Sagan Wins US Pro Challenge Third Stage

Last updated : 21 August 2013 By Covsupport News Service

Cannondale's Peter Sagan recorded his second stage victory of the US Pro Challenge, when he won the third stage in Steamboat Springs.

A 170.4km Breckenridge to Steamboat Springs stage started with a downhill run towards the first King Of The Mountains climb after eleven kilometres at Swan Mountain.

Ben King (RadioShack), Matijn Verschoor (Novo Nordisk) and Jonathan Clarke (UnitedHealthcare), all attacked but it was Davide Villela (Cannondale) who took the maximum points ahead of Matt Cooke (Jamis-Hagens Berman) and Voigt (RadioShack Leopard). 

Brit Josh Edmondson (Sky) Jens Voigt (RadioShack), Davide Villella (Cannondale), Tyler Wren (Jamis-Hagens Berman) and Serghei Tvetcov (Jelly Belly) took over at the front with Tvetcov taking the sprint.

After passing over the Heeney Dam, the next sprint was at Kremmling and Villella beat Tvetcov and Voigt to the full quota of points.

With 55.4kms to go, their lead was 5.10. Voigt decided that he was better off on his own and the Radio Shack rider with German flag markings on his bike went away.

He got 2.10 clear before Edmondson tried to bring him back. Voigt surged past the hoardes of fans who had been on Rabbit Ears Pass from very early this morning to be first over the pass whilst King Of The Mountains leader Matt Cooke mopped up the last of the points to take him to 38 points.

The peloton started to close down Voigt to 1.20 inside the final ten kilometres and the attacks from BMC and Cannondale with Sagan started to happen.

With the Radio Shack team car, barking orders and encouragement, Voigt kept going but on the long flat road, the German was in sight. Voigt had a forty second lead with 4.5kms remaining.

Voigt started looking behind and all he could see was the peloton hurtling towards him, and with 2.9kms to go, Voigt was swept up.

Four hundred metres later, there was a big crash at 60km/h, taking down a number of riders with RadioShack's George Bennett one of those hitting the deck. The main sprinters avoided this and it was Michael Schar of BMC doing the work on the front.

However, his lead out for Greg Van Avermaet did not work as Peter Sagan took this second win of this year's race by coming down the middle of the road to win in 4.04.18 ahead of Luka Mezgec of Argos Shimano, Ryan Anderson, Greg Van Avermaet and Allesandro Bazzana.

Lachlan Morton keeps his race leaders jersey with a two second lead over Mathias Frank (BMC).

Peter Sagan extends his lead in the points competition.