Tour de France leaders worried about the high altitude at Colorado – Cycling News
USA Pro Cycling Challenge has started in Colorado as 8.3 kilometres prologue was dominated by HTC- Highroad cyclists and they managed to win three jerseys for their team. Top cyclists including Andy Schleck of Leopard Trek, Ivan Basso of Liquigas-Cannondale
and Tour de France 2011 winner Cadel Evans believes that high altitude at the USA Pro Cycling Challenge is the major concern for most of the riders.
Average stages height at the tour varies between 6000-9000 feet but there will be occasions when Cyclists will have to go through as high as 12,000 feet during different stages of the championship.
Ivan Basso finished the Tour de France 2011 at eighth position did not have much training as he arrived in Colorado only two days before the tour shared his thoughts with media as he said, “I looked at the map and I know that we go really, really, high,
almost into the sky. It’s okay because I have good condition, the only problem for me will be the big altitude and the jet lag.”
Cadel Evans shared the same thoughts with Ivan Basso as he believes there are some really hard climbs in the tour but altitude will play an important role as it will cause difficulties especially for European cyclists.
However, Tour of Utah runner up Sergio Luis Henao Montoya will not have many problems with the high altitude as the 23-year-old has raced in such conditions before. In fact the Columbian mentioned that the high altitude in the stages especially the queen
stage will be an advantage for him as he is familiar of the conditions.
Tour de France 2011 runner up Andy Schleck agrees with Cadel Evans as he stated, “I don’t think I will have problem with the jet-lag but the altitude will be a little bit hard, and as Cadel said, it will be the biggest obstacle for us in the race.”
Andy reached US on August 9 and has spent most of the time practicing in Colorado mentioned that he has never went as high as 3600 metres and USA Pro Cycling Challenge will an opportunity for him to experience that which will be a challenge he is ready
to take.
It will be interesting to see how cyclists approach the USA Pro Cycling Challenge as they get ready for the 159.9 kilometre stage 1.
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