We have come to the end of the road for this year’s USA Pro Cycling Challenge. Don’t worry, I have a good feeling it will be back next year. I really want to thank everyone for following along on the adventure. I hope you enjoyed it. More importantly I hope you donated to the Davis Phinney Foundation to help those living with Parkinson’s…Live Well. If you haven’t, you can donate here.

Because it was the last day of the race and I wanted to attend it as a fan. I didn’t take the media shuttle or make it to the circuits in Denver. I had a single goal in mind. Ride up Lookout Mountain with thousands of other fans, where I have trained as a cyclist for over 20 years, and cheer on some of the best cyclists in the world. Lookout Mountain is a climb here on the front range that I have ridden for years, and continue to ride at least once a week. Back in the day when I was training 20 hours a week, I could cover the 4.3 mile climb in under 20 minutes. Now I have to suffer to get up under 25 minutes. To put things in perspective, Tom Danielson who placed 4th in the USA Pro Cycling Challenge, holds the record at 16 minutes. These guys are fast. Anyway, I wanted an image for myself of the best riders in the world on my training grounds. That and I wanted to cheer alongside the thousands of other fans who shared the same dream.

I tweeted the heck out of the race! Well, at least when I had service. Which was basically at the start and end of every stage. AT&T wasn’t readily available on course. I realize that not everyone of our readers is a connoisseur of the Twitter. That being said, I decided to post some on the images from my phone. So here is a look at America’s greatest bike race through an iPhone.

More Cowbell

What they are riding for...well, that and glory!

Pre-game press conf.

Velo News Breaking The Story

Graden of the Gods was the start of the Prologue ITT

My iPhone doing the best it can to keep up with the action!

Livestrong Representing!

George Bennett warms up for the Prologue

Hitching Post

10 Speed

Podium Girl

Cadel filled his Karmic tank before every race.

Roots

Another gorgeous day on course.

TDF Champion Cadel Evans rocked a sweet Winnebago

Locked n' Loaded at the finish line!

Podium

Chasing the BMC Team Car on the Vail TT course.

Firing Squad

Basso Warms Up

Bob asks some rather personal questions about Tommy D's stomach bug.....

Basso's Steed

Waiting in the media tent for the riders to arrive

On the finish line.

The sun sets on Stage 4

A common sight....the fans were awesome!

Chalking Trash!

Me

Howdy!

I really hope you are enjoying this rather unorthodox perspective of the USA Pro Cycling Challenge. This is our sixth day of covering the race, and we are finally falling into a rhythm. I thought it would be fun to share what our day normally entails.

Wake up early, make coffee, fill up water bottles, pack, then follow signs like this.

To places like this.

So that we can make images like this.

Then we rush off, minutes before the race starts, out on the course where we find all sorts of interesting things like this. (This is usually a very stressful time)

Once we are comfortably ahead of the race, we stop to get coffee at places like this.

Then we race off again scouting locations like this.

Rarely are we satisfied with our first location, so it takes a bit to settle on a good location like this.

Then we wait for the riders to ride by so we can make images like this.

Then I process/post a bunch of images like this.

How To Win A Bike Race In 5 Easy Steps (featuring George Hincapie)

1) Sign Autographs – This will quickly fill your karmic tank. If for some reason your fitness fails you, karma will surely propel you to victory.

2) Strategize with a former Giro d’ Italia Winners – This is key. Victory is no accident so a fool proof plan is absolutely necessary.

3) Pimp Your Victory – I appreciate the fact that George went old school here with a classic 2 handed victory salute. In this modern era of cycling, with the ‘rock the babies’, the ‘archer’, the ‘pistol’, we have lost touch with our roots. It was refreshing to see that George kept it real.

4) Celebrate With Your Entourage – George continued to keep it real with a timeless ‘high five’.

5) Claim Your Prize – To the victor goes the spoils. It is important to take your time here. You don’t complete steps 1-4 and then sluff on step 5. This is your podium, enjoy it! I would have liked to have seen George drop a subtle wink on the crowd, but he decided to keep it simple. That is fine with me. Even though I just told you this is your podium, you don’t want to ‘raise the roof’ here. Treat it with the same respect George did.

Well done George, we hope to see you up there again soon!