With apologies to Lance Armstrong, for the last week in Colorado it has been about the bikes.
As in the USA Pro Cycling Challenge.
Longtime cycling fans who look back fondly on the Coors Classic and its predecessor, the Red Zinger Bicycle Classic, could only have dreamed that early reviews of professional stage racing’s return to the Centennial State would be so positive.
The racing was memorable.
The crowds that lined roads from Colorado Springs to Denver and in between were energetic and well-behaved. Pitkin County undersheriff Ron Ryan may have said it best Wednesday, when he remarked: “This is like a music festival without the music. And it’s just a super, easygoing crowd.”
And while there were a few traffic tie-ups, local reports lead us to believe that there were never any serous flare-ups.
The only real criticism is of the television coverage. And it’s fair to say that it left room for improvement.
But we’ve come to celebrate, not eviscerate.
For seven days, Colorado has been on the international stage with a race that featured one of the most impressive fields in U.S. cycling history.
The race drew Tour de France winner Cadel Evans and second- and third-place finishers Andy and Frank Schleck.
And who knew there was trash- talking in cycling? After Stage 3 on Wednesday, Tejay Van Garderen offered this gem, in assessing Levi Leipheimer’s performance: “All due respect to Levi, he’s not the strongest descender. He sometimes loses his nerve a little bit. That’s one of my strong suits: I’ve got (guts), so I just went for it.”
But it was Leipheimer, not Van Garderen, who finished the week with the yellow race leader’s jersey.
And they may not have earned a spot on the podium, but the race produced plenty of other winners as well, notably organizers and spectators.
Colorado owes a thank-you to Armstrong, a part-time Aspen resident, former Gov. Bill Ritter and everyone else who dreamed up and then delivered this August bounty.
Then there were the incredible crowds that greeted riders at every stage of the race, which wrapped up Sunday in front of thousands of sun- soaked yet jubilant sports fans in Denver’s Civic Center.
After Wednesday’s time trial in Vail, Christian Vande Velde said of the crowds, “The amount of enthusiasm is just unmatched.”
He wasn’t talking about the United States. He was talking about being unmatched anywhere in the world.
The outpouring impressed Pat McQuaid, president of the International Cycling Union, who told The Post’s John Henderson, “We are in an era where there’s no (Greg) LeMond and no Armstrong, and yet the crowds are bigger this week than any race, I would think, in the United States up to now.”
It was a remarkable week for a first-time event.
We look forward to seeing the true measure of the race’s economic impact, and for its return next summer (with hopefully a stage or two in some of the communities that have deep ties to the Coors Classic and Red Zinger).
Ride on.
