Van Garderen celebrates 23rd birthday in style with TT win

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Tejay Van Garderen (HTC-Highroad) blitzed the stage 3 time trial of the Tour of Utah, crushing the flat, twisty 15.6km course in a time of 17:33.64, averaging 53.33km/h. It was a double celebration for the young American who not only turned 23 on the day, but also scored his first win as a professional.

Van Garderen topped the new general classification leader, Levi Leipheimer (RadioShack), who came second place on the stage with a 17:39.58, while the overnight leader Sergio Henao (Gobernacion de Antioquia) lost more than a minute to the defending champion.

HTC-Highroad's Patrick Gretsch made it two for the team on the stage podium, taking third place on the day just ten seconds slower than his teammate.

"It feels incredible," Van Garderen said. He had been aiming for a stage victory since losing time on stage 1, but a bid to take a solo win on stage 2 was neutralised just outside the final kilometer.

"It was the perfect day to [get the win] on my birthday. I was disappointed a couple days ago when I couldn't follow Levi, and I thought I could sit in and conserve, but that wasn't enough for me. Yesterday I said, 'I don't care if I use up some energy, I want to win'. It didn't work out yesterday, but I'm thrilled it did today."

Van Garderen said he knew how to take the corners and kept an eye on which way the wind was blowing, but also had his directeur sportif Allan Peiper on the radio giving him advice.

"He told me before the start to start hard, find a pace I could do for five minutes, and then hold it for 15, so that was my tactic.

"He gave me a split saying I was ten seconds up on my teammate, and I know Patrick Gretsch has a long time trial resume, so I knew if I was up on him I had a good chance of winning the stage."

As he watched Leipheimer coming into the home straight, he said, "I had a big relief when I saw 17:33 pass." He had finally achieved his first professional victory after coming second on seven separate occasions.

RadioShack takes control of the GC

The time trial results put the two RadioShack riders, Leipheimer and Janez Brajkovic into the top two slots in the overall classification, with Henao's teammate Oscar Sevilla in third. Henao dropped to fourth overall, while Jesse Anthony (Kelly Benefit Strategies/OptumHealth) held onto fifth, now just over a minute up on the day's winner Van Garderen.

Leipheimer, the winner of the 2010 Tour of Utah, was excited to once more pull on the yellow jersey in the state in which he graduated from high school and went to college.

"It's great to see the Tour of Utah come of age," Leipheimer said. "It's much more competitive this year, now that this race has stepped up [to UCI 2.1], you have HTC, BMC, and the other World Tour teams. You can't compare last year to this year, it's a totally different race."

Leipheimer said he wanted to win the time trial, but fell just five seconds shy. However, taking the yellow jersey was perhaps even better for him. He now has 35 seconds on Sevilla and 1:09 on Henao with two decisive stages remaining.

"We had to capitalize on the time trial, and I knew I had to put as much time as I could on Sevilla and Henao, because those two and their team will be aggressive, and every second I can get will be important.

"Tomorrow the work is going to fall on the shoulders of my teammates, and it will be difficult because I expect the other teams to make it hard," he said of the tricky 11km circuit in Salt Lake City.

"It's going to be fast, very difficult. I expect it will be race of attrition, you're going to see riders coming off the back. It's going to hurt."

Gretsch goes for the win

The stage 3 time trial at the Miller Motorsports Park took place under more warm, sunny conditions, with a stiff breeze creating a challenge for the riders, hitting them in all directions as they twisted through the 23 turns on the 15.6km course.

Colombian time trial champion Carlos Alberto Ospina (Gobernacion de Antioquia) was the first rider off, setting a 18:59, but he was soon surpassed by Robert Förster (UnitedHealthCare), who went more than 30 seconds quicker.

The next rider to sit in the hot seat was Scott Zwizanski (UnitedHealthCare), who came in with an 18:20, but was soon kicked off of the throne by HTC-Highroad's Patrick Gretsch, who smashed the best time with a 17:43.75 - a time that would stand for much of the evening.

HTC-Highroad directeur sportif Allan Peiper said that Gretsch was going for the stage win, but his performance turned into an advantage for Van Garderen, who was able to use some of the fastest split times of the night to gauge his efforts.

"I was disappointed not to win the stage, but as long as the win stays in the team I'm happy," Gretsch said.

Andrew Wetterhall (Endura Racing) surprised by slotting into the second best time with a 17:51.23, the 2010 winner of the FBD Insurance Ras relatively unknown to the American audience. He would end the evening fourth best on the stage.

Jamis-Sutter Home's Tom Zirbel was the top domestic Continental rider on the day, coming in ninth at 18:03.

"I thought I felt pretty good. I kind of expected to win with the way that I felt," Zirbel said. "I don't know, I guess I just didn't have the power that I thought I did. I crashed yesterday with four kilometers to go and got banged up a little bit, but I don't think that affected me today, I just didn't have the power. I think they had really fast average speeds today. I felt like I had a good run and I thought I had good legs. To be beat by 20 seconds is eye-opening."