Van Garderen crushes San Jose TT

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Tejay van Garderen (BMC) put in a crushing time trial performance on Stage 6 at the Tour of California to not only win the stage but also extend his lead over his general classification rivals. The victory moves van Garderen one step closer to finally securing his first stage race victory since joining the WorldTour.

"I don't want to count my chickens before they hatch, but I'm ready to win, and I think it's about time. I think now I’m finally mature enough to pull through to the end. I think I’m ready to do it."

Van Garderen was the final rider to leave the start ramp ahead of the 31.6km test and crossed the line 23-seconds up on Stage 1 winner Lieuwe Westra (Vacansoleil-DCM), pushing the Dutch time trial champion down into second place.

The BMC leader pushed his TT machine all the way up the last soul-sapping climb opting not to change to a standard road bike at the base of the final ascent. It was the 24-year-old American's first victory of the season, his first time trial win since the 2011 Tour of Utah, and his first stage win at the Tour of California. It was a hard-earned success on a difficult, wind-swept course that kicked up over 300m of climbing in the last 3km.

"There was really no place that you could hold back. It started straightaway up that climb. You just had to dig deep there. The climb up to the finish was hard. There was a couple of little downhills that you could kind of soft-pedal and catch your breath a little bit. But it was really on the gas the whole way."

To stand on the podium at the Tour of California is something that every American dreams of, and Van Garderen has been chasing this day for three years. He had a special motivation to come through with the goods.

"It’s incredible. I really couldn’t have asked for a better day," he said after cradling his newborn daughter on the winner's podium.

"My radio wasn't working on the early part of the course, so I just took it out and was going on feel. I knew my wife and my daughter were at the finish, and that gave me a little extra motivation. It's true what they say, becoming a dad brings out something in you."

The early fast time was set by neo-professional Rohan Dennis (Garmin Sharp), who put in an impressive ride to keep hold of third-place, 28-seconds behind the yellow skinsuit wearer.

"It was a tough course," Dennis said. "You had to leave something for the climb. There weren't many spots on the course to recover. You started with a climb, and then there was a false flat before you climbed again and then the descent. That was about the only recovery you got. So I was trying to keep as even as possible, but just below what you'd usually do for a whole time trial, so you could kick it up that final climb."

In the GC battle it was Michael Rogers (Saxo-Tinkoff) and Cameron Meyer (Orica GreenEdge), who continued from their strong showing the day prior when they made the exclusive front group, to cross the line in fourth and sixth-place respectively.

Rogers maintained his position in second on the GC table and earned the day's most courageous rider jersey, while Meyer's ride pushed him ahead of former race leader Janier Acevedo (Jamis Hagens-Berman) and into third-overall.

"It was certainly a tough course," Rogers said. "It was quite undulating at the start, and then there was a very windy section along the main road. Then it was a 10% climb - it was a nice course, one of the better time trials I've done, course-wise."

Rogers had planned to stay on the time trial bike, but decided after previewing the final climb in the morning to opt to change to his road machine.

"It was a steep climb, I think for me maybe too steep for the time trial bike, the gearing was more suitable on the road bike. It was a perfect climb because it was steep straight away, and the speed dropped very fast. I took advantage of the speed being low and changed," he said.

However, the effort was not quite good enough to gain back the time on van Garderen, but Rogers managed to hang onto second overall by 1:10 over Meyer. He hasn't quite given up on winning his second Tour of California, but knows it will be tough.

"Every kilometer that passes and every second more makes it that much more difficult to close. I've been around long enough to know that anything can happen, but it gets harder, and Tejay has a strong team. It will be hard to bring back, but it's certainly not over until you cross the line." 

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