Chris Davidson’s Diary – Tour of Utah Day 5

Chris is a veteran of the road scene, having wrenched for teams such as Mercury, TMobile, Nurnberger, Navigators and USA Cycling in the past. 2008 and 2009 have found Chris in the service of the UCI Continental squad, Team Type 1. Throughout the 2009 Tour of Utah, he has been providing a daily update for Bike World News and the Cincinnati Cycling Examiner.

The ‘Queen Stage’

This stage has been around the Tour of Utah since its inception. The course has changed slightly over the years, but the major players are still there [Alpine Loop Climb, Suncrest Climb and the killer finish up Little Cottonwood Canyon to the Snowbird Resort].

Forward to today where the temps were forecast to be at or near 100 degrees in the valleys and you have the makings of an epic stage. The riders did not disappoint either. Lots of attacks early, then just before the first sprint bonus and break of 9 goes away. There was a little hesitation on which team need to do the chase, but then everyone took a pee break and waited for Rock Racing [with the yellow jersey in hand] to chase. The break almost gets 4 minutes up the road instantly. Four minutes became eight minutes really quickly and our team was represented in the break by Ian Macgregor. Now our team car has to go back and forth between the field and the break to feed and hand up ice packs. When our car is behind the main field, we ask the officials for permission to go ahead to the break, then we carefully pass the field and then speed across the gap, now approaching almost 4 miles, to get up to the break. During the course of the stage we needed to do this about half a dozen times. I probably should not mention this, but at one point we hit 107mph going across. No joke, this was verified by our GPS unit.

Alternating with the periods of warp speed were periods, after feeding Ian in the break, where we would pull over and wait ~eight minutes for the field to pass us. We would then regain our position behind the field. During the waiting time on the road we would get out of the car a stretch a little and look at the amazing Utah scenery. Gord Fraser, our director, even had time to have a sandwich by the lake [see photo]. Good times.

The topic of the daily meal-on-the-go has been buzzing all week. The soigners make sandwiches each day for the riders to eat after the stage, and a few extra for the staff to take in the car during the stage. Some soigners take a little more time and put a little extra effort into this sandwich making art. We call this ‘love’, and having a little ‘love’ in your sandwich is a good thing. So during one of our ‘breaks’ today we took a photo of two sandwiches made by soigners from two different teams. I will let you guys decide which sandwich included the ‘love’ today. Right or left, you make the call.

Back to the racing. We took some swings today, but did not come away with a knockout. Ian Macgregor rode the break all day. Darren Lill holds on to 2nd overall. Chris Jones made the selection today and was the first one to attack when the stage reached the last climb. And the new guy, Will Dugan, did the work, carried the bottles up and suffered like a dog to finish today. I waited till he had recovered a little bit after the stage to tell him what a great ride he put in today. That first 10 minutes post race he was a zombie. This was an epic day.

4 corners and 90 minutes to find out the truth tomorrow. I will be in the pit, see you there.

Chris Davidson

Photos:

169: Darren Lill starts the day in the KOM jersey. He would finish the day in the Best Utah Rider Jersey, and strengthen his hold on 2nd overall on the GC.

170: Director Sportif Gord Fraser enjoys a sandwich by the lake.

171: Which sandwich has the love? Left or Right?

Tags: bike world news, chris davidson, Chris Jones, cycling, Darren Lill, Ian Macgregor, Rock Racing, team car, Team Type 1, tour of utah, USA Cycling, Utah