The USA Pro Cycling Challenge is underway here in Aspen! With a total of 7 Stages & over 680 miles of road here in the Colorado Rocky Mountains, each competitor must bike for a total of 7 days to win the trophy and recognition they so desire.
Female racers compete in a loop around the city of Aspen while the USA Pro Cyclists are making their way over Independence Pass.
With all of this non-stop hussling going on, I decided it was time to enter the town to get a little piece of action myself. You could tell that everyone was under the same buzz of excitement that I was under as they awaited the final results of Day 3 during this week long event.
Vendors were lined up and down nearly every road hosting drawings where they could give away 2, 3, 4 & even 5,000 dollar bikes for some lucky contestants! Initially unaware that the town was going to undergo such a drastic change for this race, I was pleasantly amazed at how many people turned up!
Every step I took resulted in a near collision with a child as they raced around playing & eating their ice cream cones all the while their parents were scattered in the general vicinity trying to sign up for their freebies at each booth.
USA Pro Challenge “Playground” was available for kids to just fool around and have fun at the Paepke Park!
The scattered thunderstorms didn’t seem to faze anyone at all as we watched the female racers speed around town on what seemed to be an endless loop in their shot for glory. As I passed by the two 10 & 15 foot triangular shaped USA Pro Challenge ornaments, I quickly brought my attention to the race where they were announcing the final leg of the day and who was bringing in first place for Stage 3.
As it turned out, Christian Vande Velde took a narrow overall lead and Tom Danielson claimed Stage 3 by a long shot! It was quite a race as they pedaled 130 miles & over 9,620 feet in elevation gain! All I have to say is although I find myself relatively athletic, these guys are the real deal!
The Honey Stinger booth was giving out all kinds of goodies! 😀
At the end of the race, I continued walking around, played a few of their makeshift games and was even able to grab a bag of goodies from the Honey Stinger booth out on Hopkins Street. Never having the stuff before, I got word of their “Buzzword of the Day” through Twitter & once I told them, they handed me a huge bag of their best treats.
All I have to say is if you’ve never had the stuff before…damn is it good! Signing up for a few more contests in hopes of winning that 5,000 dollar race bike the rain began to come down so I decided to head on over to the coffee shop and have a nice cup of herbal tea. There’s nothing quite like resting in the coffee shop sipping on some tea while admiring the rain outside. 🙂
To keep up to date with what’s going on in the race or when the next event is, visit the
USA Pro Cycling Challenge Website!
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