2012 tour of utah - stages 3 and 4

We didn't go to either of these (work does get in the way of doin' stuff) but here's what happened:

Stage 3 - 8/9/12:  85.5 mile road race from Ogden to the University of Utah, 7,134 feet of climbing.  After climbing the North Ogden pass, the cyclists went past Snowbasin, around East Canyon Reservoir (where H and I have gone on occasion to get out of the city heat - the water looks way low right now), up and over Big Mountain and down Emigration Canyon to finish at Research Park at the U.  Watching on t.v. was fun because we know that area fairly well and we could pick out landmarks we recognized.

Aussie Michael Matthews, from the young Rabobank team, won the stage and Christian Vandevelde retained the yellow jersey.

Stage 4 - 8/10/12:  This was a long one: 136 mile road race, starting in Lehi, doing a loop along the Pony Express trail through rolling sagebrush desert, then heading north along the west side of the Salt Lake Valley to finish in downtown Salt Lake City.  It's neither the hilliest nor the most scenic ride I can think of but it is long, so they had that going for them.

There was a six-man breakaway out in front for almost the whole ride, finally getting caught by the peloton with about 6K to go to the finish.  I always feel so badly for the breakaway guys who get caught like that, doing all that work all by themselves, all for nothing.  Jacobe Keough, an American from Unitedhealthcare, won the stage; Vandevelde is still in yellow.

Fan favorite Jens Voigt is near the back of the pack in the general classification but seems to be enjoying himself out here in Utah, judging from his Twitter feed.