Tinkoff-Saxo conceded time in the fight for the overall lead on the mountainous stage 2 at high altitude. Best placed Tinkoff-Saxo rider on the line was Bruno Pires, who finished 19th, 59” down on stage winner Brent Bookwalter. The squad will adjust its race strategy for the coming tough stages.

Lack of oxygen took its toll, as the riders of USA Pro Challenges battled on stage 2 with a summit finish around 3,300 meters above sea level after a seven kilometer finishing climb, tells Lars Michaelsen, sports director of Tinkoff-Saxo.

“Unfortunately, today didn’t turn out as we had hoped. Our guys suffered in the thin air here in Colorado. We had tailwind on the final climb, while headwind would have been better for us. That could have helped us on the final kilometers, but we must just realize that our squad still hasn’t acclimatized fully. It wasn’t easy and BMC was sitting on it all, as they won the stage and still leads the GC”, says Lars Michaelsen and adds:

“BMC was the strongest team today, they have surely taken advantage of doing Tour of Utah, which was also at altitude and for many of the native teams, this race is a priority and they have prepared well for the thin air. Our best rider on the stage was Bruno Pires, who lost 59”, while Kreuziger and Chris Anker crossed the line at 1’22” and 1’43” respectively”.

Stage 2 of USA Pro Challenge consisted of 186km of racing with a summit finish at around 3,300m. BMC’s Brent Bookwalter took the stage and assumes the race lead. Lars Michaelsen notes that Tinkoff-Saxo will adapt the race strategy according to today’s result.

"We have to accept the situation and take it day by day. We’re not present in the top of the general classification and we will focus on keeping up the adaptation to the altitude and hope for better legs during some of the coming stages, where we will search for opportunities to grab a stage win. It will all depend on how our shape is on the next stages, but the team spirit is good and we will have to build on top of that”, finishes Lars Michaelsen.