Tejay van Garderen (BMC) secured an impressive stage win in Wednesday’s Tour of California time trial, setting a time that also proved to be enough to claim the leader’s yellow jersey with three stages remaining.
His winning time of 40 minutes, 47 seconds over the 21.6 mile course in San Jose was seven seconds clear of BMC Racing teammate Patrick Bevin and good enough for the overall lead.
He not only made up his deficit on Egan Bernal, who assumed the race lead with his mountain-top win on Monday, but van Garderen put 23 seconds into the Team Sky rider with three stages to go.
”Time will tell,” he said. ”If I lose the race by one second, I’m going to wish I eked out another second here. But I’m ahead of any time bonuses, so as long as I stick to the wheel (of my rivals) I’ll be safe in that regard, and Bernal has shown he’s going uphill really well.”
Van Garderen’s lead should be safe on Friday’s fifth stage, a flat 176.5km trek from Stockton to Elk Grove that should be decided in a sprint. But the crucial test will be the following day, when the peloton tackles a long, brutal stage that ends with a hard climb in Lake Tahoe.
Bernal will no doubt attack. So will Daniel Martinez, who is just 37 seconds off the overall lead, and a host of other climbers with aspirations of snatching away van Garderen’s yellow jersey.
”Tahoe is going to be a big test of the strength of the team, and I think we have one of – if not the – strongest teams here,” van Garderen said. ”They’ll be able to control it and when we get to the upper slopes of the climb, I’m going to have to stick to the climbers.
”I’m no scrub when it comes to altitude,” he added, ”so I think I should be able to handle that.”
Tour of California 2018 – stage 4 results (San José – Morgan Hill ITT):
| 1 | Tejay van Garderen (BMC) | 40:47 |
| 2 | Patrick Bevin (BMC) | +07” |
| 3 | Tao Geoghegan Hart (Team Sky) | +32” |
| 4 | Lawson Craddock (EF Education First-Drapac) | +46” |
| 5 | Filippo Ganna (UAE Team Emirates) | +49” |
| 6 | Mikkel Bjerg (Hagens Berman Axeon) | +53” |
| 7 | Jack Bauer (Mitchelton-Scott) | +55” |
| 8 | Neilson Powless (LottoNL-Jumbo) | +56” |
| 9 | Maciej Bodnar (Bora-hansgrohe) | +57” |
| 10 | Daniel Martinez (EF Education First-Drapac) | ,, |
General classification after stage 4:
| 1 | Tejay van Garderen (BMC) | 12:50:55 |
| 2 | Egan Bernal (Team Sky) | +23” |
| 3 | Daniel Martinez (EF Education First-Drapac) | +37” |
| 4 | Tao Geoghegan Hart (Team Sky) | +52” |
| 5 | Adam Yates (Mitchelton-Scott) | +01’07” |
| 6 | Rafal Majka (Bora-hansgrohe) | +01’29” |
| 7 | Brandon McNulty (Rally Cycling) | +02’08” |
| 8 | Laurens De Plus (Quick-Step Floors) | +02’13” |
| 9 | Kristijan Durasek (UAE Team Emirates) | +02’15” |
| 10 | Brent Bookwalter (BMC) | +02’34” |
