Race Winner: Levi Leipheimer (Radio Shack) won stage 1 on the climb to Crested Butte to take the lead, lost it on the Independence Pass descent in the rain and then regained it on the Veil time trial the next day. After that, he held on for a victory by 11 seconds over Christian Vande Velde (Garmin-Cervelo)
Best stage: Stage 5 from Steamboat Springs to Breckenridge was one of the best days of racing of the entire season. It's not often riders the caliber of Andy Scheleck (Leopard-Trek) and Ivan Basso (Liquigas-Cannondale), normally Grand Tour contenders, are in breakaways working together to stay away from the peloton. Then, neither was the strongest man as Laurens Ten Dam (Rabobank) was attacking in the end after recovering from his horrifying Tour de France crash. Ultimately, none would win as the peloton took advantage of the attacks and feigning attacks to catch the break with under 1 km to go giving Italian sprinter Elia Viviani (Liquigas-Cannondale) the chance to win a second stage after his stage 4 victory.
Worst stage: The stage 4 run to Steamboat Springs was about as dull and by the number as can be. My opinion may very well be colored by having watched a similar stage at the Vuelta a España earlier that morning, but there was a feeling of inevitability here. Race starts. Attacks happen until breakaway gets away. Breakaway gets lead up to five or six minutes over leisurely peloton. Peloton wakes up and chases break. Stage ends in sprint finish. Many stages in many races all over the world play out like that and this was no exception. Viviani got the stage win.
Biggest surprise: Patrick Gretsch (HTC-High Road) takes the prologue time trial. Gretsch is a good time trialer, but he was not a favorite at all with strong American time trialists and Tour de France champion and time trial specialist Cadel Evans (BMC) in the field.
Biggest disappointment: The coverage had all sorts of issues, especially early on in the mountains. On the big early stages, the camera feed froze many time and was very jumpy. Most notable among the problems was something largely uncontrollable: the airplane relaying the feed to the satellites from the race had ice on its wings. The ice caused the plane to have to leave, making coverage impossible on the descent from Independence Pass. While coverage was out, Tejay Van Garderen (HTC-High Road) attacked in the rain and when coverage resumed, Van Garderen, George Hincapie (BMC) and Tom Danielson (Garmin-Cervelo) were driving a small group to the finish having dropped Leipheimer and Evans. Hincapie ultimately took the stage.
Other competitions:
Green Jersey (Points, Sprinter competition): Viviani won this competition easily, doubling his nearest competitor. After his impressive showing, he will likely head to the World Championships in Denmark next month.
Red Jersey (King of the Mountains): Rafael Montiel (Gobernacion de Antioquia) took the win in this competition on the final climb up Lookout Mountain during the final stage. All of the top four riders were Colombians.
Blue Jersey (Best young rider): Van Garderen took this jersey on the prologue and held it all the way to the end. His only day not wearing it was because he was the overall leader wearing the yellow jersey.
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