2011 tour of utah - stage 4

If Stage 3 was hot, Stage 4 was a scorcher: 96 F under cloudless skies for the downtown SLC circuit race.  The course was a brutal eleven laps for a total of 132 km (82 mi.) and somewhere in the vicinity of 7,000 feet of climbing all told.  The race started at 1:00 p.m., so we got there a little early to walk through the expo set up at the start/finish alongside the state capital (where I was disappointed to only find two food vendors (aside from the ice cream/sno-cones), one of which was only selling vegetarian hot dogs - again, a missed opportunity to sell a lot of food).

Charging up from the start

We watched the start from a head-on vantage point before meeting up with my work friend Jody and her husband who scored prime real estate in the shade near the top of the toughest climb, 500 m. from the finish atop State Street.  The peloton held together for the first few laps but had started to disintegrate by lap 5, with a breakaway, the main peloton and then stragglers falling off the back.  The crazy climbing Colombians were extremely impressive, several of them leading the breakaway all day.  Poor Team Radio Shack basically imploded, though, unable to handle the heat and the climbing, leaving just Levi and Brajkovic to work together.

Levi (in yellow) on Lap 4 - still with 

support from his team

In the end, Javier Acevedo won the stage (2.56'18"), with the Spanish rider Javier Megiasleal coming in second and the Swiss Rubens Bertogliati taking third.  Levi held onto the yellow jersey for another day but Henao crept up to within 23 seconds of him.

Stage 4 podium with skis for prizes