Sagan makes it four in Denver

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Peter Sagan (Cannondale) won his fourth stage of the 2013 USA Pro Challenge in Colorado Sunday, taking a sprint finish during the downtown Denver circuit race. The Slovakian champion slung himself past Ryan Anderson (Optum-Kelly Benefit Strategies) and Alessandro Bazzana (UnitedHealthcare) in the closing meters after coming through the final corner about 10 positions back.

Tejay van Garderen (BMC) finished safely near the front of the group after leading the bunch into the final 300 meters and sealed his first overall win at his home race. Van Garderen and BMC pushed the pace in the final kilometers, hoping to set up Greg Van Avermaet while keeping the yellow jersey out of trouble at the front of the hard-charging field.

"I thought okay, it's 1km to go, there's no real reason to save any energy,” van Garderen said. "I'll spend a little energy to try and help lead out [Van Avermaet] for the sprint. It's been a while since I was on HTC and actually did a lead out in the sprints. It's kind of fun, but I think I'm a little bit rusty at it. I don't even think he was on my wheel.”

Sagan's Cannondale team once again pulled back the day's major breakaway with about 10km remaining to set the 23-year-old up for his 18th win of the season, and the heavily favored rider didn't disappoint.

The top of the general classification remained unchanged, with BMC claiming the top two spots in van Garderen and his teammate, Mathias Frank, who finished 1:30 down. Garmin-Sharp's Tom Danielson finished third overall, 1:42 in arrears.

Van Garderen said his win in Colorado felt like it had been a long time coming because he had been so close during the two previous editions.

"It's just amazing to finally get it,” he said. "Sometimes it's hard to be motivated after July. But with this race on the calendar there was no question of whether or not I was going to stay focused and motivated. This is like my hometown race, and you just want it so bad. I think in the other years maybe I wanted it a little bit too bad. But it feels amazing to finally get it.”

Despite finishing third, Danielson, who won the Tour of Utah earlier this month, said he was satisfied with his own performance and that of his team.

"You always go into the race wanting to win,” he said. "But with the course and with strong Tejay and BMC like it was, just being on the podium was a win for us and for me and with Lachie [Morton] in the Best Young Rider's jersey. So I'm really happy, and the team's really happy. We gave it our all, and we did a good job. We made the race, and it was phenomenal for me to finally stand on the podium in Denver.”

Sagan took home yet another points classification jersey, while Jamis-Hagens Berman's Matt Cooke finally could breathe a sigh of relief, having finished with the mountains jersey after leading that competition from stage 1. Garmin's Lachlan Morton, who wore yellow for two stages, finished as the race's best young rider.

"It's been an incredible week, starting off with making it into yellow and then picking up the Best Young Rider jersey today,” Morton said. "It's been a week I won't forget.”

Cooke, who just signed with his team in July, said he was just thrilled to be on the press conference dais with the WorldTour riders.

"This is the best I could have hoped for, and it's a dream come true,” Cooke said. "I didn't really expect this, especially after how [Tour of] Utah went. But for Jamis-Hagens Berman, they are very happy that we won one stage with Janier Acevedo, and I'm just stoked to be sitting here with these guys.”

How it happened:

The downtown Denver course consisted of eight laps around a 14.5 km course. The route involved navigating multiple tight turns through a city park and numerous fan-lined straightaway. Riders faced a 90-degree left-hand turn about 200 meters from the finish.

A breakaway of seven riders escaped early in the first lap and built a gap of nearly a minute by the end of the first loop. Included in the group were Ben King (RadioShack-Leopard), Christopher Juul Jensen (Saxo-Tinkoff), Chun Kai Feng (Champion System), David Riba (Novo Nordisk), Lucas Euser (UnitedHealthcare) and Jamis-Hagens Berman's Tyler Wren and Carson Miller.

Before the stage started, Saxo's Timmy Duggan told Cyclingnews he expected a very aggressive stage and that his team was going to be a part of that.

"The whole peloton will have to do something else other than let Cannondale drag us around and then try to beat [Peter Sagan] in the sprint,” Duggan said. "I expect a really aggressive race. We're not just going to hand it to Cannondale, for sure.”

The aggressive pace in the opening laps was too much for Tour de France champion Chris Froome (Sky), who climbed off his bike on the second lap and abandoned. With Cannondale picking up the chase and several other teams throwing in a few riders to help, the gap hovered around a minute at the halfway point. But as the race saw two laps to go, the gap was down to just 35 seconds under the constant pressure from Cannondale and friends.

The impending catch started to blow the breakaway apart, as first Miller and then Euser attacked the lead group. Euser was able to make his move stick and soloed away before King and Miller clawed their way back. The trio had a gap of 35 seconds on the penultimate lap as Cannondale continued to chase without help now. But with 10km remaining, Cannondale's work paid off and the break was reeled in, setting up the sprint finish.

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