Today, my dad and I decided to go to Nebo Loop and watch part of the Tour of Utah bike stage race. Today's stage started at Thanksgiving Point through the backroad of Utah Lake, Goshen, through Mona and Nephi, then finishes off with a 20 mile climb up the south side of Nebo Loop with 4,500 vertical feet of climbing. We ended up parking almost at the top but we got a good spot to watch the racers climb up the steepest road of the Tour of Utah stage race. It was pretty cool, about 118 riders and they were just professional cyclists from all over the world plus Levi Leiphiemer who finished like in the top 5 in the Tour de France in a number of years. Also he just won the Leadville 100 last weekend(breaking the course record). Speaking of him, he won the stage today and is the overall leader now. I never had a chance to find him climbing up but dad said he saw him(number 190) and said, "go Levi!". I thought dad was rooting for the wrong guy but I guess he really didn't, I don't know.Well anyways, watching this race made me want to climb up Nebo Loop, and I need to sometime. The racers made it look easy but it really isn't. The south side is the hardest climb ever because it is so steep, now going up the north face of Nebo Loop from Payson is a less graded climb and is probably prettier but I bet it is busier though but if I was going to climb up Nebo Loop, I would have to go up the south face because it's closer to home.
Back to the tour, the Tour of Utah is the hardest stage race in America they say, and the last stage of this stage race is supposed to be the hardest stage ever. From Park City, through Heber City, to Sundance and up the Nirvana climb to American Fork Canyon, down American Fork Canyon, from American Fork to Salt Lake City and up to Snowbird. Sounds hard! There are some tough riders in this race. I bet!
Plus the vans handed out Tour of Utah bells, drinks, and other souviners before the racers came, and also I got a water bottle a racer used that a team car threw out. Pretty cool I guess.
