Janier Acevedo (Jamis) continued his strong showing in the biggest North American stage races when he won today's queen stage of the USA Pro Challenge. Having crested the summit of the day's biggest climb with Tejay Van Garderen (BMC) and Tom Danielson (Garmin-Sharp), the Colombian combined forces with the BMC captain to distance their Garmin rival on the descent, and those two agreed to let Acevedo take the stage win while Van Garderen took over the leader's jersey.

Janier Acevedo has been a force to be reckoned with in the biggest North American stage races this season. In May's Tour of California, he won the first big mountain stage, led the race for several days and ultimately finished 3rd while he went on to take a similar overall result in the Tour of Utah.

Today he continued his strong showing and once again made the biggest teams aware of his talents when he won the queen stage of the final of USA's big stage races, the USA Pro Challenge in Colorado. Once again the Colombian used his fabulous climbing skills to distance most of the world elite.

Hard pace on the day's major climb up Bachelor Gulp set by Tom Danielson had whittled the peloton down to just Acevedo, Van Garderen and the Garmin rider himself when they crested the summit of the day's biggest challenge. As rain started to fall on the descent, Danielson stayed safe as they headed downhill and was unable to keep up with his rivals.

With Danielson left behind, Van Garderen eyed the overall lead and so reached an agreement with Acevedo. If the Colombian contributed to the pace-setting, he would be allowed to take the stage win.

The duo worked well together all the way up the final little kicker to the finish.  van Garderen kept his word and allowed the Jamis rider to cross the line first while the BMC leader took over the lead.

van Garderen's teammate Mathias Frank had bridged across to Danielson on the descent and the Swiss made a late attack to close the gap to the leaders to just 13 seconds. That allowed him to keep his 2nd place on GC, now 4 seconds behind teammate van Garderen.

The American race leader takes that narrow lead into tomorrow's decisive 16,1km mountain time trial in Vail which will finalize the GC ahead of two weekend stages for the sprinters.

Froome on the attack

The 165,6km 4th stage was the race's queen stage. A rolling start with plenty of small climbs and three categorized climbs preceded the exciting finale with the steep Bachelor Gulch 12km from the finish, its difficult decent and the final small kicker to the line at a ski resort.

The stage was off to a fast start and the first move was launched by two very notable riders. Andy Schleck (Radioshack) and Chris Froome (Sky) set off to form a very strong duo while Kirk Carlsen (Bissel) bridged across after a long chase. Kevin De Mesmaeker (Novo Nordisk) also tried to join the move but the Belgian was unsuccessful and got caught by the peloton.

The day's move is formed

That ended up not being a big thing for the Novo Nordisk rider as the break was brought back a little later. Instead, Andreas Klöden (Radioshack), Danny Pate (Sky), Lawrence Warbasse (BMC), Chris Jones (UnitedHealthcare), Luis Amaran (Jamis), KOM leader Matt Cooke (Jamis), Simon Geschke (Argos), Nic Hamilon (Jelly Belly) and Anders Lund (Saxo-Tinkoff) got clear.

Klöden fell off the pace and a further reshuffling took place a little later. Pate, Warbasse and Cooke continued their attack and were joined by Kanstantsin Siutsou (Sky), Tony Gallopin (Radioshack), Davide Villella (Cannondale), Sergei Tvetchov (Jelly Belly), Michael Rogers and Timothy Duggan (both Saxo-Tinkoff) to form the day's early 9-rider break.

McCartney bridges across

Race leader Lachlan Morton took a natural break to signal that this was the escape of the day but Jason McCartney (Bissell) refused to give up. The American veteran set off in pursuit on his own and faced an almost impossible task of closing the gap.

McCartney was plagued by bad luck and had to deal with two mechanicals but nonetheless his efforts were not in vain as he made it across to the leaders. Behind Garmin started to control the pace and they kept a stable 4-5-minute gap for most of the day.

Cooke takes KOM points

Cooke fulfilled his mission when he crested the summit of the two first climb in first position and so solidified his lead in the KOM competition. The breakaway cooperated well but with Gallopin being only 41 seconds down on GC, they faced a difficult mission.

As they approached the day's main climb up Bachelor Gulch, the gap had come down to less than 3 minutes as Rohan Dennis and David Millar (Garmin) had now upped the pace in the peloton. Siutsou decided to attack on his own and only Gallopin, Rogers, Villella and Warbasse were able to respond. Pate and McCartney were the first to get caught by the peloton, Duggan followed a little later and finally it was also over for Cooke and Tvetchov.

More teams start to chase

The 5 escapees built the gap back up to 4 minutes but Jamis and BMC now decided to join forces with Garmin-Sharp. Brent Bookwalter, David Zabriskie, Ben Jacques-Maynes and Thomas Dekker were some of the riders who set a furious pace on the run-in to the final climb.

Rogers launched an attack on the lower slopes but Warbasse managed to claw his way back up. Gallopin and Villella also returned to the front while Siutsou fell back  into the peloton. However, Rogers refused to give up and when he launched his second move, no one was able to match his speed.

The peloton splits to pieces

In the peloton, BMC set the tempo on the lower slopes with Stephen Cummings doing the early work. Next up was Andrew Talansky (Garmin) and he was replaced on the front by Greg Van Avermaet as BMC and Garmin were both eager to apply the pressure.

Colombia showed their intentions by upping the peloton a further notch before leaving it to defending champion Christian Vande Velde to give it his all. When he finished his job, yellow jersey wearer Lachlan Morton showed that it was all for Danielson today as he was the next rider to set a furious pace.

A small group of favourites

His hard work had an immediate effect as the peloton now only consisted of Morton, Danielson, van Garderen, Frank, Damiano Caruso (Cannondale), Acevedo, Darwin Atapuma (Colombia), George Bennett (Radioshack) and Josh Edmondson (Sky).

When Morton had finally used up his last bit of energy, Danielson finally accelerated himself. He gradually dropped most of his rivals until he only had van Gaderen, Frank and Acevedo for company.

Acevedo attacks

Acevedo tried to attack but Danielson's hard pace made it impossible to escape. The quartet made it up to Rogers who did a good job to hang on for a little while before finally getting dropped.

Close to the top Frank fell off the pace while Acevedo was clearly in difficulty. He dug deep to make it over the top in the front group and immediately moved to the front to accelerate on the descent.

Danielson is dropped

That was too much for Danielson who was uncomfortable on the wet roads, and Acevedo and van Gaderen gradually opened up a big gap on their chaser. Frank showed his outstanding descending skills by getting back up to Danielson but played the loyal teammate by staying in his wheel all the way down the descent.

Acevedo and van Garderen had a small chat and when the cooperated perfectly on the final small ramp to the finish, it was clear that they had reached an agreement. Acevedo was allowed to take the win while van Garderen was highly satisfied with his new position as race leader.

Frank made a strong acceleration on the final climb to finish 3rd while Danielson crossed the line with a 22-second time loss. Gregory Brenes (Champion System) had escaped the chase group that had formed and the Costa Rican took 5th. Caruso won the sprint for 6th on what shaped up to be a crucial day in Colorado and set up a tense battle in tomorrow's time trial.

Result:

1. Janier Acevedo 4.09.08

2. Tejay van Garderen

3. Mathias Frank +0.13

4. Tom Danielson +0.22

5. Gregory Brenes +1.07

6. Damiano Caruso +1.28

7. Josh Edmondson

8. Lachlan Morton

9. Michael Schär

10. Darwin Atapuma

General classification:

1. Tejay van Garderen 15.44.59

2. Mathias Frank +0.04

3. Janier Acevedo +0.30

4. Tom Danielson +0.40

5. Lachlan Morton +1.17

6. Gregory Brenes +1.37

7. Darwin Atapuma +1.52

8. Damiano Caruso +1.58

9. Rory Sutherland

10. Lucas Euser