Team Garmin-Transitions’s Tom Danielson is currently in New Mexico racing the Tour of the Gila with teammates David Zabriskie and Tom Peterson on the DZ-Nuts team. His strong second place on the opening stage’s mountain-top finish is a good indicator of his preparation for next month’s Tour of California, according to Cyclingnews:
Tom Danielson showed that he is on target for next month’s Amgen Tour of California with a strong performance in the SRAM Tour of the Gila on Wednesday.
The Garmin-Transitions rider, taking part in the national event under the DZ Nuts team, claimed second place, a mere 10 seconds behind stage winner Levi Leipheimer on the notoriously steep finishing 10-kilometre long ascent to Mogollon.
Danielson hopes to put forth an equally strong performance is Friday’s stage three time trial and keep his place in the overall classification.
“For me it’s important to prove to myself, that I can be up there with those guys and I proved that today,” Tom Danielson told Cyclingnews. “I hope to have a really good time trial in a couple of days.”
“I would really like to give the overall a shot, I’d be a fool not to,” he added. “I’ve done quite a few months here is Silver City with Team Garmin-Transitions, every year we’ve had a big training camp.”
Friday’s stage three Dan Potts Memorial Tyrone Individual Time Trial is sure to shake up the overall with a 25-km grueling out and back race against the clock. Last year Leipheimer increased his lead in the overall classification by winning the event in a time of 32.59.
“I’ve done a lot of time trial training this month and I hope to improve it,” Danielson said. “We will see because Levi is one of the best in the world and he’s a great indicator to see where we are at. I just keep working hard and worrying about myself and how good I can go and hopefully be ready for the Tour of California.”
Garmin-Transitions have three riders participating in the race this week as a tune-up for the Amgen Tour. Dave Zabriskie, Tom Danielson and Tom Peterson are represented under Zabriskie’s company DZ Nuts as they are prevented by UCI rules from participating in a national event under their ProTour team.
More photos from the Tour of the Gila:
