Tejay van Garderen stretched his overall lead in the USA Pro Challenge cycle race with a victory in the stage five individual time trial.
Van Garderen admitted he was feeling the pain in the closing stages of the 16-kilometer, mostly uphill route in the Colorado Rockies, but his time of 25:01 was four seconds faster than that of runner-up Andrew Talansky of Garmin-Sharp, whose time had held up for much of the day.
“It was certainly a tough effort. I don’t even know how to describe it,” van Garderen said. “Up there, your lungs are searing in the thin air. I was trying to be conservative on the way up, doing my best to keep the pace, but it’s still such a difficult thing to do when you’re at 10,000 feet.
“I was surprised that I got the stage win because I felt pretty bad coming in there at the end. Hopefully we can hold this jersey through Denver.”
Talansky’s teammate Tom Danielson, finished third, 1:02 behind the winner and van Garderen’s BMC teammate Mathias Frank, second overall at the start of the stage, finished 10th, 1:26 off the pace.
Frank remained in second overall, now 1:30 behind van Garderen, who took the lead on Thursday with a runner-up finish to Janier Acevedo in stage four.
The race continues on Saturday with the 185 kilometer sixth stage, from Loveland to Fort Collins and concludes on Sunday in Denver.
Van Garderen stretches Pro Challenge lead with TT win
