VAIL — As a five-time Olympic gold medalist in speed skating who later turned to road cycling, competing in the Giro d’Italia and the Tour de France, Eric Heiden knows what makes a great endurance athlete. He sees those qualities clearly in Tejay van Garderen, who seemingly put a stranglehold on the USA Pro Challenge on Saturday with a spectacular time-trial performance on Vail Pass.
“When you look at the ingredients of what makes a good endurance athlete, one, you’ve got to have the genetics,” said Heiden , a hero of the 1980 Lake Placid Olympics, a team physician for van Garderen’s BMC Racing and a member of the U.S. Bicycling Hall of Fame. “You’ve got to have that physiologic ability. Also you have to have a good mental toughness. Sometimes that combination is hard to get.
“Tejay is one of those guys that’s got the physiology, and he’s also got that mental toughness.”
Van Garderen showcased both Saturday in a rainy climb up Vail Pass. Beginning the day with a somewhat tenuous 20-second lead in the overall standings, the Aspen resident obliterated the course record he set last year by 37 seconds and will take a lead of 1:32 into Sunday’s final stage from Boulder to Denver via Golden and Lookout Mountain. He is now the prohibitive favorite to repeat as Pro Challenge champion.
PHOTOS: USA Pro Challenge 2014, Stage 6
“I love coming here and racing in Colorado,” van Garderen said. “This race really is one of the highest-class races in the world. To win it for the second time, that’s no easy feat. I’m really honored.”
Former Boulder resident Tom Danielson, second in the overall standings, was struck by van Garderen’s toughness Friday when the peloton rode through South Park and over Hoosier Pass to Breckenridge in persistent cold rain.
“I can’t see anyone in the world beating him here,” said Danielson, second in Saturday’s stage. “Just looking at his face (Friday), we were shivering and hypothermic and I looked over at him and he was having a good time — or at least looked like it.
“It’s just a really credible result when you stand next to the guy that finished fifth in the Tour de France and one of the best riders in the world.”
Despite multiple crashes at the Tour de France, van Garderen was in contention for a podium finish until he had a horrible day in the Pyrenees on Stage 16. Finishing in the top three was out of the question, but he fought back to finish fifth for the second time in three years.
“He had so many problems, so many reasons to give up and quit, so many excuses to bail out of that dream of finishing on the podium,” Danielson said. “And he should have finished on the podium. To fight for the top five and get that, that was pretty impressive.”
Van Garderen may be on the verge of becoming a superstar, but teammate Michael Schaer said he is “uncomplicated” and easy going.
“When we go to the dinner table, he is one of us,” Schaer said. “He’s not a superstar; he’s really a kind person. We have a good time all the time. We can joke with him.”
Van Garderen is only 26, in a sport in which athletes peak in their late 20s and early 30s. People around the sport talk about how he is maturing.
“He’s always been a talented kid,” said retired racer Christian Vande Velde. “Now with maturity and experience, you can use all that talent the way it should be.”
Vande Velde senses it from the outside. Heiden sees it at work within the team.
“The thing I’ve really been impressed with is his leadership abilities these last couple of years,” Heiden said. “I look at him voicing his opinion as a leader and having the respect of the rest of the riders on the team and the rest of the riders in the peloton.”
Van Garderen also is benefiting from an accumulation of experience that figures to make him a contender in the Tour de France for years to come, along with his development as an endurance athlete.
“If you’ve done the Tour de France multiple times, very often you realize you’re going over the same climbs so you know what to expect,” Heiden said. “The other thing is age. Usually you come into your physiologic prime for endurance sports in your late 20s, early 30s. He’s now coming into that.”
John Meyer: 303-954-1616, jmeyer@denverpost.com or twitter.com/johnmeyer
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.
