The Tour of Utah, called America's Toughest Stage Race, was held August 11 through 14. It is gaining a lot of respect, especially this year, among the world of bike racers. This race is followed by the USA Pro Cycling Challenge in Colorado, where Cadel Evans (Tour de Fance winner this year), George Hincapie, and Levi Leipheimer will race. Cadel Evans came to Snowbird to watch the final stage of the Tour of Utah.
On Saturday, Chieko and I wanted to walk around Cascade Springs off the Alpine Loop, but we also wanted to see the fourth stage circuit race making 11 loops around Capitol Hill.
I talked Chieko into going to Cascade Springs first. We ate lunch in the little gazebo along with several other people who thought they were going to have a picnic there, but Cascade Springs doesn't have accommodations for picnicking--to protect the vegetation and water. Then we took the dirt road over the mountain to Soldier Hollow, Midway, Heber and back to Salt Lake. We arrived in Salt Lake around 3:45 and figured the race would be over but decided to drive up to the capitol to see if we could see the podium ceremonies, or anything. We got off I-15 at 600 North and took the back way to the capitol, pulling right up to the finish line. I dropped off Chieko and then spotted a parking place just a few feet away.
So we stood right above the finish line. The racers did 11 loops up the hill, down City Creek Canyon and around the Avenues. I think they did about 90 miles total. We arrived at the finish line just in time to see that last two loops. This is the stage winner, Javier Alexis Acevedo Colle of the team Gobernacion Indeportes Antioquia.
Levi Leipheimer of Team Radio Shack finished the stage 30th but was still 23 seconds ahead of overall second-place Sergio Luis Henao to retain the Yellow Jersey.
On Sunday, I snuck out of a church meeting just a little early and headed up Little Cottonwood Canyon to watch the last climb of the last stage of the race, which started at Kimball Junction and ran through Park City, Kamas, Midway, Provo Canyon, Alpine Loop, American Fork Canyon, Traverse Ridge, and up to Snowbird. This is the race helicopter that fed live video to TV and online.
The lead riders are Sergio Luis Henao of the team Columbia and Levi Leipheimer of Team Radio Shack. Sergio needed to gain more than 23 seconds on Levi. He made several attacks on this mountain, which open a huge gap between these two and the rest of the racers, but he just could not shake Leipheimer. But we were cheering for Leipheimer, so all was good.
Levi Leipheimer, who would finish the Tour of Utah in the number-one spot with Sergio finishing number two.
On the left is Janez Brajkovic from Slovania. He is also on Team Radio Shack and finished the Tour of Utah number three overall.
At this point, Levi Leipheimer is looking back to see how close the next riders are. Although there are a few breakaway riders, the peloton is a full 22 minutes behind him and Sergio.
This is the peloton.
The peloton riders.
The next several pictures show the various stages of determination, desperation, and pain of the riders.
These are the last two riders, but they still finished.
It's really just spring up here. And it will probably be winter before summer arrives. 
This is a pair of hikers nearing the summit of Bald Mountain. From here it's just one last climb, a narrow crossing, and up some tall rock steps to the top. 
This is my favorite picture of the day. Five Utah Rocky Mountain goats were hanging out on the east-side ledges almost directly above Moosehorn Lake, which you can't see in this picture. What you can see in the background is Mirror Lake, and with good binoculars the goats could probably be seen from there. I assume this is the big-daddy goat, who gets first pick of ledges for his afternoon nap. 
Looking west from near the top of Bald Mountain. The Uintas have 1,000 lakes and ponds, according to Wikipedia. 
A bag of chips swells pretty big at almost 12,000 feet. 
On the way down the trail, I see the goats are still lazying around the ledges. 
A few thunderclouds were hanging around and blocking the sun from time to time (the only lightning I saw was on Hayden Peak, across the canyon). I waited until the sun poked out on the daddy goat while the Mirror Lake campground stayed in the shaded background to get this picture. 
