2010 TOUR OF UTAH: AUG. 17 - 22

Trek-LIVESTRONG looks to complete their impressive season as they enter the final race of the year – the 2010 Tour of Utah. “America’s Toughest Stage Race” will feature Joe Dombrowski, Alex Dowsett, Ben King (AUS), Julian Kyer, Taylor Phinney, Chase Pinkham, and Tim Roe.

The race, with five jerseys up for grabs, will cover much of Utah’s mountains, lending an advantage to riders Roe and King in particular, who have shown strong climbing performance throughout the year. Dowsett will look to perform well in the time trial coming off his victory at the U23 European championships. Paris-Roubaix U23 champion Phinney returns to racing after suffering a knee injury in a crash at the Tour of Denmark.

Also riding the Tour of Utah is Team Radioshack’s Levi Leipheimer, fresh of his record-breaking performance at the Leadville-100. Leipheimer, who will ride for Mellow Johnny’s, is sure to be a threat in the mountains as he knows the terrain and roads well having trained and attended high school in Utah.

Leipheimer and Trek-LIVESTRONG will compete amongst a field that boasts last year’s winner Francisco Mancebo, now riding with Canyon Bicycles, as well as Darren Lill, another 2009 podium finisher.  Jeff Louder, of BMC Pro Cycling team, will also look to repeat a 2008 win, with support of teammates George Hincapie and Brent Bookwalter.

The 2010 Tour of Utah begins with a traditional prologue of 2.8 miles on Aug. 17.  The riders will then ride two road races, 85 and 75 miles each, before Stage 3’s coveted 9.2-mile individual time trial.  Stage 4 offers a 90-minute criterium, followed by a 102-mile road race finale.  Climbing specialists will look to capitalize in the first two road races of Stage 2 and 3, which feature climbs of Big Mountain and Mount Nebo.  All in all, the 2010 will certainly live to be “America’s Toughest Stage Race,” with 23,000 feet of climbing, and each day pivotal in the search for a general classification champion.

Though it will be the first Tour of Utah for some the riders from Trek-LIVESTRONG, Ben King (AUS) and Chase Pinkham will look to improve upon their finishes from last year with their knowledge of the course.  King finished 32nd while Pinkham finished 45th, seventh place overall in the Best Utah Rider classification.  For Pinkham in particular, this race winds through his daily training routes, having grown up in Salt Lake City.

Stay tuned for updates as the Trek-LIVESTRONG kicks off the 2010 Tour of Utah alongside Levi Leipheimer with today’s prologue beginning at 6:00pm MDT.

UPDATED: Trek-LIVESTRONG Start Times, Tuesday, Aug. 22, 2010

This entry was posted on Tuesday, August 17th, 2010 at 11:42 am and is filed under News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.