2011 tour of utah - stage 3

Stage 3 of the Tour of Utah was Friday night out at Miller Motorsports Park in Erda, Utah.  H picked me up from work and we headed out there.  Finally getting to attend a stage in person, we saw that the Tour was much better organized than last year with better signage, lots of staff and volunteers and more barriers set up to delineate spectator area.  (They also now restrict the grandstands to VIPs only.)  This stage was an individual time trial: 14.5 km (9.0 mi.) on the racetrack.

Tommy D. working the crowd

We stood right next to the start for most of the riders, then walked around to the other side where we could scurry between the start and the finish.  Tom Danielson got himself a new fan (me) when he grinned at the crowd and waved to get the cheers louder, all whilst sitting on his bike waiting for his start.  The crowd ate it up and it was nice to see one of the cyclists let their game-face slip for just a bit.

Big George Hincapie ready to go

Tejay Vangarderen gave himself a stage win as a birthday present (17'33") while Levi finished second (17'39") and the Colombians - climbers, not time-trialists - scarcely made a showing and Hanao had to give the yellow jersey up to Levi who moved into first in the general classification.

Stage 3 podium: Vangarderen (1), 

Leipheimer (2) and Gretsch (3)

Random notes:  it was really hot out there in the setting sun with scarcely a breeze (which the cyclists probably appreciated); the event organizers needed to have some concessions open - they would have made a fortune in hot dogs since the race went from 5-8 p.m.; and the podium girls were wearing too much make-up, hair extensions and truly street-walkerish shoes.