photo courtesy vail.com.
The USA Pro Cycling Challenge (USAPCC) hits Vail for Stage 3 with an uphill individual time trial that should be super spectator friendly. Riders will climb almost 1,800 feet from the resort town of Vail up Vail Pass to the finish. If you’ve never watched a professional cycling race in person, this could be a fun stage because riders will be constantly streaming through the course for more than 2 hours (instead of the 2 minute whoosh! you can expect when viewing the peloton).
Stage 4 of the USAPCC takes riders from the town of Avon north to Steamboat Springs. This stage is only about 82 miles long (only!) with just over of 5,000 feet of climbing which is pretty mellow compared to previous stages. The official USAPCC description says “(w)ithout significant climbs or high-speed descents, cyclists have numerous opportunities for breakaways” which means this should also be an exciting stage to watch.
If I haven’t mentioned it before, the USAPCC is being covered by the Versus channel so even if you can’t make it out to watch the race you can still keep track at home. On Sunday, portions of the race’s final stage will even be broadcast on regular old NBC.
Mountain biking Stages 3&4
The mountain biking opportunities along this stage lean heavily toward the “lift-serviced” variety. Beaver Creek (in Avon) operates a summer lift as does Vail and the Steamboat resort. Leadville is sorta “just over the hill” from Vail – but not really. It’s still a 40 mile drive or so and the singletrack opportunities there are limited. Along the Stage 4 route on Highway 131 itself there just aren’t many trails (at least according to our trail database). Just the excuse you needed to rent a sick DH bike and leave your climbing legs at home!
Where to stay
Since Stages 3 and 4 start and end in resort towns there should be no shortage of great places to stay. The good news is summer rates are usually less than half what you’d pay during prime ski season so live it up and stay somewhere nice!
Get ready for our final USAPCC preview covering Stages 5 and 6 later this week.
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