Stagiaire Julien Bernard has ridden himself into the leader role for Trek Factory Racing at the USA Pro Challenge Thursday, arriving with a small group after the final climb in Breckenridge shattered the peloton, to move into ninth overall.

“[Julien] Bernard has been a nice surprise for us – he is doing really, really, well.  What can I say? I am really happy to have him here,” gushed director Kim Andersen. “It’s nice to see this young kid do so well in his first big races, and I think he can do quite a good chrono tomorrow and keep him up there.”

Twenty-three seconds ahead of Bernard’s group, Rohan Dennis (BMC) soared across the line to grab the win and also take the yellow jersey from teammate Brent Bookwalter who finished in second place, 19 seconds after Dennis and four seconds in front of the fast-charging group.

Missing from the mixture of riders at the finish of the 202.5-kilometer stage four that began in Aspen and culminated in Breckenridge was Julian Arredondo, who struggled in the high altitude and lost contact on Hoosier Pass to slip out of the top 10 GC.

It was a brutal start to day four as the peloton climbed out of Aspen right onto the long, steep pitch of Independence Pass, where Laurent Didier made a few good efforts to grab the day’s breakaway. Over the top, after more than an hour of climbing, he was with five men, but his day in the escape group would not last.

“The team has been riding well here for the first days, but today we missed a little bit. Laurent is in good shape, and he did well at the start to try and be in the breakaway and was there over the top, but was dropped in the descent," Andersen said.

“First of all we wanted to have one in the breakaway and then to go with Arredondo for the last climb because normally it should be really good for him, but he was dropped before already. So I am disappointed about that.”

A strong cross-headwind aided the chase to the five-man breakaway, snagged back on the lower parts of Hoosier Pass, and also kept the peloton together as they swept down toward Breckenridge where one more steep uphill remained.

Team BMC set a painful pace up the Boreas Pass road, exploding the peloton and setting up Dennis nicely as he soloed over the top and ensuing decent for the win. 

Bernard arrived with a 16-rider chase group, finishing in 13th place to move him into ninth place (+55 seconds) GC ahead of a tough time trial Friday.

“Nobody knows what Bernard can do [in the time trial], but he told me that he is not too bad, and right now he is in amazing form so we shall see,” added Andersen. "I have been very impressed with him, and now we will work hard to keep him in the top GC.”