Dave Zabriskie wins the USA Cycling Pro Time Trial Championship for a second time in a row. Saul Raisin wins a personal victory with his first race back. Team Slipstream puts four riders in the top ten.

Just like last year, Team CSC's David Zabriskie decided not to wear a radio when he attacked the 2007 USA Cycling Professional Time Trial Championship course. It worked last year when he won the first-ever Stars and Stripes jersey for this discipline finishing 32 seconds ahead of the next rider. This year was a much closer race with Team Slipstream presented by Chipotle's Danny Pate coming in a second behind Zabriskie at the finish.

"At the turn around, when I saw Baldwin, I knew that he started 3 minutes ahead of me, and I didn't know his form, but from the guy following me, George (Hincapie)'s brother, all I could hear was 15 and I thought he was saying 1 minute and 15 (seconds) ahead, when I got the finish here, I heard 'he's got to finish in two seconds to take the win' and I started sprinting." said Zabriskie after the race.

David Zabriskie (CSC) en route to his second US Pro TT title .
Photo © Kurt Jambretz/Action Images

Team Slipstream's Timmy Duggan, the third rider off the block, took the fastest time early on when he was the first rider to finish catching the two previous riders. His teammate Pate, the twenty-seventh rider beat him by seven seconds to take the lead until the last rider came in.

"It was good, this course is new to me, I wasn't here last year. I'm starting to figure out that if I don't think about the course too much and over analyze things, and I just go out there and feel it, go faster when I need to, and rest when I need to, that it works out pretty good for me." said Duggan about his effort while Pate was coming to the finish line. We stopped our conversation to see Pate beat him and Duggan continued philosophically "If I had to pick somebody to beat me, it would be him, so it's okay."

"I was riding fast so I felt good about it." said Pate about his ride. "It's a little hard to see how you are doing compared to the rest of the guys when it's a 3-minute gap so when Bobby (Julich) was in front of me, I knew he could be probably one of the guys to win, so I wasn't going to be concerned if he was way ahead of me because it's a big gap and he's one of the favorites today."

Danny Pate (Slipstream-Chipotle) powers his way home turning a high cadence. Photo © Kurt Jambretz/Action Images

The time trial was also an emotional home coming for Saul Raisin (Crédit Agricole) back to racing after his traumatic injury. "After my accident, my first goal, and the goal for my team and family and all my loved ones was just to live a normal life again, you know I have that." said Raisin. "After that my goal is to get back to racing, and today is my first race and all my emotions I had, I just can't describe them, about half way through the race it kind of hit me, oh my God, I'm racing, it's amazing, and the next goal, in 2008, I'm going to start a full racing season.

Dave Zabriskie will wear the Stars and Stripes jersey for another year
Thirty-three of the top American riders took their turns coming down the ramp to try and win the coveted Stars and Stripes jersey on the 18.7-mile race against the clock. The riders started at two minute intervals except for the last ten riders who started at three minute intervals.

Photo © Kurt Jambretz/Action Images

The first rider out was Saul Raisin in first race back after a traumatic injury and "a personal victory" for him. "It was probably the easiest ride of my life, I just sat there enjoying it, I had a great time, it felt good going fast and just letting all loose, I had no stress going in the race, I was nervous just because it's my first race back." said an emotional Raisin at the finish, "It was probably the best ride of my life other than my first ride after my accident with my father."

Duggan put in the fastest time early on in the race and then had to wait to see if his time would be beaten. "The first 5ks was the flat part and I really wanted to take that easiest of the whole course," said Duggan about his ride. "I got up to speed and rolled it at the beginning, I really wanted to focus on hitting the two hills really hard and then just go over the top and resting on the downhills." His finishing time of 39 minutes and 42 seconds did keep him on the podium, in third place.

Danny Pate, the U23 World Time Trial Champion in 2001, finished in second place, only one second behind Zabriskie. "It was a great course. I don't think a national championship course should be any flatter than that." said Pate about the course. "It's good that it's not some straight out and back. A lot of people think that is time trialing is, but I always think it's a little bit more, you have to be able to make a couple of turns at least, so you have to be able to ride a bike. This course is challenging, a little technical, a little less technical than last year but it's good."

"I was riding harder than I was last year. I couldn't have done any better training or preparation." said last year's second place finisher, Toyota-United Pro Cycling Team's Baldwin who was satisfied with his ride, "Guys are just going fast. They're flying. To have seven guys within a minute of Zabriskie shows that there are a lot of riders at a high level right now."

Photo © Kurt Jambretz/Action Images

Team Slipstream's Steven Cozza on his thyroid race back after a head injury sustained in Picardie earlier this year. "This is the first race that I was actually physically and mentally better than ever. It was hard, the whole three months I was out, I had to train and try to stay focused and you start to lose that fire, (well) not quite, I was still really motivated, but so much training, I couldn't wait to start racing again." said Cozza. "As soon as my mind started coming back, I started getting focused, I started working with the neurologist, I'm just stoked to be back out here, I was really proud of myself, my goal was just to be able to go as hard as I could the whole thing and finish strong and feel proud of myself and that's what I did. It's great to see Saul Raisin out here, he's a huge inspiration to me, I wear his bracelet, he's great."

"It's a headwind all the way out, I was really surprised, yesterday we rode it and there was no wind, so that hurt." said Jacob Rosenbarger of Team BMC who finished twenty-third. "It's funny, I was looking for a place a couple times I got into trouble going too hard and there is no way to recover, the wind and the climbs being the way they are, they're shallow, on the descents you can't really free wheel or tuck, you have to be pedaling the whole time."

Photo © Kurt Jambretz/Action Images

Team Slipstream put four riders in the top ten, with Danny Pate in second place, Timmy Duggan in third place, at eight seconds behind, Mike Creed in seventh place and Mike Friedman rounding off in ninth place.

"I think most of all, it just kind of displayed the overall strength of our team and it gives me a lot of confidence because I know in the road race tomorrow, if we have 4 or 5 guys that are capable of getting a top 10 in a national time trial, that's a lot of firepower in a road race." said Duggan about his team's strong showing.

"Some of the best cyclists not necessarily of the nation but of the world plied their trade on what is really a technical and difficult course, and the fact that it came down so close for the top three is even more fantastic." said Steve Johnson, Chief Executive Officer of USA Cycling.

On Sunday, September second, over 100 competitors will tackle the USA Cycling Professional Road Race Championship battle on a 110-mile course, won last year by Greenville resident George Hincapie.

US Championships Time Trial Results
1. ZABRISKE David (Team CSC) 39:34
2. PATE Danny (Team Slipstream) 0:01
3. DUGGAN Timothy (Team Slipstream) 0:08

The podium (left to right) Timmy Duggan (Slipstream-Chipotle), David Zabriske (CSC), and Danny Pate (Slipstream-Chipotle) Photo © Kurt Jambretz/Action Images

4. ZIRBEL Tom (Priority Health p/w Bissell) 0:15
5. JULICH Bobby (Team CSC) 0:49
6. HAMILTON Tyler (Tinkoff Credit Systems) 0:49
7. CREED Michael (Team Slipstream) 0:56
8. BALDWIN Christopher (Toyota-United Pro Cycling team) 0:59
9. FRIEDMAN Michael (Team Slipstream) 1:02
10. JACQUES-MAYNES Ben (Priority Health p/w Bissell) 1:12
11. GRABINGER Michael (SuccessfulLiving p/b Parkpre) 1:28
12. RAMSAY Daniel (SuccessfulLiving p/b Parkpre) 1:42
13. VAN ULDEN Bernard (Navigators Insurance Cycling Team ) 1:42
14. DULIN Thad (The Jittery Joe's - Zero Gravity Pro Cycling Team ) 1:49
15. GUNN Curtis (SuccessfulLiving p/b Parkpre) 2:05
16. COZZA Steven (Team Slipstream) 2:07
17. HOWARD Graham (Priority Health p/w Bissell) 2:10
18. HUFF Brad (Team Slipstream) 2:11
19. CRANE Matthew (Health Net p/b Maxxis) 2:16
20. MCKISSICK Ian (Team BMC) 2:22
21. CRUZ Tony (Discovery Channel) 2:24
22. ZAJICEK Phil (Navigators Insurance Cycling Team ) 2:31
23. ROSENBARGER Jacob (Team BMC) 2:59
24. REISTAD Nick (Jelly Belly Cycling) 3:03
25. THORNTON Joshua (KodakGallery.com - Sierra Nevada Brewing Co. Cycling Team ) 3:10
26. BARROWS Clayton (Rite Aid Pro Cycling Team ) 3:16
27. MUMFORD Reid (Kelly Benefit Strategies / Medifast ) 3:19
28. SWEETING Bobby (AEG Toshiba - Jetnetwork Pro Cycling Team ) 3:25
29. MEAD Bryce (Jelly Belly Cycling) 3:39
30. LANGE Michael (Team Slipstream) 3:51
31. NORTON Michael (Rite Aid Pro Cycling Team ) 4:02
32. DAVID Winston (AEG Toshiba - Jetnetwork Pro Cycling Team ) 4:24
33. RAISIN SAUL (Crédit Agricole) 4:33