Tejay Van Garderen (BMC Racing) left little room for doubt as to who is the strongest rider in the Amgen Tour of California, as he expanded his overall lead by winning the stage six time trial in San Jose.

Van Garderen powered through the demanding 32km course in 48’52”, besting runner-up Lieuwe Westra (Vacansoleil-DCM) by 22 seconds.

The American added to his lead on currently second placed Michael Rogers (Saxo-Tinkoff), who did well to try and solidify a spot on the final podium after finishing fourth in the time trial. Rogers’ 1’05” deficit to Van Garderen in the TT means that he now sits 1’47” back in the general classification.

The riders faced a rough test in the 32km course, which included a difficult 3km climb to the finish that had many riders pondering whether they should make a quick change to a road bike to complete the ascent. Some ultimately would change and some wouldn’t – Rogers did and Van Garderen didn’t – but ultimately the outcome wasn’t decided by bike strategy.

Budding specialist from Garmin-Sharp, Rohan Dennis, held the day’s best time for much of the late afternoon, and would eventually take third. Cameron Meyer (Orica-GreenEdge) was sixth on the stage, boosting himself all the way up to third overall. Marco Pinotti (BMC Racing) was fifth on the stage, 1’08” behind Van Garderen.

Leopold Konig (NetApp-Endura) came in at 50’35”, while further back Acevedo was suffering from mechanical trouble, swapping his time trial bike for another TT machine, well before he had even begun taking on the climb. At the base of the climb, Acevedo changed bikes once again, this time to his regular road bike. Acevedo managed his bike changes well and posted a 51’33”, and Rogers, who had also changed bikes during his TT, just managed to get under the 50-minute barrier.

Last man on course, Van Garderen stayed unruffled and controlled, putting the hammer down and assuming control of the overall standings by topping Westra by 22 seconds, and adding a minute to Rogers’ deficit.

Tour of California stage 6:
1. Tejay Van Garderen (BMC Racing) 48’52”
2. Lieuwe Westra (Vacansoleil-DCM) 22”
3. Rohan Dennis (Garmin-Sharp) 28”
4. Michael Rogers (Saxo-Tinkoff) 1’05”
5. Marco Pinotti (BMC Racing) 1’08”
6. Cameron Meyer (Orica-GreenEdge) 1’28”
7. Bob Jungels (Radioshack-Leopard) 1’29”
8. Leopold Konig (NetApp-Endura) 1’43”
9. Mathias Frank (BMC Racing) 1’46”
10. Sylvain Chavanel (Omega Pharma-Quick Step) 1’48”

General Classification after Stage 6:
1 Tejay Van Garderen (BMC Racing) in 22h44’24”
2. Michael Rogers (Saxo-Tinkoff) at 1’47”
3. Cameron Meyer (Orica-GreenEdge) at 2’57”
4. Mathias Frank (BMC Racing) at 3’21”
5. Janier Acevedo (Jamis-Hagens Berman) at 3’31”
6. Matthew Busche (Radioshack-Leopard) at 3’33”
7. Francisco Mancebo (5-Hour Energy) at 4’26”
8. Philip Deignan (UnitedHealthcare) at 4’52”
9. Chad Haga (Optum-Kelly Benefit Strategies) at 5’02”
10. Lawson Craddock (Bontrager) at 5’04”