Location:
Salt Lake City, Utah, United States

Overview:
Finishing 2nd overall in the 2008 Tour of Utah, Blake Caldwell used his Garmin Edge 705 to record all but the final individual time trial of this five-stage race.

Today’s road race is 85 miles long and includes four climbs for a total of 10,585 feet of climbing. The four KOM’s include: North Ogden Pass, Trappers Loop (feed zone will be near by), Big and Little Mountains.

Soaring over four KOM’s and more than 10,000 feet of climbing, Blake Caldwell won today’s stage and took over the yellow leader’s jersey. Joining Blake on the podium today was Peter Stetina who, with his 9th place finish, took over the Best Young Rider classification.

Difficulty:Moderately Difficult

Distance: 94.52 miles

Total Elevation Gain: 7,492 ft.

Google Earth:   View on Google Earth

MotionBased:   View on MotionBased

Download Ride Data:   GPS Device   GPX   HST   CRS

Report from DS Chann McRae

Just 20 km in to today’s stage, Jason Donald joined a break that stuck all the way to the finish. He was the strongest in the group and kept the pace high. Jason attacked with 400 meters to go and distanced himself enough to easily take the stage win and the race lead. He also leads the KOM overall classification.

Above is a quick shot Chann McRae took of Jason Donald celebrating his first yellow jersey.

*Due to a significant time zone difference, detailed results and finish photos will be posted tomorrow.*

Showing his full appreciation for Team Garmin-Chipotle H3O’s efforts during the Tour de France, 8-year-old William from Nova Scotia sent in this great fan letter and original art! The scan of the picture doesn’t do the original argyle art justice! Do we have a new jersey design here?

Taylor Phinney’s 14-year-old sister Kelsey is providing regular updates on events surrounding her big brother’s Olympic debut in Beijing. Here’s her first installment, written the day after she, her dad Davis and Taylor’s girlfriend Sophie Allen landed in China.

Yesterday, Sophie, my dad and I arrived in Beijing at around 4:30 p.m. and after getting lost several times in our taxi, we made it to the Marriott Hotel where we got to see Taylor, my mom, Neal Henderson and some of the other track cyclists. Sophie gave Taylor a big kiss and I gave him a big hug. It was so good to see him. He was wearing his brand new white USA polo, shorts and Nike shoes. He looked refreshed and happy to be in Beijing.

We talked to Taylor briefly, but he had to go back to the athlete’s village. So without showering, Sophie and I headed over to the cube to see swimming preliminaries. We haven’t had much contact with Taylor, but he did attend the Women’s Gymnastics this morning and hopefully he will get to go to Table Tennis tomorrow. For now, he is eating, resting and watching one event per day until his first race (qualifications) on Friday!

Sophie and I have been going on adventures around Beijing, walking in the humidity and intense heat and trying to find cabs and get to events on time. All in all, the Olympics here are more than we could have ever imagined.

Left to right starting with cyclists: Steven Cozza, Tyler Farrar, Dan Martin and DS Johnny Weltz.

Today was the kick-off for the Tour of Portugal. It was a 6 km out and back course through the city of Portifino. Lots of round abouts and lots of wind. I went off early in the line-up and held first place for quite sometime…until I got knocked back to 4th position by three very skinny climbers. The most painful part of the day was loosing the young rider’s jersey by 1 second. Man o’ man.

Tyler had a great ride coming in 5th. We came in as the best team as well, so we all did a great job here so far in Portugal. Tyler, Dan and myself took the award stage to get a 10-pound trophy for best team (see photo above). I tell you these Portuguese sure love cycling. It was totally nuts. Girls dancing and people yelling.

For tomorrow, we’re looking for Tyler and I to go for the time bonuses to try and get the leader’s jersey. That would be great.

Time for dinner here at this awesome golf resort. They treat us like kings here in Portugal.

More to come, Steven

Setting the initial fast time of the day, Steven Cozza (right) ultimately had the 4th fastest time in today’s opening Volta a Portugal prologue. He missed taking the Best Young Rider classification by just 1″.

Departing almost two hours later, Tyler Farrar also put in a good ride and finished just 2″ off Steven to take 5th place and Chris Sutton finished 11th. Team Garmin-Chipotle H3O’s strong overall performance earned them the top spot in the team GC, with a 6″ gap on second place.

Directeur Sportif Johnny Weltz was happy with the team’s opening performance. “It was a very good start to the race for us. It was a fast stage and it’s good to have Steven just six seconds off the winner Ruben Plaza.”

“Tomorrow is a long stage with several time bonus sprints, including the finish. So there is room for us to take the leader’s jersey and to try to put Tyler in position for a stage win.”

Team Garmin-Chipotle H3O prologue results
1. Ruben Plaza 7′24″
4. Steven Cozza +06″
5. Tyler Farrar +08″
11. Chris Sutton +19″
24. Dan Martin +24″
39. Pat McCarty +28″
59. Christian Meier +32″
104. Lucas Euser +43″

Team Garmin-Chipotle H3O GC
1. Ruben Plaza 7′24″
4. Steven Cozza +06″
5. Tyler Farrar +08″
11. Chris Sutton +19″
24. Dan Martin +24″
39. Pat McCarty +28″
59. Christian Meier +32″
104. Lucas Euser +43″

Team Garmin-Chipotle Best Young
1. Marcel Wyss 7′29″
2. Steven Cozza +01″
5. Dan Martin +19″

Team GC
1. Team Garmin-Chipotle H3O 22′45″
2. Palmeiras Resort-Tavira +06″
3. Liberty Seguros +14″

Up next here in the US, the Tour of Utah starts today with a 101 mile “flat” road race. Looking at the profile, it wouldn’t normally be labeled flat, with almost 5000 ft of climbing. But it’s pretty mellow compared to stages 2 and 4. With a team of strong climbers here, we’re looking forward to both of those days.

Stage 2 will be interesting with a hard climb 15 miles before the finish and then a mostly downhill run to the finish. We rode the descent on our preview ride yesterday and it’ll likely be long enough for a significant regrouping. Stage 4 has an insane 14,000 ft of climbing and the final climb to Snowbird is going to create some serious time gaps before the time trial the following day. The high altitude of the finish in Snowbird will definitely play a factor, but with several of us coming from Colorado, we should be in good shape.

We’re going in to this race with high hopes. With all of us coming in to good form, we’re gunning for stage wins. Hopefully starting today!

Riding his first event after crashing out of the Giro d’Italia, David Zabriskie finished 12th on today’s eerily quiet two-circuit, 47 km time trial course. Canadian Ryder Hesjedal finished 16th and the win went to world champion time trialist Fabian Cancellara.

Olympic individual time trial results
1. Fabian Cancellara 1h02′11.43″, avg speed 45.633 kph
2. Gustav Larsson +33.36″
3. Levi Leipheimer +1′09.68″

12. David Zabriskie +3′06.39″
16. Ryder Hesjedal +3′30.90″