Flagstaff!

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Geo: 39.7566, -105.225

Dejo & I left the house in separate vehicles, for reasons that will be clear shortly. We headed up to Golden, and stashed the Durango in a government office parking lot (they wouldn't need the spaces on a Saturday, correct?) and carpooled into Golden.

We wandered about a bit, stopping to talk to one of the photo motorcycle drivers. He was very friendly, and gave us a little insight as to the logistics of the race. A tiny part of the logistics -- my head swims, thinking of all that has to go into putting this event on.

After a quick turn about the festival grounds, we headed over to find the team buses. Again, we decided to divide & conquer. It worked this time. I got autographs from Taylor Phinney and Mathias Frank from BMC (and narrowly missed getting Tejay van Garderen), while Dejo got Levi Leipheimer. I also got a little glimpse of Hollywood -- turns out that Patrick Dempsey is a big cycling fan, and stopped to talk to the team. Maybe that's the reason I didn't get an autograph from Tejay -- curse you, Dr. McDreamy! 😊

We found a spot over on Ford Road to watch the neutral start go by, and then we headed back to the car, as we had to get going -- separately. I was heading to Glenwood Springs for a friend's wedding, and Dejo was heading up to Boulder, to try to catch the Flagstaff finish.

And now, for a guest commentary from the man himself, here's Dejo's account of that leg of the race:

Stage 6: Trek to see the finish on Flagstaff Mt.

After sending The Wife off to a wedding in Glenwood Springs, I headed up highway 93 to try to get myself as far up Flagstaff Mt. as I could. Traffic was very heavy all the way to Baseline Rd. in Boulder but once there it lightened up considerably and, much to my surprise, I was able to find parking only a couple of blocks from where authorities were stopping any more vehicular traffic up the hill. My worries about having to secure a wristband were also unnecessary as they were handing them out at the first corner up Flagstaff where they were also checking for wristbands.

It was just around this corner that I encountered my first real roadblock, or "trailblock", as it were. The shorter, but steeper, hiking trail to the Sunrise Amphitheatre, where the finish line was situated, was blocked by temporary fencing and a sign: "Trail Closed". I would be forced to walk up the road along with the throngs of other people on feet and bicycles.

Somewhere along the way, I decided to abandon my plan to just make it to one of the switchbacks or a spot that afforded a good view of the riders coming up as well as riding by and set my sights on making it to the finish line, or as far as I could get. The skies were clear, the sun was hot, but I hauled my butt up the road and made it to the amphitheater area about an hour and a half after having left the SUV parked.

Once there, I did a bit of wandering around to orient myself with how things were setup for the finish and then sat down on a rock and had a bunch of the snacks in my pack as lunch. There was a jumbotron in the VIP area, but us non-VIPs were able to stand by the fence and watch; I even moved around to the north side, at the suggestion of someone else, where viewing was easier, crowds were smaller, and shade was easier to find. Here I watched as much of the TV coverage as I could before heading closer to the finish line once the riders got close. I was also listening to Phil and Paul on the headphones as much as possible so as to drown out the finish line announcers, whose incessant volume-10 and over-the-top hyperbolic coverage was being broadcast all around the place via PA speakers.

When Jens Voigt attacked and took off ahead of the breakaway on Baseline Rd., a huge roar from the crowd erupted. That guy's an animal! Soon, though, Rory Sutherland of United Healthcare was in the lead and getting closer to the turnoff; when he reached that I decided to head over and watch the finish "in-person". Then, suddenly, Levi Leipheimer, last year's winner, was attacking and there was no response. And Tommy D was MIA. I quickly headed over to the barrier-ed strip of road and waited. It didn't take too long before Rory came flying by! He won the stage! Jens Voigt, ignoring his legs and daring his shadow to keep up, came in third. Levi was fourth and, with a 29 sec time-gap back to Tejay, who finished 11th that day, was able to secure the yellow jersey for overall lead. And I had the pleasure of getting Levi's autograph that very morning in Golden. Nice.

With stragglers still coming in and no good position to view the jersey presentations, I decided to start heading back down the hill. On the way, I was still listening to coverage via the app and learning details on time gaps and such. Soon enough, coverage was over and I switched over to listen to some music while walking down. While walking, I was surprised to see many of the riders that had just cycled up the mountain, having to deal with the crowds of hikers and cyclists, as they were required to ride back down as well. It always surprises me how little special treatment many of these world-class athletes get. Then I was happy to learn they had opened Flagstaff Trail to those on foot, so I opted for the more direct, much-quicker-when-downhill, trail over the road. I was probably back at the Durango in less than an hour, and once again traffic, this time on the Boulder Turnpike, was very heavy and the going was slow.

I arrived home, tired but satisfied at witnessing a key stage in this year's USA Pro Challenge and proud of having made it all the way to the Sunrise Amphitheatre to catch the finish. Only one more stage left: tomorrow's individual time-trial in downtown Denver.

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Photos

Big George
This was as close as I got to George Hincapie