After impressive performances in the first stages, Rohan Dennis (BMC) confirmed that he is the strongest rider in the USA Pro Challenge when he won the fourth stage and rode himself into the race lead. After no one had been able to match his pace on the Moonstone climb, he descended solo to the finish in Breckenridge before his teammate Brent Bookwalter made it a 1-2 for BMC by beating Rob Squire (Hincapie) in a two-rider sprint. Dennis also takes the overall lead with a 13-second advantage over Bookwalter.

 

Going into the USA Pro Challenge, Rohan Dennis claimed that he was a bit in the unknown as he didn’t know how he would handle the altitude. He even claimed that he would probably feel terrible and that the time trial would be his main goal.

 

However, already in the first stage, it was evident that he was flying. The Australian was in lots of attacks and was part of a two-rider move that nearly denied the sprinters. One day later he single-handedly set the pace for the entire final climb in the only summit finish before reaching the top in second behind his teammate Brent Bookwalter and yesterday he again rode on the front into a strong headwind on the Independence Pass.

 

Today Dennis was back in pace-setting mode when he hit the front on the 1.6km Moonstone climb that summited just 3.9km from the finish of stage 4. This time no one was able to keep up with him and the Australian rode away to take a solo victory and firmly confirm his status as the overwhelming favourite.

 

Taylor Phinney set a fast pace for BMC as a 60-rider peloton approached the final climb and it was a Unitedhalthcare rider that took over when the road started to point upwards. His fast pace briefly created a gap behind Phinney but the GC riders were quick to bring the dup back.

 

Phinney again tok over the pace-setting and made the group explode to pieces. With 5km to go, only 10 riders had managed to stay with him and at this point he swung off.

 

Rob Britton (Smartstop) made an immediate attack but it was the move from Rob Squire (Hincapie) that worked. He got a small gap before Rohan Dennis started to set his usual brutal pace for BMC.

 

Dennis, Brent Bookwalter, Davide Formolo, Britton, Hugh Carthy, Jaimor Roson and Lachlan Morton were among the final riders to stay in the group before Dennis upped the pace a further notch. Suddenly, Britton, Formolo and Bookwalter were the only riders left and it didn’t take long for the former to crack.

 

Finally, Bookwalter and Formolo also had to surrender and Dennis didn’t even look back as he powered past a very strong Squire. He reached the summit with an advantage of a few seconds over Squire and immediately went into time trial mode as he sped down the descent. Meanwhile, Bookwalter had dropped Formolo and was now in lone pursuit behind Squire.

 

Bookwalter made it back to Squire while a 10-15-rider group formed a little further back. With the yellow jersey doing nothing to chase down his teammate, the chasing duo never got closer to Dennis who held them off for a solo win. Bookwalter jumped a few metres from the line to take second 19 seconds behind with Squire taking third. Jonathan Clarke (Unitedhealthcare) won the sprint for fourth four seconds later.

 

With the win, Dennis takes the overall lead with a 13-second advantage over Bookwalter and now faces just one GC test in the remaining part of the race. Tomorrow the riders will tackle the decisive 13.5km time trial which is mostly flat but includes a late climb before it descends to the finish. With the final two stages suiting the sprinters, it is likely to decide the outcome of the race.

 

A tough climbing stage

After yesterday’s tough stage, there was even more climbing in store on stage 4 which brought the riders over 202.5km from Aspen to Breckenridge. Right from the start, the riders went up the category 1 Independence Pass before they faced a long descent to the midpoint of the stage. Then the road was gradually uphill for more than 70km until the riders reached the top of the Hoosier Pass with 23.6km to go. The final part was manly descending but the 1.6km climb of Moonstone Road loomed as a final challenge just 3.9km from the finish from where the riders descended to a flat finale.

 

It was another great day for a bike race when the riders gathered for the start of the longest stage of the race. All riders who finished yesterday’s stage were present as they rolled out for their neutral ride.

 

Lots of attacks

With the tough start, it was no surprise that the race got off to a fast start with attacks flying off the front as they hit the Independence Pass. Riders were getting dropped before a 30-rider group suddenly got off the front. From that group Janier Acevedo (Cannondale) and Laurent Didier (Trek) emerged and they were joined by Roman Kreuziger (Tinkoff-Saxo) and Phil Gaimon (Optum) when they had an advantage of 20 seconds.

 

BMC set the tempo in the peloton but were unable to prevent Daniel Jaramillo (Jamis) from bridging the gap. However, it was all in vain ad it was all back together after 16km if racing when 42 riders had been dropped.

 

Kreuziger still offensive

Kreuziger, Didier and Kyle Murphy (Caja Rural) were the next riders to take off as the fast pace meant that the group split into four. Michael Torckler (Budget Forklifts) and Nate Brown (Cannondale) tried to bridge the gap but only the former made the junction.

 

The gap went out to 40 seconds before Acevedo, Chris Jones (Unitedhealthcare), Damiano Caruso (BMC), Gaimon and Oscar Clark (Hincapie) tried to bridge the gap. Meanwhile, Kreuziger and Murphy dropped Didier and Tockler who were caught by the five chasers. Toms Skujins (Hincapie) tried to join them.

 

A five-rider break

Murphy dropped Kreuziger as they approached the summit while Gaimon managed to join the Czech. Murphy was first across the line followed by Gaimon and Kreuziger while Didier, Caruso and Clark were the only surviving member from the chase group at that point. Jonny Clarke (Unitedhealthcare), Rohan Dennis (BMC), Brent Bookwalter (BMC) and Michael Schär (BMC) were first from the peloton. At the top, Jaramillo went down in a crash but he was quickly back on his bike.

 

Kreuziger was the first rider to catch Murphy on the descent before Gaimon, Clark and Caruso also made the junction. Didier fell back to the peloton which was just 50 seconds behind with 160km to go.

 

Cannondale take control

The gap slowly went out to 3 minutes with 140km to go while a regrouping took place in the peloton. While Ivan Rovny (Tinkoff-Saxo) left the race, it even went out to 4.15 before BMC and Smartstop started to control the situation.

 

Gaimon led Murphy and Kreuziger across the line in the first intermediate sprint where Cannondale took control of the peloton and started to bring the break back. Meanwhile, Julian Arredondo (Trek) and Danny Summerhill (Unitedhealthcare) rejoined the peloton after a small crash.

 

Crosswinds action

With 78km to go, Cannondale had brought the gap down to 2.50 but as the again slowed down it was 4.25 15km later. That gave Murphy plenty of time to solve a small mechanical problem.

 

With 60km to go, the riders hit a windy section and this was the opportunity for Cannondale to attack. The peloton got extremely nervous and riders were getting dropped as Drapac, Trek and Drapac also took turns on the front.

 

Clark takes off

As a consequence, the gap melted away and it was down to just 30 seconds with 45km to go. Here the peloton calmed down again and so the gap went out to 50 seconds again. Cannondale took control of the situation but as they were not really chasing Wojciech Migdal (Cycling Academy) made an unsuccessful attempt to join bridge the gap.

 

The Pole quickly realized that it was mission impossible as Jelly Belly started to chase with Taylor Shelden who started to slowly bring the break back as they approached the summit of Hoosier Pass. With 30km to go, Clark realized that something had to be done and so he attacked, with Caruso staying with him.

 

The break is caught

Kreuziger and Gaimon sat up while Murphy tried to join the leader but it was impossible to keep the peloton at bay. As the road got steeper, Clark fell off the pace but 5km from the top, it was over for all the escapees.

 

Niocolae Tanovitchii had taken over the pace-setting for Jelly Belly and his fast pace made the peloton explode on the steep road. When he swung off, Schär took over and he prevented anyone from attacking before he led Dennis, Bookwalter, Brunp Pires (Tinkoff), Davide Formolo (Cannondale), Robbie Squire (Hincapie) and Rob Britton (Smartstop) over the top.

 

BMC take control

Schär continued to ride strongly on the front until Axeon took over with 15km to go. They quickly left the front and left it to Schär and Taylor Phinney to lead the group to the bottom of the descent.

 

With 12km to go, the attacking started when an Optum rider took off and he was joined by Calvin Watson (Trek), Ruben Zepuntke (Cannondale) and Guillaume Boivin (Optum). An Axeon rider joined them when the instigator of the break took off but Phinney and Schär just upped the pace and brought the group back with 10km to go.

 

Watson briefly made another move but it was impossible to stay away from the BMC duo. With 9km to go, they allowed an Axeon rider to set the pace before Phinney again took over as they approached the final climb.