Van Garderen Tops Time Trial; Leipheimer Vaults into Yellow in Stage 3 of the Tour of Utah

A full gallery of photos of every rider is here: http://www.gallery.cyclingwest.com/v/tourofutah2011/

By Jared Eborn

TOOELE — Tejay Van Garderen has been waiting for this day since he signed with a Pro Tour team.

The rising star with the HTC-Highroad team finally, after countless close calls, picked up a victory in a professional race after a stellar junior career and it couldn’t have come on a better day — his 23rd birthday.

By posting the fastest time of the day during the Larry H. Miller Tour of Utah’s stage 3 time trial, Van Garderen gave himself, and his team, a sweet birthday gift. Van Garderen’s time over the 15.6 km course at Miller Motorsports Park of 17:33 was six seconds better than that of Levi Leipheimer.

“I had more motivation today for sure.  It’s my birthday, and my fiancé was in the car. It’s something I wanted for a long time (a stage win).  With HTC-Highroad over at the end of the year, I really wanted to repay them with a victory,” Van Garderen said about his victory today.  “I knew how to take the corners.  The course was a little windy and I knew where the wind was coming from.  I was taking advice from Allan Peiper (directeur sportif of HTC–Highroad) in the team car as well.  He told me to start hard and find your pace.”

The Radio Shack rider wasn’t terribly disappointed in the result, however. Though a stage win would have been preferred, Leipheimer’s second-place effort gave him the race leader’s yellow jersey and created a healthy bit of separation between himself and his closest competitors.

“You have to capitalize on the time trial. I know that’s what I had to do today and cut as much time as I could into Oscar (Sevilla) and (Sergio) Henao, because those two, and their team (Gobernacion Indeportes Antioquia), will be very aggressive and they’ll be hard to control. I need every second that I can get these next two days,” said Leipheimer, who won the Tour de Suisse earlier this summer.

Commenting on the tour, he said, “It’s even better than last year.” “It’s great to be at the Tour of Utah and to see this race come of age. I went to high school here and I have a lot of fond memories of being in Utah. And it’s great to see the healthy communities that embrace this race.”

Entering the day trailing Sergio Henao by 13 seconds, Leipheimer used his time trialing expertise to leap past not only Henao, but his Gobernacion de Antioquia teammate Oscar Sevilla. Leipheimer now enjoys a 27 second lead over fellow Radio Shack rider Janez Brajkovic while Seville sits 29 seconds back and Henao is now 56 seconds off the pace. Van Garderen moved up to sixth overall at 2:27 back.

Saturday’s Stage 4 will be a rugged 11-lap ride through the streets of Salt Lake City’s Avenues, Capitol Hill and University.

Stage 3 Results:

General Classification after Stage 3:

Best Utah Rider after Stage 3: