Colorado Files: Supersize me!

There’s nothing like the subtle reminder to never joke about bombs or a carbohydrate-heavy in-flight meal to let you know where you’re off to, writes Anthony Tan in Colorado, on the eve of the USA Pro Cycling Challenge.

The first reminder that I was going to the United States came a few minutes before check-in at Sydney airport for Delta Airlines flight DL 16, destination Los Angeles.

Waiting in line with bags in tow, I had a chance to look at the screen above me, which said in large block capitals: "THINK BEFORE YOU SPEAK – DO NOT MAKE JOKES ABOUT BOMBS OR SECURITY THREATS."

A second reminder came aboard the 14-hour flight to LAX, where, during the in-flight meal service, my stomach noticed the serving portions were not just generous but copious – and I hadn't even asked for an 'upsize' yet!

(That'll come later, I thought to myself, upon visiting McDonalds/ KFC/ Burger King/ Taco Bell/ Subway, salivating at the prospect of putting on another five kilograms in addition to the five I'd already put on in July.)

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Frivolities aside, I'm very much looking forward to sharing my trip Stateside with you, as I report on location at the inaugural US Pro Cycling Challenge in Colorado.

The week-long race, scheduled for August 22-28, will mark the last time Tour de France winner Cadel Evans pins on a number this year, before his dream season draws to a close.

After his homecoming party in Melbourne's Fed Square, Evans shot off to the States to prepare, or more correctly, acclimatise, to the rarefied air he will find himself in next week. Like the Tour of Qinghai Lake in the eponymous westernmost province of China, a race I have covered twice before, the entire race is held at high altitude.

And there has already been many a cautionary tale for those who come ill-equipped for such a venture, thinking they can race how they would at sea level, or that they only need a day or two to adapt. Wrong.

"I think altitude is really going to play a big part in this race," said Tom Danielson, a long-time resident of Durango, Colorado, who recently finished ninth at his first Tour de France and regarded by many as the race favourite. Upon his 14 August arrival in the States, Evans told reporters: "What I can do in Colorado will depend on how well I recover and adapt to altitude."

While the supersized passes to be traversed are not as steep as those at the Tour, because of the altitude, Danielson says, whose Garmin-Cervélo team is based in the athletes' haven of Boulder, riders who get dropped will struggle to regain contact, as they already will be in oxygen debt.

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The seven-day, 518-mile (833.6 kilometres) stage race will also be intriguing because the entire Tour de France podium is here, which means of course the Schleck bro's, Andy and Fränk, will be in Colorado along with Cadel.

Will one of them attempt to exact some revenge on Evans, who outwitted, outplayed, and out-rode them in July, relegating Andy to his third consecutive second place (the only rider to have done so in TdF history) and Fränk to third?

I think so. Pride is a noun bike racers know all too well, which can lead to both amazing feats and spectacular downfalls.

"He's a proud guy," Max Testa, BMC Racing's team doctor, told VeloNews. "So he's going to race his best for sure. He doesn't like to race for second, ever."

"I've done a lot of travel and I have hardly had any training since the Tour," Evans said. "But I'm not quite as bad as I thought I'd be. We'll see in the first two or three days in Colorado how good or bad I am."

It's also interesting that both the Schlecks and Evans decided to forgo riding the Vuelta a España in favour of this race. As he has shown in the past, Evans has the physical and mental fortitude to ride two Grand Tours a year, and with this year's road worlds held on a sprinters' course and the Giro too difficult to use as a preparation event for the Tour, until last month, the Vuelta was the likely alternative.

But as early as the day after the Tour finished on the Champs Elysées on Sunday 24 July, he decided against it. Yes, America is an important market for BMC Bicycles and the team is based in Santa Rosa, California. But if Cadel really wanted to ride the Vuelta, I'm sure he could have done so; he is the team leader, after all.

"We could go to the Vuelta, Colorado or Poland," said Evans, "[and] I know which one I want to do, because I am here and I don't think I am the only one that feels that way."

As he's already said, planning for the 2012 Tour has already begun – and so long as he's capable of contending for the world's greatest bike race, he may as well put all his eggs behind it. Though I'm sure he'll have a crack at winning the Giro or Vuelta one day, maybe in 2013 or 2014.

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From the scenes we saw at May's Tour of California, aside from the Tour de France and the mountain stages of the Giro (I'll throw Old Willunga Hill in there, too), nowhere else in the world do you see cycling fans as fervent as those you see roadside in America.

I know, I know, some (a lot?) dress up in ridiculously silly outfits and wear reindeer horns and gridiron outfits and carry on like characters in the parody that was the film from the makers of 'South Park', Team America.

But in cycling, boisterous, bold and occasionally brash is so much better than bog-standard and boring.

Evans shares a similar sentiment: "I raced a lot in America as a mountain biker years ago and I understand the passion there is for cycling here. Now that there are races emerging like the Tour of California, Tour of Utah and USA Pro Cycling Challenge, I try and support those races. I went to the first Tour of California and I'm going to the first Colorado race."

See you on the start line, then, Cadel.

Editor's note: Anthony Tan will be filing video clips and regular blogs for Cycling Central throughout the USA Pro Cycling Challenge.

Follow Anthony on Twitter: @anthony_tan