Seventy delegates and a whole lot of momentum: That's what's at stake Tuesday when three states hold contests in the race for the Republican presidential nomination.

It's the first day so far this cycle with multiple contests and with a total of 70 delegates up for grabs in caucuses in Colorado and Minnesota, it's the largest haul yet in the race for the White House. While the two states won't officially award delegates Tuesday night (that will happen down the road at district and state conventions), the news media, including CNN, will use them to keep track of unofficial delegate counts.

Coming just days after big victories in Florida and Nevada for Mitt Romney, the two caucuses and a nonbinding primary in Missouri, where Newt Gingrich isn't on the ballot, offer Rick Santorum and Ron Paul opportunities to win delegates and grab some momentum.

For Romney, who's making his second bid for the GOP nomination, a sweep of the three contests would make the former Massachusetts governor's bid for the nomination seem even more unstoppable than it already feels to many.

Romney's campaign appears to see its best chance of victory in Colorado. He canceled stops in Minnesota scheduled for Monday to concentrate on Colorado, where he'll spend caucus night. Romney, who won big in the state's 2008 caucuses, has been working Colorado since last summer and arguably has the strongest structure in the state.