Gosh...I'm just DYING that I'm not up in Colorado for this race! It just can't get much more exciting! Levi winning stage 1 in spectacular style, George winning the Queen stage yesterday over those crazy passes, and then.......
SPOILER ALERT! SPOILER ALERT!!! Talking about the ITT below...WARNING! WARNING! DANGER WILL ROBINSON! DANGER!
Well....I just looked at the TT results from today...and all I can say is OH MY GOSH! I could have hoped for that result, but I don't think I could have realistically expected it! The 10 mile TT had 1500' of climbing....which is a LOT for a TT!
And Levi DID IT! Took back the leaders jersey that he lost on the downhill in the rain and cold yesterday!! And in doing so, he beat the next best guy (who just happened to be CVV!) by only a HALF SECOND!! So now CVV is 2nd overall, with TJ Van Garderen is 3rd, Tommy D sitting in 4th (and he finished 4th today too!) and then BIG GEORGE in 5th overall!! GREAT GOOGLY MOOGLY this is a dream race! ANY one of those 5 guys pulls off the win I'll be estatic!
I was so pshyched up after Geroges win yesterday, that I thought it couldn't get any better! That win brings me back to that Tour queen stage he won...his first (and last) Tour win ever! It's so great to see he's got this kind of riding left in him! I was thrilled once again for him...what an amazing man he is and WHAT A CAREER he has had! It just keeps getting better!
Whew....it's pretty much overshadowing that OTHER race in Spain too...amazing that a Grand tour is taking a backseat to a much smaller stage race in the US!
Gosh...I'm just SO sad to be HERE and not there.....the guys I work with (who are up in Denver RIGHT NOW) aren't even cycling fans! THAT is a travesty!!! I'm sure they have no interest in this race...even though it will be IN Denver this weekend (at least I think...can't remember the stages offhand...isn't the last stage Golden to Denver or something like that, or is the Denver part on Saturday? Sheesh, it's sad to have almost no memory anymore. What was I talking about?)
OK.....keeping this short tonight, mostly cuz I JUST got back from my Thurs eve ride, and I'm STARVING! Gotta go eat some din-din, then get to bed....only ONE MORE DAY (work I mean)...then the weekend. COME ON SATURDAY!!
Oh, and Janann, thanks for your updates! We LOVE to hear this stuff...what you're doing, where you were, who you schmoozed, etc etc......GREAT STUFF, KEEP IT COMING! You're our newest roving reporter!
GAME ON!
Oh my gosh - what a great race we had today!! CVV came in with a new course record only to be broken by .58 of a second by Levi a few minutes later! Those 2 were killing it and were much faster than everyone else today. I think 3rd place was something like 4 sec back, but after that there were some more serious time gaps.
ReplyDeleteSuper fun day - but got pretty sunburned up here in the mountains, even with all of my sunscreen on. We spent much of the day by the team busses, saw some of the start house and cheered some on course. One thing that I really enjoy is having photographs for the guys to sign instead of just brochures from the race, etc. Even cooler is having the photos from the Tour of MO with me and the riders together for them to sign. The guys from Europe always seen really surprised and do a double take when they see what they are signing :) I had pics with Gustav Larson and Jason McCartney that they autographed for me and I had DZ and CVV sign race pics from the ToM and one from ToC (thanks Rae & Matt). We had pics taken with Bobke, who was roaming the crowd and watched Cadel warming up.
We tried EVERYTHING to find the hidden LeopardTrek bus, but were thwarted by their sneaky maneuvering. I asked some media guy and he told me that they got to the start late (AGAIN) and were parked by some parking garage instead of with the teams. I'll try to hunt them down tomorrow ;) Got to chat a bit with Cathy again today. She is super busy with the team doing so well!
OK, one funny story for the day:
We were at the Garmin bus where JV was talking with reporters and the crowd and CVV was sitting on the bus steps talking with people. Dave sticks his head out and then sort of jumps over Christian and out the bus door. Well, he was wearing jeans, no shirt, and bed head. Someone yells at him "Hey Dave did you just get up??" So while he's out he starts signing autographs, which was nice, but he does look like an incredibly skinny crazy man with a farmers' tan. One of the Garmin ladies working at the bus is appalled and says "Dave, put a SHIRT on!" He smiles and says "Yeah, I should probably" and then keeps signing autographs. Pretty soon people are asking for photos and he goes ahead and poses with them. Each time the girl says "OK Dave now put a shirt on" and he says "yeah" and then goes on down the line posing for more photos, which prompts her to say "Alright now after this one, PUT ON A SHIRT". This went on for 4-5 minutes and cracked us up. I wasn't able to get a "Crazy Dave" shot with me before she talked him into going inside, but I have a few of him running around like that.
I would think that the GC is pretty much set now for the rest of the race, but I guess you never know what wind or accidents might do to the field. Awesome race - Wish you were here, Matt!!
-Janann
Love your updates, Janann! And did you tell CVV that the reason you were ignoring his shoulder tapping the other day was that you were so concentrated on taking HIS photo when he emerged from 'the tent'. :) Loved that! Did you blush?
ReplyDeleteI was so happy for George & Tommy D the other day but bummed for Levi, when he lost the 45 seconds. But what a way to grab the race by neck yesterday! Whoo-hooo! I must say I'm quite disenchanted with Tejay from his comments after he took the yellow/white jersey the other day. I know he's young, but he's been in the pro peloton 2 years now & should learn the right & wrong way to comment to the press. You can be thrilled about your own efforts without trashing your competitors. Especially a super-nice guy like Levi.
Question - do you think the Colorado race organizers paid Cadel & the Schlecks appearance fees to come here? Just wondering.
And I still can't get over that Levi may not be on Radio Shack next year. And if HE'S not a 'core' part of that team, who the heck is? HE's won more than anyone else on that team going back to 2007 when he finished 3rd & on the podium in the Tour. His TDFs since then have been terrible mostly due to crashes & sickness but 2008 was taken away from him just because he followed Johan to Astana. I realize the '4 co-captain' approach was NOT a good idea for the Tour this year (not enough helper/protectors!) & I guess Levi still wants to go for the podium & not just be a super-domestique for Jani, but I've just really enjoyed Levi being on this team & will miss him terribly if he's not there.
Oh, I wasn't able to watch or even listen to the Vuelta today but just read that Tyler got very hurt in a crash! Gosh, this has just been a horrible year for him. Hopefully, he hasn't broken anything & will be able to ride Worlds or at least not be in too much pain while he recovers.
And Matt - maybe you & Rae can join Janann & Cathy next year at the Colorado race. You'd HAVE to do videos updates for us then! And hopefully, they can start the race on Sunday (Sat even better) next year. Mo' better!
Well, don't know if I'll be able to watch Saturday or Sunday's Versus coverage as if IRENE does affect us, my street will probably lose power. Man, earthquake & hurricane in the same bloomin week! I'm sure the locusts or grasshoppers are already on their way... ;) ;)
Don't know how many of us are in Irene's path, but everyone stay home (unless they tell you to leave) and stay safe! I am HOPING that the worst that happens is power. The gas station in our little suburb/town ran out of gas. Not sure where all these people are planning on going...
ReplyDeleteWe have had so much rain this month (rainiest month on record!) after a parched June/July, our storm sewers are at capacity and a strong downpour (which we have been having 2-3 times a week) floods the streets in about 5 minutes. Then just to add to the earthquake/hurricane fun, the Chili's a block from my house burned down last night. Locusts and grasshoppers indeed.
I have had a week of late nights with no time to watch the race, but my trusty DVR seems to have noticed there was something called "cycling" on so if I can't ride this weekend (still hoping Saturday morning will be rain-free) I have plenty to watch!
Barbara
Wow, Barbara and SusieB, take care the next few days; I will be thinking about you!
ReplyDeleteYes, Matt, that is so totally not fair! You should be there!
for some reason I managed to post on the old thread earlier today--
RE TJ, did you see the recap show today? They caught one of his teammates calling him "ballsboy" or something like that. That comment is going to haunt him for a little bit!
He surely left it all on the road yesterday--have to respect him for that, but it was probably good for him to lose time yesterday (maturity-wise). I think that I remember him making a crack or two about the "old guys" at the ToC press conference last May!
So stoked about George and Tommy D. too! Wouldn't it be awesome if George could pull off the win?
I wish Rory Sutherland could get a mention from P&P, he is still in the top ten I think!
Appearance fees? Can they do that in a UCI race? Likely it is just their sponsors--if they didn't particularly want to come, they are being quite gracious about it! I remember how Cav pouted about being sent to the ToM.
They also showed a bit of the "DZ with his shirt off" today--I wish I had known, I would have been looking for you Janann!
I am still anxious to hear who finally ends up where. I have been surprised to read that Levi might sign elsewhere. I guess we will start hearing more in about a week!
Rae
Hi all! Crazy week here but good. Two days left. We won a race in France too, plus racing in Vuelta ...lots of writing each day. Caught up w JD yesterday again...they are having FUN. More soon.
ReplyDeleteSusie, Barbara, and anyone else on the East Coast who hangs out here - be safe. I'll be thinking of you and wishing you calm weather.
ReplyDeleteStood in the THRONG outside of the Leopard-Trek bus today to get Jens to autograph the pic of us both from MO. I positioned myself right by his bike, thinking that he HAD to come get his bike right? It worked! I could not believe how many people waited for an hour outside of their bus.....wow. Some funny comments overheard:
From 2 golfers who exited their resort into the mayhem of the LT bus "who the heck is coming out of that RV???"
From a lady who had been standing right in the middle of the crowd for @ 30 minutes "So who is this crowd for anyway?"
From some guys trying to thin out the crowd "HEY I see Cadel over at BMC!!!"
I also got a pic taken with Ivan Basso this morning. He could take a few (maybe many) lessons from Jens and the other LT guys on personal interaction with fans. I'm always a little intimidated by the Liquigas guys/crew. We had a few instances of rude comments from them in MO and I sort of stay away now. But today, Basso was just sitting on his bike waiting at a LG car so I asked if I could get a picture with him. He said yes, but acted like it was about the last thing on earth he wanted to do. He was acting like that with fans yesterday too. Maybe he's just shy&I'm sure it must be waring on the nerves to have folks approach you all the time, but he'dhave crowds at his bus too if he just ACTED like he appreciated the fans' interest.
We drove (backwards) the route that the guys will take tomorrow and that 1st climb is a KILLER. It is super long and steep. It's a long way from the finish, so it probably won't affect the outcome, but wow.
Susie - I couldn't corner Neal Rogers for you before he left the race, but I got a few good pics of Frankie for you ;)
Rae-I'm usually wearing my white Jelly Belly hat to block out the sun - in case you spot us on VS :)
-Janann