Garmin-Sharp victorious in Utah team time trial

Garmin-Sharp proved its prowess in the race against the clock Wednesday, blasting over the 21.7 km stage 2 team trial course at the Larry H. Miller Tour of Utah in 22:35 to win the stage and propel Christian Vande Velde into the overall race lead. The day's effort also filled out the top four overall spots for Garmin with Tom Danielson, Dave Zabriske and Peter Stetina.

Garmin's eight-rider squad started about halfway through the day and obliterated all the earlier times by nearly a minute, finishing with five riders after three laps of the 7.25 km course. Rabobank finished 32 seconds behind Garmin-Sharp for second place and moved Wilco Kelderman into fifth, 33 seconds in arrears. RadioShack-Nissan finished third, 37 seconds down, while US-based Continental squad Bissell Pro Cycling took fourth on the day, 50 seconds behind Garmin.

The UnitedHealthcare squad of race leader Rory Sutherland was the final team on the course and conceded 52 seconds – as well as the yellow jersey – to Garmin with a fifth place stage result. Defending champion Levi Leipheimer suffered a serious blow to his chance for a third consecutive overall win after his team lost 2:03, dropping him to 42nd overall.

Soaring temperatures for the second day in a row and a steady swirling wind added to the difficulty as teams made their way around the Miller Motorsports Park in Tooele west of Salt Lake City. The winding automobile road course featured more than a dozen wide, sweeping turns and relatively no climbing. The race was divided into six waves, with three teams starting three minutes apart in each wave.

The wind was strongest early in the day, and Leipheimer's team, which started second and with just six riders, suffered from the effects as it quickly dropped one rider and had to slow several times in order to finish with five. Vande Velde, who finished the stage 1 sprint in sixth place, said his team's experience in the unique discipline and the fact that many of them have been together for five years was crucial to securing another TTT win, but he also conceded the team's later start played into the result.

"Luckily the wind died down a little bit for us," he said. "When we were practicing the wind was blowing hard, so we used a smaller front wheel where you wouldn't get caught up in the crosswind like you would with a bigger wheel. That helped us a little. We weren't flying around as much, and we could sit on the wheel a little better."

The change in conditions throughout the day may have been a break for the teams that started later, but Vande Velde also said it was no accident that his team got one of those later spots after he sprinted to sixth place during the stage 1 finish.

"That was the only reason to get up there," Vande Velde said of his stage 1 result. "I don't usually like to race too much in a sprint like that, but you have to get up there and fight for it every once in a while."

Garmin-Sharp team director Charlie Wegelius said seven-time US national individual time trial champion Dave Zabriske started the team's ride because he could bring the squad up to speed quickly but smoothly so that the pace wouldn't put any of the other riders under pressure too early. Tyler Farrar took over next as the team settled into the pace that led Garmin to the fastest intermediate times on each lap.

Despite surrendering the race lead, Sutherland, who now sits in 10th
place, 43 seconds behind Vande Velde, said he was happy with the team's effort. "A couple of our guys have never done a team time trial," he said. "So to get fifth or sixth, wherever we were in that time, we should be pretty proud on how we rode, definitely."

The six feet, two inches, UnitedHealthcare team leader also said he would keep fighting in the overall battle, but he admitted that the course doesn't favor a rider of his size. "The way that it always works in this tour, and the way that the parcours is the last few days, you can see that it's extremely severe with some very serious climbing," he said. "And in those moments I think there are some smaller, lighter guys with a bit more Grand Tour depth who might have little bit more there. But you never know, so you just keep plugging away and see what happens."

Kelderman, who is now the best placed non-Garmin rider, also downplayed his own overall chances. "Two weeks before, I had a rest week because at the beginning of the season I had a really long season," he said. "So my form is not really good, but I hope to get a good result. We'll see."

Despite holding the overall lead and being backed by three teammates in the top four, Vande Velde was also cautious about chances to win the overall.

"I didn't come here with great ambitions last year, and I got a top five," he said. "And I didn't come with great ambitions for this year, either, because you never know how your body is going to react to altitude. I'm not going to lie, I suffered like a dog yesterday, and I plan to suffer more this week."

Thursday's stage 3 road race starts in Ogden and offers up 137.6 km and 2,174 meters of climbing, including one category 3 climb and two category 2 ascents before the finish in Salt Lake City. Time bonuses of 10, 6 and 4 seconds are also up for grabs for the top three finishers. Vande Velde said he expects another day of very aggressive racing. "I'm sure the guys who didn't do well today are going to throw everything they have at us tomorrow."

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