Van Garderen Stretches Pro Challenge Lead with TT win

Tejay van Garderen stretched his overall lead in the USA Pro Challenge cycle race on Friday 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.