RadioShack rider beats Christian Vande Velde by less than a second to take uphill time trial; Van Garderen strong, but not strong enough to hold on
Levi Leipheimer (RadioShack) seized back the lead in the USA Pro Cycling Challenge on the 16.1km (10 mile) uphill time trial in Vail, Colorado. The 37-year-old rider broke the three-year-old record for the climb up to Vail Pass, set by Australian Ben Day back in June 2008, to take victory on the stage by less than a second over Christian Vande Velde (Garmin-Cervélo). Colombian Rafael Infantino (EPM-UNE) finshed third on the stage, just five seconds back.
Overnight race leader Tejay Van Garderen (HTC-Highroad) finished the course 51 seconds outside the time of Leipheimer and, since he started the stage just 34 seconds ahead of the RadioShack rider, he loses his yellow jersey after just one day.
Lanterne rouge Kai Applequist (Team Exergy) was the first rider down the ramp, finishing with a time of 28’56”; he was beaten almost immediately by teammate Sam Johnson, who lowered the best time to 28’43”.
Sander Oostlander (Skil-Shimano) went fifteen seconds faster a few riders later, with 28’28”, only to see Jason McCartney (RadioShack) smash his time by more than a minute. The 37-year-old Iowan set a mark of 27’26”, which was to stand for a long time.
Rabobank pair Laurens Ten Dam and Grischa Niermann were the closest to McCartney’s time, but were still 44 and 14 seconds behind. It was not until US champion Dave Zabriskie (Garmin-Cervélo) that the RadioShack rider was to be pushed off the top spot.
Zabriskie caught and passed both Allter Pedraza (UNE-EPM) and Juraj Sagan (Liquigas-Cannondale) midway up the climb, and was closing in on David Boily (Spidertech p/b C10) as he hit the line in 26’46”, forty seconds quicker than McCartney.
Jens Voigt (Leopard Trek) came close to overhauling Zabriskie, some half an hour later. The German veteran – the oldest man in the race – threw his bike at the line, but was agonisingly three seconds short of the lead, slipping into second place.
Rubens Bertogliati (Team Type 1-Sanofi-Aventis) finished 25 seconds behind Zabrikie to slot into third place, but the tailwind that had pushed the earlier starters was beginning to drop and it was beginning to look like the time set by ‘Captain America’ was going to be good enough to win.
As the leading riders were starting to roll down the ramp though, twentieth place overall Rafael Infantino (EPM-UNE) suddenly smashed Zabriskie’s time, finishing in 25’51” taking 56 seconds out of the champion of the United States and going just three seconds slower than Ben Day’s course record.
Tour de France winner Cadel Evans (BMC Racing) finished in 26’37”, marginally slower than Voigt, and 57 seconds behind Infantino. The next rider though was Vande Velde, who knocked the Colombian off the top step, going four seconds faster and breaking Day’s record by a little under a second.
Vande Velde’s time of 25’47” was immediately under threat though, with Leipheimer Matching the Garmin-Cervélo rider’s split times all the way up. The RadioShack rider sprinted the last few metres to the line to stop the clock in 25’47”, but was crucially just over half a second quicker
Having just seen the course record broken twice in just under two minutes, Tom Danielson (Garmin-Cervélo) finishing in 26’20” was almost an anticlimax; were it not for the fact that the 33-year-old had only decided to start the stage at the last minute, having been sick in the night.
Stage two winner George Hincapie (BMC Racing) crossed the line in 26’58”, losing his second place in the standings; overtaken by Leiphiemer, Vande Velde and Danielson. All that remained was to see whether Van Garderen could do enough to hold on to the yellow jersey.
Sady for the 23-year-old, his 34-second cushion over Leipheimer – nor his 45 second cushion to Vande Velde – was not to be enough. While his time of 26’38” was enough to earn him sixth on the stage, the HTC-Highroad rider slipped to third.