Tejay van Garderen (BMC) put himself in the perfect position to defend his title in the USA Pro Challenge when he won the race’s queen stage on Monarch Mountain. Having launched the decisive attack that only could Rafal Majka (Tinkoff-Saxo) could match, he rode hard on the front all the way to the line before beating his companion in the final sprint to take both the stage win and the leader’s jersey.

 

Tejay van Garderen proved that he is clearly the strongest rider in the USA Pro Challenge when he took a dominant victory in the queen stage on Monarch Mountain. The American was in a class of his own on the final climb and used his strength to take both the win and the overall lead.

 

With a strong headwind making the final climb less selective than expected, it was still a pretty big group that approached the flamme rouge. At that point, van Garderen had bided his time, carefully responding to the attacks but saving his energy for one final acceleration.

 

He made his move just as they passed the red kite and only Rafal Majka could match his speed. However, the American didn’t even look back and just continued to ride hard, with the Pole clearly suffering on his wheel.

 

With 200m to go, he launched a long sprint and Majka briefly tried to pass him. Van Garderen had an extra gear though and despite the windy conditions the Pole had to sit down again, rolling across the line in second.

 

After yesterday’s first mountain stage, the riders tackled the queen stage that brought them over 154.9km from Gunnison to the top of Monarch Mountain. After a flat first section, the riders went up the Monarch Pass at the midpoint before descending down to a flat stretch. The final 33km were all uphill and led to the top of the category 2 mountain for the biggest summit finish of the race’s history.

 

All riders who finished yesterday’s stage took the start under pleasant sunny conditions and they got the race off to a very fast beginning. As several riders tried to take off, a 20-rider group got clear in the opening part of the race but after 10km of racing, things came back together.

 

Later a 10-rider group got clear but as the aggressive racing continued, those escapees had no luck either. In fact, it seemed to be impossible to get away and after 45km of racing, the peloton was still intact.

 

Jeff Louder (UnitedHealthCare) and Ben Jacques-Maynes (Jamis) opened the first significant gap while Michel Koch (Cannondale) set off in pursuit. The young German bridged the gap and later Jacob Rathe (Jelly Belly) also made the junction. Bernard Sulzberger (Drapac) was the final rider to make it across but the peloton had still no intention of slowing down and after 53km of racing, it was back together.

 

The peloton now hit the bottom of the Monarch Pass where Janier Acevedo started to ride hard on the front for Garmin-Sharp. The Colombian got a small advantage while the peloton split to pieces as a 15-rider chase group formed.

 

Acevedo managed to extend hi advantage to 1.15 but his Garmin team had a plan to make the race hard. Hence, the team continued to set the pace in the peloton, bringing its size down to just 11 riders.

 

The main group was whittled further down and when Acevedo was absorbed, only 7 riders remained. The Tinkoff-Saxo trio of Michael Rogers, Rafal Majka and Pawel Poljanski were joined by Tejay van Garderen, Ben Hermans (both BMC), Tom Danielson (Garmin) and Carter Jones (Optum) and an 8-rider front group had been formed.

 

At the top of the climb, the 8 riders were 45 seconds ahead of a 17-rider group that was made up of overall leader Alex Howes (Garmin), Michael Schär, Brent Bookwalter (both BMC), Bruno Pires (Tinkoff-Saxo), Jens Voigt, Frank Schleck, Matthew Busche, Laurent Didier, Riccardo Zoidl (all Trek), Bartosz Huzarski (NetApp), Lucas Euser (UnitedHealthCare), Julian Kyer (SmartStop), Joey Rosskopf (Hincapie), Daniel Jaramillo (Jamis), Sergey Tvetchov (Jelly Belly), Clement Chevier and Ruben Zepuntke (all  Bissell). As they started the descent, Poljanski and Acevedo rode hard in the front group but they were up against a very strong Trek team that used Voigt, Schleck, Didier and Zoidl to bring Busche back in contention.

 

Trek even got some assistance from Chevrier who did the Tour of Utah as a stagiaire for the team. After Acevedo and Poljanski had led Hermans across the line in the first intermediate sprint, it became clear that the front group would be caught and most of the riders decided to sit up.

 

Rogers launched a solo attack and while the rest of the group was caught, he was allowed to build a big advantage. There was a lot of confusion in the 24-rider chase group as no one wanted to take responsibility to bring back Rogers and with 33km to go, the Australian was 2.30 ahead.

 

The chasers started to attack each other and Bookwalter, Jaramillo and Euser got a promising gap. Acevedo bridged across and later Voigt, Huzarski, Zepuntke, Schleck and race leader Howes also made the junction which was of course too dangerous and so the group was brought back.

 

Euser and Jaramillo made an immediate counterattack and while the chase group was still organized, they managed to build a 30-second advantage. Together with Rogers, they swallowed up the points in the final intermediate sprint.

 

BMC now decided to take control of the situation and Schär started to chase. They gradually started to peg back Jaramillo, Euser and Rogers and with 27km to go, the two chasers were back in the fold.

 

At this point, Rogers was still 1.30 ahead as they started the long uphill stretch to the finish on Monarch Mountain. Schär and the Australian were pretty equally matched and on the long, straight, slightly rising road, the two groups were constantly separated by 1.30. As opposed to this, the next big group was losing ground and with 20km to go, they were 4.20 behind, meaning that they were out of contention.

 

Finally Rogers started to lose a bit of ground and when he passed the 15km to go mark, he was only 1.05 ahead. 5km further up the road, he was only 45 seconds ahead and sensing the inevitable catch, he decided to take it easy.

 

With 8.5km to go, Rogers was back in the fold but that didn’t change the BMC strategy. Schär continued to ride hard on the front but as the road was not very steep, no one were dropped from the 25-rider group.

 

Unsurprisingly, Rogers was the first to fall off the pace but the remaining 24 riders continued together for another 2km. With 6.4km to go, the attacking finally started when Acevedo and Jaramillo took off and opened a gap.

 

The move spelled the end for Voigt and Schär who both got dropped and instead, Bookwalter took over the pace-setting. The duo gained a small advantage but failed to get a real gap.

 

Moments later, Danielson launched his first move, bridging the gap to the front duo but he had the resr of the group in tow. Having made the junction, he asked Acevedo to set a hard tempo.

 

Jaramillo tried again but Danielson easily shut it down. When the pace went down, Acevedo launched his next attack but Bookwalter reacted swiftly, bringing the Colombian back and starting to ride hard on the front.

 

Moments later, Danielson launched his next move but the climb was too easy to make a difference. Instead, he started to ride tempo and this caused a split as only van Garderen, Jones, Busche, Hermans, Poljanski, Majka, Chevrier, Tvetchov and Rosskopf could match his pace.

 

More riders managed to rejoin the group when Danielson stopped his work. Jones made a small attack but Danielson rode very attentively and brought his back.

 

Busche made the next move but he had no success ether. Race leader Howes was now in a group with Bookwalter, Schleck and Euser but was constantly losing ground.

 

Pires made the next attack but Danielson did not let anyone get an advantage. The Portuguese now started to ride tempo, making the race hard for Majka’s rivals.

 

Danielson made his next move just after the 5km to go mark and this time, he tried a bit harder. However, Hermans and van Garderen were glued to his wheel and so he stopped his attack.

 

Danielson tried again but still had no luck and so the pace went down again. Pires gave it another go before Danielson launched his next unsuccessful acceleration.

 

The group now consisted of Majka, Poljanski, Pires, van Garderen, Hermans, Tvetcov, Busche, Zoidl, Jones, Kyer, Chevrier, Danielson,  Huzarski and Rosskopf but the pace had now gone down. With 3km to go, Busche was the first rider to gain some ground as Danielson finally decided not to respond.

 

With Busche building an advantage, Tinkoff-Saxo quickly responded, with Poljanski riding hard on the front. Pires, Zoidl and Kyer fell off the pace and with 2km to go, Poljanski had brought Busche back.

 

Chevrier and Huzarski were the next rider to get dropped and now Poljanski was giving it his all, stringing out the group.

 

Justbefore the flamme ruge, Poljanski swung of and this was the signal for van Garderen to make his move. Only Majka could keep up with him while Jones and Tvetcov formed the nearest chase group.

 

Van Garderen wasn’t too concerned with Majka who was content follow wheels while the BMC rider rode hard on the front. Tvetcov had now dropped Jones who had fallen back to Danielson.

 

Van Garderen launched a long sprint and when Majka tried to respond, the American had an extra gear. The Pole failed to pass his rival who took an impressive stage win. Tvetcov rolled across the line in 4th while Hermans managed to pass Danielson and Jones just before the line.

 

With the win, van Garderen takes the overall lead with a 20-second advantage over Majka. His first day in the leader’s jersey should not be too difficult as the fourth day is a short circuit race consisting of four laps of a circuit around Colorado Springs. With two tough climbs, however, it is not a day for the sprinters and the stage could suit either a breakaway or one of the riders who can sprint out of a smaller group.