Tyler Farrar wins – USA Pro Challenge, stage 1
The argyle started the USA Pro Challenge off in a huge way, with Tyler Farrar taking a sprint win after Tom Danielson and Peter Stetina established and drove all day in the main break.
Danielson started things off today attacking into his old stomping grounds of Fort Lewis College.
“I’m pretty familiar with the whole race today,” said Danielson. “I told everyone it was going to be a hard start and there is an opportunity for us.”
“Our director Charly said this morning let’s try to cause a big split and cause some chaos. It almost worked and at least it looked awesome. It was a lot of fun, I haven’t had that much fun in a long time in a bike race.”
Despite not getting the win the argyle had at times four riders in the break, with stagiare Lachlan Morton and David Zabriskie, giving sprinter Farrar a chance to get over the high altitude climbs.
“We weren’t riding for a sprint today, our goal was to catch guys napping,” said Farrar. “To get guys like Tom [Danielson] and Pete [Stetina] up the road to take time on GC. I was luck to be able to hang on and salvage it in the sprint after they got caught.”
“We went into the race with a very clear strategy,” said DS Charly Wegelius. “We wanted to be aggressive and use our strength in numbers. The riders all rose to the occasion and put out a spectacular performance.”
“For Tyler this is a well-deserved reward for his determination over the last months. He never gave up in the face of bad luck and this is truly payback.”
Danielson took enough points throughout the stage to take the KOM jersey while Stetina earned the Most Aggressive award.
