Sutherland takes a "home" win in Boulder

Rory Sutherland gave UnitedHealthcare its first stage win of the USA Pro Challenge, going away solo from the day's breakaway on the final climb to Flagstaff Mountain to get the win. Sutherland crossed the line 20 seconds clear of Fabio Aru (Astana) and 26 seconds ahead of Jens Voigt (RadioShack-Nissan), also members of the successful day-long escape.

It was an exuberant victory for Sutherland, who hails from Australia but who has settled on Boulder as his new home. "For me to win in the town where I live now, on the climb I know so well and I train on, with my friends and family here, I don't think we could have asked for anything better than this."

Sutherland had been in the day's big move, and had withstood numerous attacks from RadioShack's Jens Voigt and George Bennett, as well as Colombians Francisco Colorado and Robigzon Oyola. But when he found himself at the base, he made his move to the head of the race.

"I know this climb well enough that I knew I had to go at the bottom," Sutherland said of his attack. "I know where to go easy, I know where to go hard. I've done [this climb] I don't know how many times, but this was the most beautiful one I've done.

"It proves that we've been working hard all year, we've been working hard for years. I've been with the team for six years," Sutherland continued. "This has been a rough week for us, the race was maybe harder than we expected, and we had some bad luck here and there, I haven't had the legs most of the week. Last night I dreamt all night of the finish line here. I had a terrible night's sleep, I woke up at 5am wide awake thinking about it."

The overall race changed hands as Levi Leipheimer (Omega Pharma-Quickstep) attacked from the group of yellow jersey holder Tejay van Garderen (BMC) to finish fourth on the stage, gaining enough time by the summit to move into the race lead by nine seconds over Christian Vande Velde (Garmin-Sharp).

Van Garderen lost a bit of ground in the final kilometer, coming across 12 seconds behind Vande Velde to slip down the overall standings to third at 21 seconds.

Leipheimer came into the race at a disadvantage, having a smaller team than that of BMC and Garmin-Sharp, but has been laying back keeping the time gaps in check before making the perfect move the night before the decisive final time trial.

"I can't take credit for planning it like that, but obviously it was in the back of my mind to do that. The guys have gone above and beyond what they could do this week. We were down a lot of guys, but this is for them. I'm very happy.

"I'm not comfortable, I've got some great guys breathing down my neck, but I can say that I'm motivated and I'm very proud to wear this jersey tomorrow," he concluded.

Tomorrow's concluding stage, a 15.3km individual time trial in Denver, will decide the winner of the 2012 USA Pro Challenge and both of Leipheimer's nearest challengers on general classification, Christian Vande Velde and Tejay van Garderen, have confidence in their prowess against the clock. In a case of déjà vu, the top three on general classification exactly mirror the final overall standings of the inaugural race edition last year.

"I feel more confident in the time trial than I felt today, so I think that bodes well," said Vande Velde, currently nine seconds behind Leipheimer on general classification.

"Time trials are unpredictable sometimes and Levi's an excellent time trialer. I can't say it's going to be easy, but if anybody can do it I think Tejay [van Garderen] can," BMC manager Jim Ochowicz told Cyclingnews.

When asked at the conclusion of Thursday's stage who he considered his biggest threat, van Garderen was quick to mention defending champion Levi Leipheimer, who's had a quiet week thus far but had remained well within striking distance, starting today's penultimate stage just eight seconds in arrears.

"He has been lying low, but he did it and congratulations to him," said Ochowicz. "It's up to him and to us to see where this ends up."

Big crowds in Boulder

The mood was electric Saturday morning as massive crowds turned out in Golden, Colorado for the start of the USA Pro Challenge's sixth stage, taking the peloton 165.5km from Golden to Boulder with an eagerly-awaited mountain finish on Flagstaff Mountain.

As has been the case for every stage thus far, attacks came fast and furious from kilometre zero until a 14-rider break consolidated at the head of affairs as the peloton headed north on CO 93 to Boulder. On the rolling road through wide open terrain Alex Howes (Garmin-Sharp), George Bennett and Jens Voigt (RadioShack-Nissan), Paolo Longo Borghini and Timothy Duggan (Liquigas-Cannondale), Fabio Aru (Astana Pro Team), Rory Sutherland and Christopher Jones (UnitedHealthcare Pro Cycling Team), Rubens Bertogliati (Team Type 1-Sanofi), Biao Liu (Champion System Pro Cycling Team), Christopher Baldwin (Bissell Cycling), Serghei Tvetcov (Team Exergy) plus Francisco Jarley Colorado Hernandez and Robigzon Leandro Oyola Oyola (EPM-Une) pushed out their advantage to over four minutes as they entered Boulder for the first time prior to the 125km clockwise loop which will ultimately return the riders to Boulder and the ascent to the finish at Sunshine Amphitheater on Flagstaff Mountain.

Joey Rosskopf (Team Type 1-Sanofi) and Carter Jones (Bissell Cycling) attempted to bridge, but after a lengthy pursuit which took them through the sprint line on the Pearl Street Mall and onto the 24km ascent of Boulder Canyon to Nederland, they were absorbed by the peloton.

Colorado's presence in the break caused BMC to keep the escapees on a relatively tight leash as the Colombian started the day just 42 seconds off the lead of Tejay van Garderen (BMC). Colorado also started the stage in third place on the mountains classification, 16 points behind mountains leader Tom Danielson (Garmin-Sharp), and the EPM-Une rider made his intentions clear as the break reached the day's first KOM, the category 2 ascent into Nederland.

Danielson's teammate Howes denied Colorado maximum points, but the Colombian took second and its nine points to cut Danielson's lead to seven points.

As the break approached the day's second ascent, the category 2 climb of Lee Hill Road, the RadioShack-Nissan duo of Voigt and Bennett launched an attack. Voigt buried himself for Bennett and then left the young New Zealander alone in the lead. Bennett crested the KOM first for maximum points, and was soon joined by Colorado, who dropped his fellow escapees to claim second place points and the virtual mountains classification lead. At this point the field, led by BMC as it had been all stage, was 3:10 in arrears.

The climb cracked the break, and on the descent Bennett and Colorado were joined by Baldwin, Duggan, Oyola, Voigt, Sutherland, Aru, Tvetcov and Bertogliati.

"I told Paolo [Longo Borghini] that if we had three minutes over the top of Lee Hill that's perfect, and we had a chance to win it today," said reigning US road champion and Boulder native Timmy Duggan (Liquigas-Cannondale). "I purposely lost a little bit of time yesterday so I could hopefully have a little longer leash to be in a breakaway, and that happened."

The Lee Hill Road climb also shattered the peloton as Garmin-Sharp took control of pace-making. Such was the pressure that van Garderen soon found himself with only one teammate.

As the break rolled back into Boulder and crossed the day's third sprint line, the Jens Voigt-led group's advantage over the peloton had dipped to less than two minutes. Meanwhile, Van Garderen picked up some team support as the peloton regrouped into Boulder and made the turn onto the finishing finale up Flagstaff Mountain.

Colorado dropped off the break, leaving eight in the lead, and then Voigt launched a solo attack at the base of Flagstaff with their advantage still hovering around approximately two minutes.

With approximately 5km remaining on the climb, Boulder resident Rory Sutherland bridged to and immediately passed Voigt for the race lead.

Behind, Vincenzo Nibali attacked from the peloton in pursuit of the Australian, but he was caught and countered by a surge from Levi Leipheimer.

The Omega Pharma-Quickstep rider picked off the remnants of the earlier breakaway, and began closing down the advantage of Sutherland. While he did not manage to gain enough time to win the stage, Leipheimer did secure a large enough advantage over Vande Velde and van Garderen to move into the race lead.

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