USA Cycling Pro Challenge roster for Colorado bike race

levi Leipheimer

It was probably never in doubt, but just for the record Levi Leipheimer is returning to defend his title in the second annual USA Cycling Pro Challenge scheduled for Aug. 20-26 in Colorado.

This week, he’s battling to defend his championship at the Tour of Utah, which ends Sunday. (Rory Sutherland of the UnitedHealthCare team won Stage 1 on Tuesday.)

Organizers on Wednesday released the tentative team rosters, which include six of the top 13 finishers at this year’s Tour de France as well as last year’s champion, Cadel Evans.

Those top Tour de France finishers are No. 3 – Vincenzo Nibali (ITA) of Liquigas-Cannondale; No. 5 – Tejay Van Garderen (USA) of BMC Racing; No. 7 –  Cadel Evans (AUS) of BMC Racing Team; No. 9 – Janez Brajkovic (SLO) from Astana Pro Team; No. 11 – Andreas Kloden (GER) and No. 13 – Chris Horner (USA), both from the RadioShack-Nissan-Trek team.

This year’s 7-stage race course covers 683 miles with 42,000 feet of climbing; the peloton will cross three mountain passes above the 12,000-foot elevation level.

Here are the stages:

Monday, Aug. 20 — Stage 1: Durango to Telluride
Tuesday, Aug. 21 — Stage 2: Montrose to Crested Butte/Mt. Crested Butte
Wednesday, Aug. 22 — Stage 3: Gunnison to Aspen
Thursday, Aug. 23 — Stage 4: Aspen to Beaver Creek/Vail Valley
Friday, Aug. 24 — Stage 5: Breckenridge to Colorado Springs
Saturday, Aug. 25 — Stage 6: Golden to Boulder
Sunday, Aug. 26 — Stage 7 (ITT): Denver

The current roster as provided by USA Cycling Pro Challenge

UCI ProTeams

1. Astana Pro Team (KAZ)

• Janez Brajkovic (SLO)
• Sergey  Renev (KAZ)
• Tanel Kangert (EST)
• Robert  Kiserlovski (CRO)
• Dimitriy Muravyev (KAZ)
• Yevgeniy Nepomnyachshiy (KAZ)
• Evgeny Petrov (RUS)
• Fabio Aru (ITA)

2. BMC Racing Team (USA)

• Cadel Evans (AUS)
• Mathias Frank (SUI)
• Ivan Santaromita (ITA)
• Michael Schär    (SUI)
• Johann Tschopp (SUI)
• Taylor Phinney (USA)
• George Hincapie (USA)
• Tejay Van Garderen (USA)

3. Garmin-Sharp-Barracuda (USA)

• Thomas Danielson (USA)
• Tyler Farrar (USA)
• Nathan Haas (AUS)
• Alex Howes (USA)
• Peter Stetina (USA)
• Christian Vandevelde (USA)
• David Zabriskie (USA)
• Lachlan David     Morton (AUS)

4. Liquigas-Cannondale (ITA)

• Timothy Duggan (USA)
• Valerio  Agnoli (ITA)
• Damiano Caruso (ITA)
• Edward King (USA)
• Paolo Longo Borghini (ITA)
• Vincenzo Nibali (ITA)
• Ivan Basso (ITA)
• Moreno Moser (ITA)

5. Omega Pharma-QuickStep (BEL)

• Levi Leipheimer (USA)
• Martin Velits (SVK)
• Peter Velits (SVK)
• Matt Brammeier (IRL)
• Jeroen Hoorne (BEL)
• Francesco Chicchi (ITA)

6. RadioShack-Nissan-Trek (LUX)

• Christopher Horner (USA)
• Jakob Fuglsang (DEN)
• Andy Schleck (LUX)
• Benjamin King (USA)
• Andreas Kloden (GER)
• Thomas Rohregger (AUT)
• Jens Voigt (GER)
• Oliver Zaugg (SUI)

UCI Professional Continental Teams

7. Champion System Pro Cycling Team (CHN)

• Craig Lewis (USA)
• Chris Butler  (USA)
• Matthias Friedmann (GER)
• Pengda Jiao (CHN)
• Biao Liu (CHN)
• Aaron Kemps (AUS)
• Cameron Wurf (AUS)
• Gang Xu (CHN)

8. RusVelo (RUS)

• Matvey                Zubov (RUS)
• Ivan Rovny (RUS)
• Dmitry Kozontchuk (RUS)
• Artem Ovechkin (RUS)
• Sergey  Firsanov (RUS)
• Arkimedes Arguelyes Rodriges (RUS)
• Alexander Mironov (RUS)
• Sergey Klimov (RUS)

9. Team SpiderTech powered by C10 (CAN)

• David Boily (CAN)
• Flavio de Luna (MEX)
• Lucas Euser (USA)
• Caleb Fairly (USA)
• Hugo Houle (CAN)
• Ryan Roth (CAN)
• Zachary Bell (CAN)
• Brian Vandborg (DEN)

10. Team Type 1-SANOFI (USA)

• Kiel Reijnen (USA)
• Alexander Efimkin (RUS)
• Julien El Fares (FRA)
• Javier Megias Leal (ESP)
• Georg Preidler (AUT)
• Rubens Bertogliati (SUI)
• Alessandro Bazzana (ITA)
• Daniele Colli (ITA)

11. UnitedHealthcare Pro Cycling Team (USA)

• Rory Sutherland (AUS)
• Karl Menzies (AUS)
• Philip Deignan (IRL)
• Robert Forster (GER)
• Jacobe Keough (USA)
• Benjamin Day (AUS)
• Christopher Jones (USA)
• Jeffry Louder (USA)

UCI Continental Teams

12. Bissell Pro Cycling (USA)

• Christopher Baldwin (USA)
• Jeremy Vennell (NZL)
• Ben Jacques-Maynes (USA)
• Carter   Jones (USA)
• Frank Kevin Pipp (USA)
• Eric Young (USA)
• Julian Kyer (USA)
• Joseph Schmalz (USA)

13. Bontrager Livestrong Team (USA)

• Joshua  Atkins (NZL)
• Charlie  Avis (USA)
• Lawson Craddock (USA)
• Joseph Lloyd Dombrowski (USA)
• Ryan Eastman (USA)
• Connor O’Leary (USA)
• James Oram (NZL)
• Gavin Mannion (USA)

14. EPM-UNE (COL)

• Rafael Infantino Abreu (COL)
• Giovanni Manuel Baez Alvarez (COL)
• Francisco Jarley Colorado Hernandez (COL)
• Ramiro Rincon Diaz (COL)
• Robigzon Leandro Oyola Oyola (COL)
• Freddy Orlando Piamonte Rodriguez (COL)
• Eduard Alexander Beltran Suarez (COL)
• Javier Eduardo Gomez Pineda (COL)

15. Optum Pro Cycling p/b Kelly Benefit Strategies (USA)

• Jesse Anthony (USA)
• Andrew Bajadali (USA)
• Alexander Candelario (USA)
• Michael Creed (USA)
• Tom Zirbel (USA)
• Sebastian Salas (CAN)
• Marsh Cooper (CAN)
• Michael Friedman (USA)

16. Team Exergy (USA)

• Kirk Carlsen (USA)
• Andres Diaz Corrales (COL)
• Mathew Cooke (USA)
• Noe Gianetti (SUI)
• Morgan Schnitt (USA)
• Fred Rodriguez (USA)
• Serghei Tvetcov (MOL)
• Sam Johnson (USA)