It was a bit surreal seeing Paul and the Schwinn again.
It took me back to my roots and why I started cycling in the first place.
A great new motivation to have going into my last scheduled race of the season.

August 19-25, 2017 : USA Pro Cycling Challenge



The competition has been fierce here in Colorado for the past 4 seasons.
Hopefully my first ever race here will be a little easier.



That's a little better, favourites look to be Fuglsang, Bakelants, and Acevedo.
A few frenchies make the trip, so that should stir up the crowd,
and I feel sorry for De Kort as his whole team ditched him.



I'm the leader for team Fox and I have my trusty side-kick Warbasse with me.

--- *** --- *** --- *** ---



A short 6km downhill prologue kicks things off in this 7 stage tour.



I dreamed of winning stages like this as a kid while riding the Schwinn to school.



Sorry to disappoint you, but today wasn't like my childhood dream. +17" (35th).

Assuming the climb at the beginning is taken easy an uphill sprint finish is likely.



Breakaway of 3 gets away, and the peloton does just coast up the cat. 2 climb.



Jump to about 20km to go, the morning breakaway is being chased by
a group of 4 late attackers. No favourites but they are decent climbers.



6kms to go and the peloton does their job, everyone is back together.



The first attack comes from Jakob Fuglsang! Red alert!



Red alert because Fuglsang is quickly brought back and Rémy Cusin
wearing the red Air Canada colors is on the move. The crowd is irate.



1km to go and Cusin might pull off a Romain Feillu type victory...



Jan Bakelants and I are closing in, can we stop the Frenchman?



Phew, that was close. Bakelants steals the win and the crowd goes wild!
I get 3rd place and the bonus seconds help me move up to 9th overall.

The only mountain stage of the tour, but it's 210kms. A very long day ahead.



Let's fast forward to the final climb, the morning breakaway of 3 is being chased by a late attack group of 3. This is very similar to what happened yesterday.



However, the peloton doesn't seem interested in chasing so the tag-team
of Warbasse and I decide to raise the tempo ourselves. Attack!
This has worked before so why not try it again?



1km from the top and Warbasse and I are dangling out in front of the peloton.
We have pulled back 4 minutes on the breakaway in 10kms. Pretty impressive.



Going over the top I ditch Warbasse to try and catch the lead group of 6.



And I do with 4kms to go! The peloton is just 20 seconds behind us though.



Under the banner! This is going to be close!



I'm out-sprinted and finish 4th but I'm more concerned about getting a gap.



That's a gap, right? Nope. Not by the race officials standards.
Seriously, why do these guys still have a grudge against me?

+1 EXP for back to back top 5's, while the form continues to drop.

The next race update will include Stages 4-5 of the USA Pro Cycling Challenge:

EXP - Hill / Form - Time Trial (x2)

Welcome back for stages 4 and 5 of the USA Pro Cycling Challenge.
I'm currently 9th overall, but only 19 seconds off the GC leader Jan Bakelants.

--- *** --- *** --- *** ---



Perhaps the most crucial stage of the tour as the mountains
haven't been able to split up the pack yet.



Warbasse gave me a few tips before I headed out from the start house.



Looks like his tips were valid as I hit the finish with the 2nd best time so far.
8 seconds behind current leader Peter Stetina of Target - AT&T.



Two riders later Alexsandr Dyachenko beats Stetina by 6 seconds.



Two riders later his teammate Fuglsang beats him by 3 seconds.



Sergent gets the fastest time at the checkpoints but falls apart on the climb.
The two Astana boys, Dyachenko and Fuglsang, hold the top two spots still.



The last man to have a chance to knock them off is the yellow jersey...
And he does! Jan Bakelants extends his overall lead. I finish 6th on the day.

Basically a rest day, although the wind was quite nasty at times.



Breakaway gets the win. Connor O'Leary from my former team Bissell.

Nothing really EXP worth, but the form points remain the same.

The next race update will finish the USA Pro Cycling Challenge:

Form - Downhill, Mountain