It's only three days old, but this USA Pro Cycling Championship has been full of surprises.
The latest is George Hincapie's (left) sprint finish victory — at 8,000 feet elevation — to end Stage 2 in Aspen on Wednesday.
Although he beat Tejay Van Garderen to the line — a cyclist 15 years his junior, the HTC Highroad cyclist, above right, can find solace in taking the overall leader's yellow jersey.
RadioShack's Levi Leipheimer, who took the yellow jersey Tuesday on an uncharacteristic uphill attack at the finish in Crested Butte, dropped to fourth place overall. Hincapie raised himself to 2nd overall, followed by Tom Danielson (Garmin Cervelo) in 3rd place. Christian Vande Velde rounds out the top 5.
Attack
Hincapie scored his first win of the season after he and Van Garderen made a gutsy attack on wet pavement after crossing the summit of Independence Pass, the second 12,000-foot plus pass in this stage.
Danielson bridged up to them on the way down with a couple of Colombian cyclists, but Hincapie still had some gas in the tank to hammer out the final sprint.
Tour de France winner Cadel Evans (Australia) led the next group, which included Leipheimer, Vande Velde and 3rd place Tour de France cyclist Frank Schleck, across the finish line 45 seconds later.
Nearly four minutes passed before Tour de France runner-up Andy Schleck came across the finish.
US cyclists
In spite of the international flavor of this inaugural week-long bicycle race across the Rockies, the top five cyclists are a home-grown bunch.
Van Garderen, 23, was born right here in Washington state (Tacoma), and Hincapie, 38, was born in Queens but now lives in Greenville, SC.
Danielson lives in Aspen, where Wednesday's stage ended. Leipheimer makes his home in Santa Rosa and Vande Velde lives in Illinois.
Time trial
With 4 stages to go, it's definitely too early to call a winner.
Thursday's Stage 3 is a 10.1-mile individual time trial that gains 1,600 feet of elevation around Vail.
Leipheimer excels at the individual time trial. In fact, he took the lead of the Tour of Utah two weeks ago on the strength of his time trialing ability.
Something to remember is that while Leipheimer gained the leader's jersey in Utah on that time trial, it was Van Garderen who actually won that stage with the best time.
Cattle guard obstacle
I mentioned surprises at the inaugural USA Pro Cycling Challenge. Another was routing the cyclists over a cattleguard early in Wednesday's stage that caused five cyclists, including Ivan Basso, to fall.
The worse injury involved Daniele Callegarin, who suffered a concussion, severe facial injuries that could require plastic surgery, and two broken hands.
Those cattle guards are not to be messed with on bicycles. It's like leaving the cover off a manhole on the Champs Elysee.
Top 10 overall
1. Tejay Van Garderen (USA) HTC Highroad
2. George Hincapie (USA) BMC Racing — 16 seconds
3. Tom Danielson (USA) Garmin Cervelo — :22
4. Levi Leipheimer (USA) RadioShack — :34
5. Christian Vande Velde (USA) Garmin Cervelo — :45
6. Cadel Evans (USA) BMC Racing — :51
7. Janier Acevedo (Colombia) Gobernacion De Antioquia — :52
8. Robert Gesink (Netherlands) Rabobank — 1:04
9. Bruno Pires (Portugal) Leopard Trek — 1:08
10. Rory Sutherland (Australia) Leopard Trek — 1:09
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