Tejay Van Garderen Wins US Pro Challenge

Last updated : 25 August 2013 By Covsupport News Service

BMC's Tejay Van Garderen won the US Pro Challenge after Peter Sagan took his fourth win when he won the final stage in Denver.

The seventh and final stage was a 116km eight laps of Denver and on a warm afternoon, Ben King (Radio Shack), Christohper Juul Jensen (Saxo-Tinkoff), David Riba (Novo Nordisk) and Carson Miller (Jamis) attacked straight from the off. Chun Kai Feng (Champion System), Lucas Euser (UnitedHealthcare) and Tyler Wren (Jamis) chased them to make a group of seven riders at the front with a 1.30 gap.

Chris Froome rode for a lap then pulled up and got off his bike as the gap to the peloton came down to a minute.

There was a sprint with six laps to go which Ben King won and the gap was still around the minute park when Tyler Wren took the sprint, beating Feng on 16th Street with four laps remaining.

The average speed so far was 47.2 km/h as Cannondale lead by points jersey winner Peter Sagan who was going for win number four in this race, worked to bring the gap down to 35 seconds with two laps to go.

Lucas Euser from Napa Valley, grabbed the sprint points with an attack off the front, which split the other six riders in the escape with 31kms to go.

Seven kilometres later, Euser was caught by King and Miller before Josh Edmondson was sent crashing in a clash of handlebars with Juul Jensen of Saxo=TinkOff who got back on a new bike, whilst Edmondson called it a day.

With 15.8kms to go, it was all back together at the front. Half a lap later and United Health Care, were on the front.

Argos Shimano were controlling things at the front as Christian Vandevalde, who is leaving Garmin-Sharp and possibly retiring, waved goodbye to the cameras.

Freddy Rodriquez and Peter Sagan went and it was the Slovakian who cruised to an easy victory in 2.27.15, beating Ryan Anderson and Bazzana with Ireland's Phillip Deignan ninth

Tejay Van Garderen finished safely and the overall race victory was his with a 1.30 win over team mate Mathias Frank.

1 Tejay van Garderen (USA) BMC Racing Team 22:38:48
2 Mathias Frank (Swi) BMC Racing Team 1:30
3 Thomas Danielson (USA) Garmin-Sharp 1:42
4 Janier Alexis Acevedo Colle (Col) Jamis-Hagens Berman 2:10
5 Lachlan David Morton (Aus) Garmin-Sharp 2:34
6 Gregory Brenes Obando (CRc) Champion System 3:25
7 Lawson Craddock (USA) Bontrager Cycling Team 3:42
8 George Bennett (NZl) RadioShack Leopard 03:58
9 Rory Sutherland (Aus) Team Saxo-Tinkoff 4:11
10 Philip Deignan (Irl) UnitedHealthcare Pro Cycling Team 4:12

Matt Cooke won the King Of The Mountains with 46 points to Frank's 30 points