Tom Danielson proved that he is the king of the Tour of Utah when he set himself up for a title defence by dropping Chris Horner on the Powder Mountain in the first summit finish of the race. The American was pleased to have coped well with the pressure and was impressed by his power output at the high altitude.

Defending Larry H. Miller Tour of Utah champion Tom Danielson of Team Garmin-Sharp powered away from an elite group of riders to win Stage 4 on Thursday. Danielson soloed to victory on the  epic climb of Powder Mountain in the final three kilometers to finish with a time of 4 hours, 18 minutes and 53 seconds.
 
The American broke away from Lampre-Merida’s Chris Horner, who he had battled last year on the slopes of Little Cottonwood Canyon, with three kilometers to go on the climb. The stage win for Danielson put him in the overall leader’s jersey, with a 57-second advantage on the General Classification over Horner. BMC Racing Team’s Ben Hermans (Belgium) finished second on the stage, with Horner on his wheel for third.
 

“I’ve never won a stage like that before, especially with the pressure on [me],” Danielson said. “I came into this race and I just put my hand up. I didn’t want to be one of those guys that says, ‘Oh, whatever, I don’t know…’ I wanted to just deal with the full pressure and overcome it. So I put my hand up and then my teammates turned themselves inside out. Winning a stage like that after your teammates have worked so hard for you, there’s no better feeling in the world than that.

“We were under a lot of pressure. We have a young team here, and guys that just came from the Tour de France that are young, so they’ve got a lot on their plates. Ben [King]  was not even sure he could start this morning because he’s in such a bad place with [his shoulder]. But today he ended up being the MVP, holding that 14-man break by himself. The team really stepped it up today; they were really throwing everything at them.

“I just kept trying to ride a really constant pace and we were flying…going at 400 watts, I don’t think anyone could go faster than that at that high altitude. So it was pretty cool to be there with him [Horner]. And then it was a really long way to the finish! I even took a gel on the climb.

"Hats off to Tour of Utah for really putting together a complex race route. You could have had us ride, like other races, 170 kilometers and then straight up a mountain. But they really threw it all at us. And it was really good for the spectators."

Danielson is fully cognizant that this team will have the burden to defend his lead over the next three days.

"Thankfully the race was really hard so the time gaps are much bigger now so it will be more common sense controlling the race. We'll just take it day by day. I'm not going to worry about the future. I'm going to enjoy today."