One year ago Lawson Craddock proved his great potential when he finished 8th overall in the Tour of California. Now riding for Giant-Shimano he has proved how far he has come in the intervening period as he is likely to finish on the podium in this year's edition of the race after a great showing in yesterday's mountain stage.

Lawson Craddock put up a great fight on the finishing climb of stage 6 of the Amgen Tour of California to finish 10th and moved up a spot to third overall as a result of his efforts. The young Texan stuck with the leaders until just over one kilometre left to race before slipping back to finish just 23 seconds down on the yellow jersey, Bradley Wiggins (Sky).

Daan Olivier also rode a solid climb to finish 13th on the stage with Chad Haga and Thomas Damuseau also finishing strongly to 20th and 24th.

The stage, which on the profile looked like it was uphill from start to finish across the 151.8km profile, got off to a fast start with several different teams trying to get out front and in the move that stuck. Six riders eventually moved clear and formed a strong move with several of the other GC favourites teams represented.

These six pulled out a gap over four minutes while behind the chase was constantly on to not let these six gain too much ground. Their advantage fell but then started to go out again as the final climb approached and at the base of the final climb which in essence climbed for nearly 30 kilometres, with the hardest sections coming at the end of the stage. With 20km to go the gap was still three minutes and the six soon became four, then three. Their advantage was still three minutes with 10km to go as the chase group started to be whittled down.

Craddock, Olivier, Haga and Damuseau all looked strong holding their position together as a team on the climb, with the latter three keeping Lawson in position. This front group was reduced to ten riders with just Craddock hanging in there for Team Giant-Shimano before he then also lost touch with the group with two kilometres to go.

Up ahead Johan Esteban Chaves (Orica-GreenEDGE) attacked and pulled clear to take a fine solo win while behind the leaders were reduced to five with Craddock chasing hard behind to limit his loses and maintain his lead in the young rider’s jersey with second place in the competition up the road ahead of him.

At the finish Craddock had limited his loses to Adam Yates (Orica-GreenEDGE), second in the young rider’s competition, to just 23-seconds and also moved up a place in the overall to third.

In 2013, Lawson Craddock finished eighth overall and this year he has moved on one step further, moving towards a podium finish overall in this race which sees a stronger field on the start line year on year.

Twentieth place finisher Chad Haga said after the stage:

“The final climb today was really fast with just short recovery sections scattered throughout the ascent. I was focused on supporting Lawson as long as possible and then when I couldn’t do any more I just hung on to finish as well as possible.

“I pulled off with three kilometres to go and from there Daan took over protecting him. Lawson did another great ride to finish 10th and hold move up to third overall. The great thing about this race for us is that we have such a well rounded team here, and are able to challenge on all types of stages as well as riding a strong GC race – we have shown this consistently through the race. I’m proud to be a part of Team Giant-Shimano.”

Lawson Craddock added:

“Wow that was hard! I had to dig real deep at the end of the climb but it was so great to have the support of the guys there again today. They kept me out of the wind and then to have Chad bring up cold bottles at a crucial moment made a real difference.

“Daan stayed with me right to the end. When I got distanced he was there to drag me back up after a short bit recovery, but I was really suffering in those last two kilometres.

“My goal coming into the race was an overall podium but I knew that would be difficult to achieve. But the work the team have done and the faith the guys have put in is making this possible. The race isn’t over yet but I am really happy that I can repay them for their hard work and support.”