to plot a route). The software works great and they've gone through some changes recently that have made it even better.

I was trying to plot a route that was 115 miles long with many curves (means the file size is relatively large). They apparently had a limit on the size of a file that could be created and I was over that limit. I emailed their contact and within the day, Martin (thanks Martin!) got back to me to tell me the problem and that he wanted to get it fixed. By the next day, he had doubled the size of file that could be created and my route worked perfectly. Here's the route (a ride that me and some friends are going to do this Saturday if anyone else wants to come!)