BMC's Tom Danielson won the US Pro Cycling Challenge Third Stage
A 210km stage from Gunnison to Aspen saw only two of the six escapers staying away.
One was BMC's Tom Danielson who had moved into the King Of The Mountains jersey and the other was Francisco Colorado of the EPM team.
The duo were two minutes and fifty seconds ahead of the peloton which included yesterday's stage winner Teejay van Garderen and stage one winner Tyler Farrar, 2011 Le Tour winner Cadel Evans, George Hincapie (pictured below) and Ireland's Matt Brammier.
With 21.6 miles to go, Danielson broke away on the final climb on Mount Elbert (3,670m) on roads packed with people dressed in a variety of costumes.
Danielson was now 1.50 ahead of the chasing group and 2.15 of the peloton on the descent.
Colorado came back and with 15 miles to go, was only being reported as being fifteen seconds back.
Teejay van Garderen was on the front of peloton, hunting down Danielson, who was being shouted by his team car.
With 1.4 miles to go, the peloton could see Danielson. He went under the Flam Rouge and up came the sprinters but Danielson held on to win in a time of 5.10. 22. Second was Caruso and third was Fugslang.
Teejat van Garderen (pictured below) lost his leaders jersey to Christian Valverde who placed ahead of him
Tomorrow's stage is from Aspen to Beaver Brook.
Pictures copyright of Covsupport News Service. Credit CNS/KM