And then again
CRESTED BUTTE — They’re calling today’s stage at the USA Pro Cycling Challenge the Queen Stage. With all due respect to queens around the world, this epic 130.3-mile stage from Gunnison to Aspen is more fit for a king.
Or a mountain goat.
We’ll see if it’s fit for human life. Never before in international cycling has a race featured climbs over two 12,000-foot passes. They’ll go over 12,126-foot Cottonwood Pass, then 60 miles later, when lungs turn to yogurt, they climb 12,095-foot Independence Pass.
“Ouch,” said Frank Schleck, who took third Tuesday.
You could see the effects from Tuesday’s climb up 11,315- foot Monarch Pass, maybe not on their faces but the way half the peloton collapsed before the mile-long uphill finish.
“It affects everybody,” Schleck said. “That’s the good part. You feel it in your lungs. It goes deep in your lungs. You just can’t output the same watts. You don’t have the same power.”
Levi Leipheimer, in the yellow jersey, has seen the effects too.
“The altitude is playing a big factor in everyone,” he said. “It’s a good sign that I put time into a (Colombian) guy like (Sergio) Henao. I kept thinking that we’d all lose a handful of seconds to him.”
Welcome back.
Bradley White of UnitedHealthcare was a co-leader for most of the race and earned the most aggressive rider jersey. He knows Crested Butte well. He couldn’t get a teaching job in his native Michigan, so from 2006-10 he taught sixth grade at Front Range Christian School in Littleton.
He even raced the 60-mile Grand Traverse ski race from Crested Butte to Aspen, finishing in 11 hours. He won the 25-kilometer Alley Loop Nordic race.
“Crested Butte is probably my favorite mountain town,” he said.
Coors inspired.
The race has drawn terrific crowds in its first two days, and Leiphei- mer hopes it helps American cycling.
“When I was 13 years old there were two races that inspired me to be a bike racer,” he said. “It was the Tour de France. It inspires everyone. But it was also the Coors Classic. It’s great to be here 30 years later — well, not quite 30 — and here we are in Colorado racing over the same roads as Bernard Hinault and Greg Lemond and Davis Phinney and Bob Roll.
“I see it as a cycle. I hope there’s another 13-year-old boy out there right now who’s watching the race and will be inspired to get on a bike and start riding and one day ride in the Tour de France and battle with Frank’s son.”
John Henderson, The Denver Post
