because you can never get too much racing...
From From August 13 until August 17, riders from 17 teams will battle it out in 5-day, 5 stage, 336 mile race with 30,000 feet of climbing, the Larry H. Miller Tour of Utah.
The roster is chockfull of mountain goats and 7 of the top ten overall in 2006 are returning. Some serious competition at high altitude - yippee. Rock Racing is sending a strong team lead by Oscar Sevilla and includes Cesar Grajales. Bissell will be led Burke Swindlehurst who finished 4th in 2006 supported by up & comer Teddy King and Aaron Olson who showed great back at Tour de Nez. The BMC team has been training at high altitude in Utah for the past week, and will be led by Utah native Jeff Louder who finished third in 2006 and Utah residents Darren Lill and Jonathan Garcia.
Second on GC in 2006, Glen Chadwick is returning with his new squad Team Type 1, but along with his teammate Moises Aldape, Chaddy will fighting jet lag as both were at the Olympics at few days ago. The Garmin/Chipotle DS Chann McRae has stated that they "will finish Tour of Utah with one stage win and 1st in GC". The argyle boys include fifth on GC in 2006 Blake Cadwell, Tour de France veterans Danny Pate and Will Frishkorn.
Other riders to watch include Health Net-Maxxis duo of Rory Sutherland and Phil Zajicek, Neil Shirley (Jittery Joe's), JR Grabinger (Successful Living), Chris Baldwin (Toyota-United), Anthony Colby riding for the composite team The Fan Sports Network. Other teams include the always aggressive Cal Giant team, Rubicon-Orbea, American R.A.D.D., Bobs-Bicycles.com, Hagens Berman, Ride Clean and the Utah All Stars. A draft roster is available here.
but wait there's more...
The stages. Can't provide much more information on each stage than local expert Burke Swindlehurst did (is self-referencing bad?), except just the facts.
Stage 1 on Wednesday is the 101.8-mile (162 km) Utah Sports Commission Road Race, a flat to rolling course with 4,851 ft. (1,478 meters) of climbing.
Thursday brings a leg-buster of a stage, the 84.6-mile (137 km) University Health Care Road Race which starts in Ogden, and after 10,585 ft (3,226 meters) of climbing over 4 rated climbs finishes in a downhill to the line in Salt Lake City.
Friday the fast men come out and show their stuff at the Toyota Dealers Association Downtown Criterium, a 90-minute evening crit over a 1-mile, 4 corner course in Salt Lake City.
The Queen Stage on Saturday, the 98.1-mile (159 km) Snowbird Road Race that starts in Park City, climbs over five KOMs to the mountain top finish at Snowbird Ski Resort in Little Cottonwood Canyon - a total 14,778 feet of climbing.
The final stage on Sunday is the KJZZ Time Trial. A relatively flat 12-mile (19.3 km) out and back time trial that starts and finishes at the Miller Motorsports Park in Tooele, Utah where riders will have to deal with banked turns.
The jerseys. Five jerseys are up for grabs, starting with the yellow leader's jersey. Green Sprint Leader, polka KOM, blue Best Young Rider and the red Best Utah rider will also be awarded.
The next story and/or comment will be from Utah. Ciao.