USA Pro Cycling Challenge: Levi Wins!

Levi Leipheimer of Team RadioShack won the inaugural USA Pro Cycling Challenge yesterday, eking out an 11 second win over Christian VandeVelde of Garmin-Cervélo who came in second, while Tejay Van Garderen of HTC-Highroad took third, 17 seconds off the pace. Tom Danielson, also of Garmin-Cervélo and George Hincapie of Team BMC rounded out the  all-American top five.

The race started last Monday and promised to be quite a mix of high altitude and grueling climbs. It seems it lived up to that billing, as it was a challenging week for all the riders. Pre-race marketing materials for the event were quick to point out that this was the highest altitude course ever designed, with some of the stages going well above 12,000 feet, with nearly the entire race taking place above 8000 feet.

Yesterday's final stage was a bit of a relief however, as the course was 73.8 miles in length between Golden and Denver. There was just 3129 feet of climbing, and the sprinters seemed to enjoy having the opportunity to show off their skills, racing for the finish line in front of the Colorado state capitol building. It was Italians Daniel Oss and Elia Viviani, both of Team Liquigas-Cannondale, who finished one-two for the stage win, while American Freddie Rodriguez took third for Team Exergy.

All in all, it seems this was a very successful first outing for the Pro Cycling Challenge. Hopefully we'll see the race well into the future as well. Colorado is a great setting for road cycling, with plenty of options to challenge all kinds of riders. It was great that cyclists like Cadel Evans and Frank Schleck showed up to ride as well, giving the event a lot of legitimacy in its first go.

Congrats to Levi on the great win!

USA Pro Cycling Challenge: Americans Dominating On Home Turf

We're now more than halfway through the inaugural USA Pro Cycling Challenge and it clear that the American riders want to make sure they defend their home turf. After the prologue on Monday, two road stages on Tuesday and Wednesday, and a time trial yesterday, American cyclists dominate the leaderboard, controlling the top five spots.

Leading the race is Levi Leipheimer of Team RadioShack. He who holds an 11 second lead over Christian VandeVelde of Team Garmin-Cervélo and 17 seconds on Tejay Van Garderen of HTC-Highroad. Tom Danielson, also of Garmin-Cervélo, holds down the fourth spot, 21 seconds off the pace, while George Hincapie of BMC Racing rounds out the all-American top five, 53 seconds off the leader.

So far, the race has lived up to its promise of being a challenging, high altitude competition. Colorado has served as a scenic, yet brutal, backdrop for the racers, who have endured difficult climbs, thin air, and heart-pounding descents. Hincapie won a thrilling Stage 2 that included more that 9740 feet of climbing, while Levi took the time trial through Vail yesterday, which featured 1783 feet of climbing over just a ten mile course.

Today, the Peloton will return to the road with an 82.8 mile long stage between Avon and Steamboat Springs. This should be a relatively fast stage for the riders, as it only has about 5000 feet of climbing, with the highest point being 8550 feet. That sounds like a lot for the rest of us, but should be a walk in the park after what they've gone through earlier in the week.

So far, it seems that the Pro Cycling Challenge has been quite a success in its first year of existence. Considering the field is full of big names from the pro circuit, it is garnering plenty of attention on the world's stage as well. Hopefully the race will become a staple on the tour, and will be around for a long time to come.

US Pro Cycling Challenge: Levi Leads After Stage 1

As I mentioned a few days back, the US Pro Cycling Challenge is underway in Colorado, and already off to a great start. The event got underway on Monday with a short 5.2-mile long prologue that was won by German Patrick Gretsch, who rides for HTC-Highroad and finished the course in just 8 minutes and 27 seconds. That time put him two seconds ahead of Christian VandeVelde heading into yesterdays first road stage.

Stage 1 was an altogether different beast than the short prologue. It was a 99.4-mile ride through the scenic Colorado countryside that include more than 8000-feet of climbing. It was a day in which the stars of the sport came out to play, as Tour de France winner Cadel Evans and third place finisher Frank Schleck rode at the front of the Peloton for much of the day. In the end however, it was American Levi Leipheimer who pulled away at the end, and took the stage victory, finishing seven seconds ahead of those two men, and four seconds in front of Sergio Luis Henao, who he overtook coming down the stretch.

Today's Stage 2 is expected to be one of the toughest of the entire race. It is 131.1 miles in length and includes more than 9745-feet of climbing. In fact, the riders will face two major summits along the way to the finish line in Aspen, each of them more than 12,000-feet in height. So far, the race has been living up to is billing as the having the most altitude of any race in history.

The overall standings look promising for American riders at this stage of the contest. Leipheimer is in first place, 11 seconds in front of VandeVelde and Tejay Van Garderen. Evans is holding down the 4th spot right now, with a host of riders less than a minute off the pace.

The race comes to and end on Sunday with a ride into Denver. It looks like it should be a highly competitive race all week long, and it certainly is open for anyone to win at this point.

The USA Pro Cycling Challenge Begins Today!

128 of the best cyclists in the world have descended on Colorado Springs, Colorado today to kick off the inaugural USA Pro Cycling Challenge. The six-day event begins with a prologue today and includes four stages and a time trial, spread out over 600-miles of the Rocky Mountains and the highest altitude course ever.

The field is full of tough competitors, including Tour de France champion Cadel Evans, as well as both Frank and Andy Schleck. In all, 17 teams will be competing in the race, which is the first pro-cycling event in Colorado in a decade. To make the event a memorable one, the course designers decided to add plenty of challenges to the race, including some major climbs, dizzying descents, and plenty of that trademark Colorado thin air.

Things officially get underway later today when the riders take to the street for a short 5.18 mile prologue. It gets a lot more interesting tomorrow however, when they'll hit the road for a 100 mile long stage that features more than 8000 feet of climbing, reaching altitudes in excess of 11,300 feet. That's only the beginning however, as most of the rest of the stages will offer similar climbs, and the time trial on Thursday will include more than 1200 feet of climbing, with the entire stage staying above 8000 feet. Hopefully these guys have spent a few days acclimatizing, as this is going to be one long week of riding.

Velonews has a nice breakdown of the stages, which can be read here and will no doubt have good coverage of the event throughout the week. It should be fun to watch how the race unfolds, as it seems like it should be a beautiful, yet very challenging course. I hope it is a big success, as it is always great to see another cycling event here in the States.

The Leadville Trail 100 Run Is This Weekend

The epic Leadville Trail 100 Run is set to take place tomorrow in Leadville, Colorado. The 100-mile long "Race Across the Sky" will test some of the best endurance runners on the planet with a grueling course designed to push anyone to the limit.

The actual race itself begins at 4AM in the morning with the athletes setting out for one very long day on the trail. The top runners will finish in around 18 hours (last year's champ Duncan Callahan came in with a time of 17:43:24) while the bulk of the pack will take somewhere in the neighborhood of 24-28 hours to finish, depending on conditions. There is a mandatory 30-hour cut off for the race as well, and a lot of runners fall outside of that window.

While obviously the length of the trail is always a concern, the altitude in Leadville adds another dimension to the run. It is a 50-miles out and back course, with the lowest point falling at 9200 feet (2804 meters) while the highest is 12,600 feet (3840 meters). Needless to say, in between there are a lot of ups and downs.

Last year, Lifetime Fitness took over the Leadville series of athletic events and has been promoting it ever since. Before, it was always more of a grassroots affair, but it feels a bit more corporate this time out. On the other hand, the Leadville 100 Mountain Bike Race, which took place last weekend, seemed to fly under the radar. The past few years it has been a media circus, with guys like Lance Armstrong and Levi Leipheimer, amongst others, riding in the event. I actually had to actively search for the results this time out, and barely knew that it was taking place.

Good luck to all the runners tomorrow. Stay safe on the trail!

The Teluride Air Force - Hang Gliding Over Colorado

I came across this video last night. It was posted by one of my colleagues over at Gadling.com and features a serene hang gliding experience over Tellurate, Colorado. There is nothing like floating through the sky with snow-capped mountains in the background. At least, I'm guessing there is nothing like it, as you'd never catch me on one of these things. ;)

Beautiful video none the less. Enjoy!

The Adventure TEAM Challenge Puts The Emphasis On The Team

While we're on the subject of adventure racing, there is another great event taking place this weekend in Colorado that really puts a great spin on the sport. It's called the Adventure TEAM Challenge, and on the surface it appears like many other AR events. It is a 3-day long race, held along the Colorado River, not far from Eagle, Colorado, that features teams competing in the usual disciplines of trekking, biking, and paddling. As in all good adventure races, navigation will play a role as well, as the athletes work their way through wilderness backcountry, passing through various checkpoints along the way.

But where this race diverges from others is in the area of the make-up of the teams. While most AR events consist of three or four person teams, quite often coed, the Adventure TEAM Challenge requires teams to have five members. Now that, in and of itself, isn't such a radical thing, but the rules also say that two of those team members must be disabled in some way, with at least one of those athletes being a wheel chair user or paraplegic. Obviously, this changes the dynamic of the teams greatly and really requires a higher level of cooperation amongst the athletes, who will have to work together even more closely if they hope to win.

I love the message that this race sends in that it is 1) inclusive to all athletes, even those who are disabled and 2) that you don't have to stop leading an adventurous life just because you suffer a physical impairment of some kind. I think it is fantastic that a race like this one exists and I want to wish everyone the best of luck in the TEAM Challenge this weekend. You are an inspiration to the rest of us!

Thanks to Clyde for sharing information about the Adventure TEAM Challenge. Very much appreciated.

Teva Mountain Games Results

Over the weekend, the 2011 Teva Mountain Games took place in Vail, Colorado. The 10th annual event saw some of the top outdoor athletes in the world going head to head in a 23 different competitions that included mountain biking, road cycling, trail running, bouldering, paddling, and more. As usual, it looks like this was a great event, that combined outdoor adventure, music, and art into one big party.

One of the highlights of the event was the paddle down the whitewater of Steep Creek, which challenged kayakers with its wild rapids and treacherous boulders, before eventually crowning Adriene Levknecht of Lowell, Michigan the champion. To get a sense of what that run was like, check out the video below and then click here to get a list of all the winners in the various categories, including the Ultimate Mountain Challenge, which pits the top outdoor athletes against on another in a 10K trail run, a cross country mountain bike and road cycling time trial, as well as traditional paddling event and a stand-up paddling race as well.

Congrats to all the athletes who took part in the games. It looks like it was another great weekend in Colorado, which seems to be the capital for these kinds of events.

Mountainfilm Announces Special Guests For 2011

The Mountainfilm Festival is gearing up for another great year, with the 2011 edition of the event scheduled to take place May 27th-30th in Telluride, Colorado. Each year, the event gives adventure filmmakers an opportunity to display their latest creations while also tackling some of the important global issues of our time as well.

One of the hallmarks of Mountainfilm is that they always have great guests on hand to talk about their experiences in the field, and 2011 looks like it'll be no different. Speakers scheduled to attend include Dan Austin, co-founder of 88Bikes, National Geographic Explorer in Residence Wade Davis, and climber/mountain guide Freddie Wilkinson, just to name a few. Check out the special guests who have been announced so far by clicking here, and stay tuned for more guest announcements leading up to the festival at the end of May.

If you'd like to attend Mountainfilm, you can purchase tickets by clicking here. Organizers are still looking for volunteers to help out as well, so if you'd like to attend in that capacity, which still earns you passes, you'll find out more by clicking here.

I'm hoping that I'll get the opportunity to attend Mountainfilm this year, if my schedule allows. Is anyone else planning on being there? It might be a great place to connect!

Deadline For 2011 Submissions To Mountainfilm Festival Is Monday

The 2011 edition of the Mountainfilm Festival, held annually in Telluride, Colorado is set to go down from May 27-30. Over the past three decades the event has earned itself a reputation for being one of the top adventure film fests in the entire world with filmmakers, photographers, environmentalists, mountaineers and explorers all in attendance each year. As usual, the even will kick-off with the Moving Mountains Symposium, which will focus on the theme of Awareness into Action this time out.

While the festival is still several months off, an important deadline for the event is looming next Monday, February 28th. That is when final submissions are due, which means if you have an adventure film you'd like to enter into the event, you have just four more days to get it entered. You'll find all the submission information on a single page, which can accessed by clicking here. 

The Mountainfilm Fest annually awards $10,000 in prize money to the winners in a variety of categories. Those winners are announced at the show's closing picnic, which has become a tradition in its own right each year. For more information on the event, including how to obtain passes, volunteer, where to stay, and so on, simply go to MountainFilm.org. 

Who Will Be President in 2013?

The obvious answer is that it depends upon what happens between now and then. A better question is which party will win the presidential election in 2012 because that is a lot easier to answer than which individual will win. The reason that is true is because as the 2000 presidential election reminded us, it is all about electoral votes. The electoral votes have changed since 2000 thanks to the 2010 census which transferred electoral votes from blue states to red states on the whole making it easier for a Republican to win.

First you need to forget just about everything you think you know about winning a presidential election because it is a whole new ballgame as a result of the change in electoral votes and therefore which states are battleground states. The answer to which party will control the White House comes down to a mere handful of states. You can forget about polling nationwide for which party will win the Presidency in 2012 because you only need to poll the new battleground states to know the answer.

Let's begin by looking at the revised electoral vote picture for the 2012 election:

Presidential Elections in a Nutshell

Party	State	2008 Margin	2004 Margin	2000 Margin	00-08 Margin	2012 Votes	Party Totals
D	District of Columbia	85.73%	79.84%	76.21%	80.59%	3	3
D	Massachusetts	25.81%	25.16%	27.30%	26.09%	11	14
D	Rhode Island	27.84%	20.75%	29.10%	25.90%	4	18
D	Hawaii	45.27%	8.75%	18.33%	24.12%	4	22
D	New York	26.69%	18.29%	24.98%	23.32%	30	52
D	Vermont	37.01%	20.14%	9.93%	22.36%	3	55
D	Maryland	25.45%	12.98%	16.39%	18.27%	10	65
D	Connecticut	22.37%	10.36%	17.47%	16.73%	7	72
D	Illinois	25.10%	10.34%	12.02%	15.82%	20	92
D	California	24.06%	9.94%	11.08%	15.27%	55	147
D	Delaware	24.99%	7.60%	13.06%	15.22%	3	150
D	Maine	17.33%	8.99%	5.12%	10.48%	4	154
D	New Jersey	15.57%	6.68%	15.81%	12.69%	14	168
D	Washington	17.17%	7.18%	5.58%	9.98%	12	180
D	Michigan	16.47%	3.42%	5.13%	8.34%	16	196
D	Oregon	16.35%	4.16%	0.44%	6.98%	7	203
D	Pennsylvania	10.32%	2.50%	4.17%	5.66%	20	223
D	Minnesota	10.24%	3.48%	2.41%	5.38%	9	232
D	Wisconsin	13.91%	0.38%	0.22%	4.84%	10	242
I	New Mexico	15.13%	0.79%	0.06%	4.80%	5	247
I	New Hampshire	9.61%	1.37%	1.27%	3.24%	4	251
I	Iowa	9.54%	0.67%	0.31%	3.06%	6	257
I	Nevada	12.50%	2.59%	3.54%	2.12%	6	263
I	Ohio	4.54%	2.10%	3.51%	0.36%	18	275
I	Colorado	8.95%	4.67%	8.36%	1.36%	9	257
I	Florida	2.81%	5.01%	0.01%	2.21%	28	248
I	Virginia	6.30%	8.20%	8.03%	3.31%	13	220
I	Missouri	0.14%	7.20%	3.34%	3.56%	11	207
I	North Carolina	0.33%	12.44%	5.53%	5.88%	15	196
R	Arizona	8.52%	10.47%	6.29%	8.43%	11	181
R	West Virginia	13.12%	12.86%	6.33%	10.77%	5	170
R	Tennessee	15.07%	14.27%	3.87%	11.07%	11	165
R	Georgia	5.21%	16.60%	11.69%	11.17%	16	154
R	Arkansas	19.86%	9.76%	5.45%	11.69%	6	138
R	Indiana	1.04%	20.68%	15.64%	11.76%	11	132
R	Louisiana	18.63%	14.50%	7.67%	13.60%	8	121
R	South Carolina	8.97%	17.08%	15.94%	14.00%	9	113
R	Montana	2.26%	20.51%	25.08%	15.95%	3	104
R	Mississippi	13.81%	19.69%	16.92%	16.60%	6	101
R	Kentucky	16.23%	19.86%	15.13%	17.07%	8	95
R	South Dakota	8.41%	21.47%	22.74%	17.54%	3	87
R	Texas	11.77%	22.87%	21.32%	18.65%	38	84
R	Alabama	21.58%	25.62%	14.91%	20.70%	9	46
R	Kansas	14.96%	25.38%	20.80%	20.83%	6	37
R	North Dakota	8.63%	27.36%	27.60%	21.20%	3	31
R	Nebraska	14.93%	33.22%	29.00%	25.72%	5	28
R	Alaska	21.53%	25.55%	30.95%	26.01%	3	23
R	Oklahoma	31.30%	31.14%	21.88%	28.11%	7	20
R	Idaho	25.43%	38.12%	39.53%	34.36%	4	13
R	Wyoming	32.24%	39.79%	40.06%	37.36%	3	9
R	Utah	28.17%	45.54%	40.49%	38.07%	6	6

The first thing to notice is that if the states vote the way they did on average between 2000 and 2008, the Republicans win 275 to 263 electoral votes as shown in the last column. To see if that is likely we need to look at any trends between 2000 and 2008 to see if the state is showing a steady trend of moving from one party to the other one in the purple or contested states. It would appear that among the states that are shown as Republican that Colorado is drifting towards the Democrats which would throw the election to the Democrats 272 to 266. To make up for this loss, the Republicans would have to carry one of the next four purple states: Nevada, Iowa, New Hampshire or New Mexico. Since all but New Hampshire is trending to the Democrats, the Republicans would need to carry New Hampshire to make up for losing Colorado.

The next consideration is that undoubtedly the Democrat candidate will be President Obama and he made deep inroads into the Republican states so we must ask if he can repeat this feat. Therefore we need to look at the states he won that he might not be able to carry in 2012. If he won by better than a 5% margin then those states are a real problem for the Republicans. Virginia and Colorado were lost by more than that. As you look at what states might make up for Virginia, you will see that all of the states that are blue in the last column were lost by a greater margin than Virginia so if Obama carries Virginia in 2012, he wins re-election. If he carries Colorado which he won by 8.95%, he must lose New Hampshire which he carried by 9.61% or Iowa which he carried by 9.54%. Virginia, Colorado, Iowa and New Hampshire will decide the election because the Republicans must carry either Colorado or either Iowa or New Hampshire in addition to Virginia.

It goes without saying that the Republican candidate must also carry the other four states they lost by less than 5%. Thus polling those eight states will tell you who will win in 2012. The Republicans must be ahead in five of them and ahead in either Colorado, Iowa or New Hampshire. So what do we know about the Republican chances in those eight states? Here is what the 2010 House races told us in those eight states plus the next four just to make sure we are not missing any bets:

State	2008 Margin	2010 House Margin	Average Margin
North Carolina	0.33%	14.44%	7.06%
Indiana	1.04%	28.20%	13.58%
Florida	2.81%	30.45%	13.82%
Ohio	4.54%	19.30%	7.38%
Virginia	6.30%	19.45%	6.58%
Colorado	8.95%	8.00%	0.48%
Iowa	9.54%	18.86%	4.66%
New Hampshire	9.61%	12.90%	1.65%
Minnesota	10.24%	2.65%	6.45%
Pennsylvania	10.32%	6.14%	2.09%
Nevada	12.50%	9.84%	2.66%
Wisconsin	13.91%	17.07%	3.16%
New Mexico	15.13%	2.50%	8.82%

If the voters repeat what they did in the 2010 House races, Obama is toast. Even if they wind up half way between what they did in 2008 and 2010, the Republicans win because they carry Iowa, New Hampshire and Wisconsin which more than makes up for losing Colorado. If you want to know which party will control the White House in 2013, poll Colorado. If a generic Republican candidate is ahead of Obama, the Republicans will win 2012. If Obama is ahead in Colorado, poll Iowa and New Hampshire. If the generic Republican is ahead in either state, the Republicans will win but if the generic Republican is behind in both states, Obama will win. For an even cheaper answer, just poll Wisconsin. If the generic Republican is ahead, Obama is all through. Yes, it really is that simple.