2008 Tour of Missouri Stage 3 Time Trial Photos
I will not bore you with my description of the race. I will simply state a few things that I can not go without saying.
The area is beautiful.
The course was incredibly hilly.
Some of the riders were amazingly fast.
This is something you should see in person!
Now, on with a few photos.
I will post up a few more later.
Photo 1: The uphill finish
Photo 2: Warming up/Pre-riding the course
Photo 3: The last part of the climb to the 1K flag
Photo 4: Brad Huff looking powerful
More Topography
This was a shot I took from the 500-meters-to-finish point. It has nothing to do with the race other than to show the lay of the land that the roads snake through. The hills around here are big and steep. Many of the riders opted to use traditional road bikes with clip on bars (surely, due to the amount of climbing on this TT).
You can see the course profile on the ToM site, but somehow it really did not seem to do this course justice.
Several riders opted to not even use clip on bars.
1.5 Km from the finish
These were some of the early riders (low on the GC), but I like the images because they give a feel for the topography that these riders were dealing/suffering with.
Can you see the suffering?
Look closer...he is coming around the corner entering the steeper section of the climb that just became visible to him.
Shifting gears getting ready for the climb.
Looking down the hill from the same point.
1.0 Km to Finish
A few more. Perhaps this first one does a better job of illustrating the steeper pitch in grade between 1.5 Km and 1.0 Km to finish.
This one is at about 600m from finish.
This photo shows the constant up and down as the riders approach the finish (note the 500m sign on the far left).
A few you may recognize
When some of the guys known for time trials were arriving at the 500m mark, I moved to the inside of the curve and sat in the ditch. The fastest of the fast would cut the corner within inches of the edge of the road.
You may recognize some of these guys.
I wish I could have recorded the sounds of the tires as they powered through this curve.