Peter Sagan (Cannondale) continued on from his winning ways in the Tour of California when he won his first ever stage in the USA Pro Challenge which kicked off in Colorado today. Having already been part of a late-stage breakaway, the Slovakian still had enough in reserve to beat Greg Van Avermaet (BMC) ib the final sprint and take the first leader's jersey of the race.

Peter Sagan has always been extremely successful on American soil with numerous Tour of California stage wins already on his palmares. Today he made his first ever appearance in the USA Pro Challenge and the Slovakian continued his winning trend in Colorado.

Having used most of his team to chase down the early break, he decided to join a late move which went clear on the day's final climb with 10km to go, thus forcing other teams to chase instead of his own. BMC did the bulk of the work to bring it back together for a sprint from the reduced peloton and the American made sure that Greg Van Avermaet was well-positioned for the final battle.

Opening the sprint from the perfect position was not enough for the Belgian as Sagan was even better placed on his wheel, and the Slovakian had no problem coming around his rival. Kiel Reijnen (UnitedHealthCare) took 3rd on a surprisingly tough day in Aspen.

Chris Froome and Richie Porte had both made it clear that they were in no condition to contend for the win. If anyone had the idea that they were bluffing, those suspicions were immediately dashed as the star duo were some of the first to get dropped when the going got tough towards the end.

With his win, Sagan is now the first leader of the event and he will wear the leader's jersey in tomorrow's 2nd stage. With a passage of the Independence Pass at more than 3700m above sea level, Hoosier Pass and a short steep kicker just before the line, the stage is expected to give the first indication of who could potentially go on to win the race.

A fast start

The third edition of the USA Pro Challenge kicked off with a 97,6km stage around Aspen, consisting primarily of 3 laps on a 33km circuit. Despite not containing any major climbs, the circuit was by no means flat with 4 categorized climbs and numerous smaller ramps spread out on the route.

Many teams had intentions of changing the predicted script of a bunch sprint and so the race was off to an aggressive start. Tyler Wren (Jamis) was the first to launch an attack and he was immediately joined by Jeremy Vennell (Bissell) and Ryan Eastman (Bontrager).

More riders bridge across

Jarlinson Pantano (Colombia) and Carson Miller (Jamis) were the next to bridge across while Davide Villella (Cannondale), Craig Lewis (Champion System) and Ian Burnett (Jelly Belly) also joined the move. The peloton had, however, different plans and so they brought everything back together.

Lewis and Burnett refused to give up and so they made an immediate counterattack alongside Matt Cooke (Jamis). That proved to be the right combination as the peloton allowed them to build up a gap of a little more than 2 minutes.

Cannondale keeps everything under control

Cannondale had red-circled this stage for Sagan and so the Italian team kept the front trio under firm control with Juraj Sagan and Villella doing most of the early chase work. As they crossed the line for the first time with 66km to go, the gap was 2.10 and when they passed the same spot 33km later, the advantage had been reduced to 1.42 by the Italian team.

In between those two passages, Cooke had proved himself to be the superior climber among the escapees, beating Lewis in the sprints on the first two climbs. Lewis took his revenge by making a small attack to take maximum points in the intermediate sprint at the second passage of the finish line.

Cooke takes more points

Cooke also won the sprint on the day's third climb while riders had started to come into difficulty in the peloton. The high altitude had a bad influence of many of the European riders who found the racing unusually tough.

With 17km to go, Radioshack decided that they wanted a hard race which would suit their sprinter Tony Gallopin and so Jens Voigt upped the pace in the main group. Sensing the peloton from behind, Lewis decided to attack on a small categorized climb and that left Burnett behind, the American being caught by the peloton moments later.

Cooke takes off on his own

Lewis made another attempt to get rid of Cooke but instead it was the Jamis rider who emerged as the strongest when he dropped Lewis on the day's final climb. Cooke did an outstanding job to keep the peloton at bay and crested the summit of the final climb with a few seconds in reserve.

Garmin-Sharp had upped the pace even further on the slopes and many riders had now been dropped from the peloton which was about half of its original size. Porte and Froome had both been some of the first riders to be sent out the backdoor.

Sagan on the attack

Over the top Carter Jones (Bissell), George Bennett (Radioshack) and Brent Bookwalter (BMC) attacked and they made it up to Cooke. Sagan had no only GC rider Damiano Caruso left for support and so he decided to join that move, thus forcing other teams to initiate the chase.

Javier Megias (Novo Nordisk) and Tom Zirbel (Optum) both bridged across to form a 7-rider group while Sky had now taken responsibility for the chase. With 7km to go, Bennett and Jones got clear on their own while the remaining part of the breakaway was caught.

BMC organizes the chase

Bennett was riding for the GC while Jones had his sights set on the stage win and so the duo combined forces to build up a 20-second gap. Behind, BMC got organized and the American team started to chase, bringing back the Bennett with 1,9km to go as the New Zealander decided to save energy for the coming days.

Jones refused to give up but when Michael Schär took a huge turn on the front with teammates Van Avermaet and Tejay van Garderen in his wheel, the young American was finally brought back and all was set for a big bunch sprint.

Lucas Euser took control inside the final kilometre with teammate Reijnen, Van Avermaet, Sagan and Tony Gallopin (Radioshack) in his wheel. Van Avermaet was the first to open his sprint but Sagan seemed to pass his Belgian rival with apparent ease, thus getting his race off to a perfect start.

Result:

1. Peter Sagan 2.26.00

2. Greg Van Avermaet

3. Kiel Reijnen

4. Greg Van Avermaet

5. Tejay van Garderen

6. Damiano Caruso

7. Rory Sutherland

8. Lucas Euser

9. Tom Danielson

10. Chris Baldwin

General classification:

1. Peter Sagan 2.26.00

2. Greg Van Avermaet

3. Kiel Reijnen

4. Greg Van Avermaet

5. Tejay van Garderen

6. Damiano Caruso

7. Rory Sutherland

8. Lucas Euser

9. Tom Danielson

10. Chris Baldwin