Farrar sprints to stage 5 victory in Colorado

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Garmin-Sharp's Tyler Farrar sprinted to his second stage win of the 2012 USA Pro Challenge Friday in Colorado Springs after the field brought back the remnants of a seven-rider breakaway on the closing circuits in town.

BMC's Tejay van Garderen finished ahead of Farrar's teammate Christian Vande Velde to retain his overall lead, although the two riders still share the same time.

In the press conference after the race, Farrar dedicated his win to Colorado Springs resident Mike Creed (Optum-Kelly Benefit Strategies), who recently raised more than $35,000 for victims of the fires there earlier this summer.

"I was really motivated today because it's Mike Creed's hometown and he was my Madison partner when I was 18," Farrar said. "So this one's for you, buddy."

Friday's stage, which started in Breckenridge, offered up 189.7 km with one categorized climb that peaked out just 16.3 kilometers into the race. From there it was a generally downhill run into the finish with few small bumps along the way. The sprinters at the race had been chomping at the bit for this day, suffering over the mountains everyday since Farrar took out the field sprint at the end of stage 1 from Durango to Telluride.

But before the sprinters could have their day their teams had to bring back the day's escapees. The breakaway got away on the first climb of the day, the category 1 ascent of Hoosier Pass, which started in earnest just a few kilometers into the race. The group included EMP-UNE's Francisco Colorado, who started the day just 42 seconds out of the overall lead, Vincenzo Nibali (Liquigas-Cannondale), Carter Jones (Bissell Pro Cycling), Oliver Zaugg (RadioShack-Nissan), Ivan Santamorita (BMC), Sergey Firsanov (RusVelo), Yevgeniy Nepomnyachshiy (Astana) and Biao Liu (Champion System), who initiated the move.

Colorado stayed in the group long enough to grab maximum points on the day's only KOM, and then dropped back to the field. The seven remaining leaders built an ultimate gap of 5:40 before the field started bringing them back. The gap was down to just over two minutes by the time the leaders passed through the second intermediate sprint of the day with just over 50 km remaining to race, and it came down steadily from there.

Sensing the impending catch, Jones attacked the group first as the leaders made their way through the Garden of the Gods with just 26 km remaining, but Nibali countered, taking Zaugg and Firsanov along with him. The new lead group of three pressed on while the remaining breakaway riders dropped back into the fast-closing field.

The gap was down to just 20 seconds with about 11 km to go as the leaders made their way onto the closing circuits in Colorado Springs. Nibali, who has been in four breakaways in five days of racing, said his goal at the race is to win a stage this week, even though the team was focused on bringing Damiano Caruso to the line first in Colorado Springs.

"I came in after the Tour de France a little tired and didn't know how I'd feel," he said. "I'm feeling a little better every day. Today was a day for Caruso, though I thought I'd give it a go. In Colorado, the people are surprisingly excited about the sport of cycling, and I want to show respect to that. I find if I can win a stage it will be a very prestigious result."

But Nibali's stage-win hopes were dashed when the field made the final catch on the circuits, and UnitedHealthcare came to the front in hopes of setting up Tour of Utah sprinter Jake Keough. But not before Liquigas appeared to lead out sprinter Caruso a lap early on the second of three finishing circuits.

"I saw them go," Farrar said. "I wasn't sure if they miscounted the laps or if they were trying to launch him. I mean it is a pretty short lap. So with the rain – turns out the roads weren't slippery, but it looked slippery – so it was a little intimidating. I'm not sure what their tactic was there."

Either way, Farrar was too strong for the competition again on this day. Although he was momentarily boxed in with about 300 meters to go, Farrar found some open road along the barriers and made his winning kick. Taylor Phinney grabbed second, while Alessandro Bazzana (Team Type 1-Sanofi) slotted into third.

Phinney, who finished fourth in the sprint at the Olympic Road Race but crashed early on stage 1 in Colorado, said he was just happy to know his legs were coming back on good form.

"I was third wheel with 300 meters to go," he said. "Then Tyler started coming around me with someone else and somebody else coming around him. I thought my sprint was over because I left it too late, but then I found a little gap and managed to weasel my way out. But by then, Tyler had opened his sprint already. I was gaining on him in the last 50 meters or so, but he was letting up and getting ready to celebrate."

Phinney's team leader, van Garderen, finished in 14th place, 15 spots ahead of Vande Velde, to hang onto his yellow jersey heading into tomorrow's stage that finishes outside of Boulder. But van Garderen said his placing compared to his GC rival was the last thing on his mind.

"I was focused on staying at the front, staying ahead of the crashes, staying out of trouble, ahead of time gaps," van Garderen said. "[Finishing ahead of] Christian wasn't on my mind coming into the finish. It was just staying on the bike and staying in a good position and not losing anything."

The race continues Saturday with the 165.5 km stage from Golden to Boulder that finishes with the daunting Flagstaff climb above town.

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