Elia Viviani led a stream of sprinters past a tiring Jens Voigt to win the fourth stage of the USA Pro Challenge on Thursday, while Tejay van Garderen kept the overall lead.
German Trek Factory Racing veteran Voigt, who says the seven-stage race in the mountains of Colorado will be his last as a professional, made a gutsy move for the stage win with a solo attack of more than 40km that nearly gave him a glorious victory.
He established a lead of more than a minute and for a time, with his Trek teammates controlling the field behind him, it seemed he might hold on to win the 113.1km stage, a hilly circuit race in the environs of Colorado Springs, but with 5km to go his lead had dwindled to 35 seconds and with 1km remaining he was swallowed up, Cannondale Pro Cycling’s Viviani surging across the line ahead of BMC Racing rider Martin Kohler and Jelly Belly’s Serghei Tvetcov.
Photo: AFP
“It’s difficult to close with Jens,” a delighted Viviani said. “He’s a strong man. He’s a legend man.”
Voigt, a master of the breakaway in his prime, reckoned he was “2 percent” short of what he needed to hang on.
“You’ve got to play the cards life is giving you — that’s all I had today,” said the German, who turns 43 next month. “Was sort of like a slow death. I saw my time was going down... those long straight lines into the finish — it’s not in your favor.”
Even so, Voigt said, he went “all-in to try to get the win.”
“It’s the story of my life, all-in,” Voigt said.
There was no change at the top of the overall standings, with BMC Racing’s Van Garderen, who finished 21st in the same time as the winner, maintaining his 20 second lead over Poland’s Rafal Majka of Tinkoff-Saxo, with Belgium’s Ben Hermans, also of BMC, third, 23 seconds off the lead.
Van Garderen admitted that he was a little sorry that Voigt, who finished 67th, 52 seconds behind Viviani, did not get the stage win.
“I was hoping he’d stay out there, but the sprinters’ teams, they don’t have many chances in this race, so they were pretty keen on getting him back — but I was rooting for him,” Van Garderen said.
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