COLORADO SPRINGS, Colorado (VN) — Tyler Farrar (Garmin-Sharp) won a brisk bunch sprint in front of U.S. Olympic Committee headquarters on Friday to take his second stage of the USA Pro Challenge.
The 117.9-mile from Breckenridge to Colorado Springs saw cool temperatures for the ascent of 11,542-foot Hoosier Pass early on, with the gradual climb of 9,507-foot Wilkerson Pass next on the menu.
A break formed up quickly and began taking time. The septet — Vincenzo Nibali (Liquigas-Cannondale), Carter Jones (Bissell), Oliver Zaugg (RadioShack-Nissan), Ivan Santaromita (BMC Racing Team), Sergey Firsanov (RusVelo), Yevgeniy Nepomnyachshiy (Astana) and Biao Liu (Champion System) — had just over four minutes on the yellow-jersey group as it approached the foot of Hoosier Pass, which was followed by the 9,165-foot Ute Pass just before Divide and the long downhill run to Colorado Springs.
The break was down to Nibali, Zaugg and Firsanov and had just 30 seconds as the trio hit the finishing circuit downtown, and the rain was beginning to fall. BMC was massed at the front of the bunch for race leader Tejay van Garderen, dogged by Garmin-Sharp for Christian Vande Velde.
The circuit was mostly pan-flat, barring a little dip into and out of Monument Valley Park near Colorado College on the north end of downtown, and the roads were slick on the initial go-round.
Cameron Wurf (Champion System) and Ramiro Rincon (EPM-UNE) attacked the bunch coming off the short hill by the college, but it was still a three-man break out front crossing the finish line and beginning the first of three laps on the downtown circuit.
The gap was down to less than 10 seconds the next time around, and Wurf and Rincon had been pulled back.
Nibali and Zaugg shed Firsanov, but the peloton was breathing down their necks on the descent past the park and that was all she wrote.
Garmin’s Nathan Haas attacked coming off the CC hill, briefly taking a short gap. Then suddenly Liquigas-Cannondale’s Caruso blasted forward and across the line on Tejon Street, apparently thinking that this was the end of the race, which it was not.
The attacks and counters continued in the final lap, but a bunch sprint was in the cards. And going into the final kilometer it was UnitedHealthcare setting up Jake Keough.
Karl Menzies was Keough’s last lead-out man, but Farrar was lurking just behind, waiting to jump.
The Garmin man jumped, got boxed in, then jumped again up the left side of the road, up against the barricades. And he collected his second stage win of the 2012 Pro Challenge.
Editor’s note: Stay tuned for more from Colorado Springs.
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