USA Pro Challenge: Stage 5 preview

The Vail time trial is a classic, being part of this event in 2011 and in other races. It's always a decisive stage, but one that can be decided by small margins, like when Christian Vande Velde and Levi Leipheimer were separated by less than one second in 2011. I think we'll see similar fireworks this year.

Coming after such hard stages, there might be bigger separations. It's not a pure time trialist's course. It's difficult to judge your effort - use too much on the flat part at the beginning, and you can blow up on the climb, but save too much and you lose time. There is a lot of thought that goes into an effort like this compared with a flat time trial. It's steep initially, but there is no break, it's all uphill, and at 9,000 feet.

Stage 5 map

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Stage 5 profile

Image ©: USA Pro Challenge