VAIL — If there were any lingering doubts about whether Tejay van Garderen could defend his USA Pro Challenge title, he settled them at Saturday’s historic 10-mile individual time trial up Vail Pass.
Under dark skies and a steady, frigid rain, van Garderen blasted away his own record by an astonishing 37 seconds, aided by a stiff tail wind in Stage 6 of the Pro Challenge to finish in 24 minutes, 26.5 seconds and virtually solidify himself as the overall race winner.
“I really tried to stay cautious in the first half,” he said. “That definitely came from some experience and just knowing how to judge my effort at that altitude and on this course.”
In his third attempt, van Garderen seems to have finally nailed the pacing on the course — which begins relatively flat, then ascends steeply for the final 3 miles. The first year, he raced out too hard, crumbled on the climb, and lost the yellow jersey. Last year, he was up 30 seconds at the intermediate split, but only four seconds ahead at the finish.
“This year I felt powerful all the way through,” he said.
PHOTOS: USA Pro Challenge 2014, Stage 6
For a brief moment, the spotlight shone on Tom Danielson. The 36-year-old cyclist for Boulder-based Team Garmin-Sharp, who was left off the Tour de France team this year, rode the best time trial of his season in 25:19.26, eclipsing his previous best up the pass by 45 seconds.
“For a moment there, I saw my time and thought, ‘Oh, maybe I won.’ And then superman over here just came flying through,” Danielson said, referring to van Garderen. “But he’s the best guy in the race, so to be second to him is a real big honor.”
Van Garderen followed two riders later, and Danielson was bumped to second on the stage, still 15 seconds faster than third-place finisher Serghei Tvetcov of Jelly Belly.
“He was great,” said Jonathan Vaughters, manager of Team Garmin-Sharp. “Just not enough. But still, for a 36-year-old guy, pretty impressive.”
Danielson’s effort relieved him of a heavy burden. His result still wouldn’t have topped van Garderen’s 25:01.94 record from last year, but it nevertheless catapulted him from fourth to second in the overall race standings, 1:32 back from van Garderen heading into Sunday’s final stage from Boulder to Denver.
“I was definitely a little bit insecure,” Danielson said. “I haven’t done a good time trial yet this year. Although I’ve trained a lot the last months on that bike, I got to think back to my last time trial at the Tour of Switzerland, where I finished pretty far back. So it’s nice to get that monkey off my back. Once I got out there, I felt really strong and enjoyed it. And the crowd was just incredible.”
Danielson — who this month won the Tour of Utah behind support from his team — appeared the most relaxed he’s been all week, cracking jokes in the post-race news conference.
“The last 500 meters of the race were absolutely insane. I mean, I thought I was going to crash. I was in so much pain at that moment … crashing sounded like a good option,” Danielson said. “Because I saw how far the finish line still was, and was like, ‘Well, I could stop right now. All this pain could stop this moment. I just gotta hit this guy in the banana suit right here.’
“He got out of the way, so I had to go the distance.”
If all goes as expected — with no one near the overall lead attacking off the front Sunday — van Garderen will claim his second consecutive Pro Challenge.
His squad, BMC Racing, which will be riding to protect his lead, is also expected to claim its second straight team title. It holds a 35-second advantage over Tinkoff-Saxo and a 1:15 lead over Garmin-Sharp heading into Sunday.
Daniel Petty: 303-954-1081, dpetty@denverpost.com or twitter.com/danielpetty
USA Pro Challenge in review
Stage 1, Aspen-Snowmass circuit, 61 miles: Two Boulder riders who are friends and training partners finished inches apart to lead the way. Kiel Reijnen (UnitedHealthcare) edged Golden native Alex Howes (Garmin-Sharp) for the win.
Stage 2, Aspen-Crested Butte, 105 miles: Unheralded Robin Carpenter (Hincapie Sportswear Development) won but Howes took the yellow jersey with another second-place finish, this one by seven seconds.
Stage 3, Gunnison-Monarch Mountain, 96 miles: Aspen’s Tejay van Garderen (BMC Racing), the prerace favorite, launched an explosive burst with 1 kilometer to go and won the stage just ahead of Rafal Majka (Tinkoff-Saxo), claiming the yellow jersey with a lead of 20 seconds.
Stage 4, Colorado Springs circuit stage, 70 miles: The overall standings remained unchanged on a day made by 42-year-old Jens Voigt (Trek), who nearly pulled off the stage win. The people’s favorite, he faltered with 800 meters to go, and the win went to Elia Viviani (Cannondale).
Stage 5, Woodland Park-Breckenridge, 104 miles: In another day of negligible movement in the overall standings but miserable conditions because of rain and cold, Laurent Didier (Trek) won a three-rider sprint to the line.
Stage 6, Vail time trial, 10 miles: Van Garderen broke the course record he set last year and expanded his lead in the overall standings from 20 seconds to 1:32, a commanding advantage going into Sunday’s final Boulder-Denver stage.
