Playing things out perfectly in the final kilometre, former USA road race champion George Hincapie hurtled to a strong stage victory on day three of the USA Pro Cycling Challenge in Aspen. The BMC Racing Team rider was one of six who went clear on the slippery descent of Independence Pass, with Tejay Van Garderen (HTC Highroad), Tom Danielson (Garmin-Cervélo), Eduard Alexander Beltran (EPM – UNE), Janier Alexis Acevedo (Gobernacion De Antioquia - Indeportes Antiquia) and Bruno Pires (Leopard Trek) also present.
With overnight race leader Levi Leipheimer in a group almost a minute back, Van Garderen knew that he was racing into the yellow jersey. He drove the pace to the line, putting aside thoughts of a stage victory in order to extract the biggest possible time advantage, and effectively gave fast-finisher Hincapie a perfect platform to sprint in first.
The 39 year old was a clear victor, netting his first win of the season, while Van Garderen, Danielson, Beltran, Acevedo and Pires finishing in the same time and in that order.
"It has been a while,” Hincapie said afterwards, referring to the fact that it is almost exactly two years since he last topped the podium, namely at the US Pro championships. “We had four guys at the top of the climb to help Cadel (Evans) come back, so I thought I might as well take a chance. It worked out perfectly,” he said.
“The whole team rode really, really super,” said directeur sportif Mike Sayers said. "Every single guy rode well and contributed today. And I'm sure Cadel wasn't disappointed he had someone up the road today to take the pressure off a bit.”
Once the break got clear, Leipheimer was driving the chase behind, along with the Rabobank team of Robert Gesink. They did what they could to reduce the gap but were a full 45 seconds back at the finish, where Tour de France champion Cadel Evans brought them home for seventh place.
The time gap plus the time bonuses handed Van Garderen the yellow jersey, as well as a 34 second advantage over past leader Leipheimer. The RadioShack rider was overtaken by two others in the break, with Hincapie and Danielson now second and third overall, sixteen and 22 seconds back respectively. Danielson’s team-mate Christian Vande Velde is fifth with Evans now sixth.
Tour de France runner-up Andy Schleck finished almost four minutes back and is now a distant 44th overall.
“Tejay rode great today," said HTC Highroad sport director Brian Holm after his rider received the yellow jersey. “He was strong enough to make a solid attack on that last climb, and he put us back in the lead as a team so it was a success."
"The attack on the climb, [Van Garderen] got away with Leipheimer (RadioShack) and a few others. When they got caught there was still time to make a move on the downhill to the finish. The downhill was fast but safe enough for an attack, and about six riders got away. Tejay had the right position to get the [leader's] jersey and he did.”
As expected, the stage saw an inevitable long-distance breakaway move which carried six riders clear early on. They were Danny Pate (HTC Highroad), Jeremy Powers (Jelly Belly), Sander Oostlander (Skil-Shimano), Walter Pedraza (EPM-UNE), Rafael Montiel (Gobernacion de Antioquia) and Andre Steensen (Saxo Bank Sungard), and the sextet worked well together to open a lead of several minutes.
Pedraza was first to Cottonwood Pass, while behind Alejandro Ramirez (Gobernacion de Antioquia) succeeded in bridging across with an impressive attack from the bunch. The break pressed onwards but a chase behind mean that all bar Steensen were hauled back.
The Saxo Bank SunGard rider finally cracked on the climb of Independence Pass. Near the top Van Garderen accelerated clear and quickly gained time over the rest of the peloton; Leipheimer and Vande Velde succeded in getting across, and reeled in lone leader Rafael Infantino (EPM-UNE) on the descent.
The wet conditions made things very tricky and on the way down the race order was shaken up, leading to the six man break, some flat-out racing and a new race leader.