Tom Danielson managed to repeat his last year’s success to win the Larry H. Miller Tour of Utah for a second consecutive season, but the Garmin-Sharp rider admitted that a title defense was nothing like a walk in a part for him due to increased pressure and more demanding route. After defying all odds, however, the 36-year old American aims to continue in the same line in another stage race held on his home soil, the USA Pro Challenge.

Danielson admitted that while his last year’s victory was only a consequence of his good disposition carried out from the Tour de France combined with a right timing and some amount of luck, the title defense was nothing like this. The Garmin-Sharp rider took the lead in the race after its fourth stage and from that point, his team-mates were forced to control the happenings on the demanding route of Americas toughest stage event.

"Last year we had Lachlan [Morton] in the race leaders' jersey," Danielson said.

"I was coming off the Tour de France, so I was a bit of an unknown. I just ended up being pretty strong on the Snowbird day, and then it was like, 'Hey, maybe you can win the race if you go bananas on the Empire climb. If it works, it works and if it doesn't, it doesn't.”

"This year coming in I knew I was in good form," Danielson said. "I put my hand up and said, 'I want to win this race.' So there was a lot more pressure, and it was a lot harder on the team. You could say we had a much younger, less experienced team, too, with a lot of kinks along the way — illness and crashes and stuff like that. But everybody performed above and beyond this week. So it was the least I could do — perform well on my end."

"The new Powder Mountain stage was super hard, and the Snowbird stage — with the additional two climbs — was very hard," Danielson said. "So yeah, much harder. But the field was arguably stronger as well, and that made much more aggressive racing. You saw all those big groups and lots of chasing. I don't think we stopped and chatted much this year. Maybe today was the first time we stopped for a pee, and it was like, 'Whoa, guys, that was crazy. Did we just go 45km in 45 minutes?' It's been pretty fast."

Inspired by the successful title defense in Utah, Danielson turns his attention to one of his biggest goals of the 2014 season, the USA Pro Challenge. The 36-year old American acknowledges, however, that a route of the race held in Colorado favors a local hero Tejay van Garderen (BMC Racing) more, especially in regards to an uphill individual time trial, and so it will be very difficult to claim a second overall victory in a row.

"I wish we were doing the same climbs in Colorado as we did here," he said. "That's the problem. Obviously my form is really good. If we had the same climbs and the same scenario, I think I'd have a really good shot. But obviously Colorado is a little bit more difficult race to win because of the shallower climbs and the lack of climbs, so I'm not taking anything for granted. I'll show up there with good condition and do the best I can."

"I've been training on my time trial bike for that uphill time trial," Danielson said. "But we all know Tejay lit us up last year, so he's obviously the favorite. I'm going to enjoy my victory here and worry about Colorado when I get there."