American Tejay van Garderen poised for Tour of California title

AMERICAN Tejay van Garderen finished third to keep the overall lead going into the final day.

Tejay van Garderen

LEOPOLD Konig of the Czech Republic won the seventh stage of the Tour of California in a mountaintop finish Saturday, and American Tejay van Garderen finished third to keep the overall lead going into the final day.

Konig, riding for the German team NetApp-Endura team, quickly moved ahead of Janier Acevedo of Colombia with about 400 yards left and completed the 149.8-kiometer (91.4-mile) stage from Livermore to Mount Diablo in 3 hours, 54 minutes, 17 seconds.

Acevedo, the Jamis-Hagens Berman rider who won the second stage, finished second Saturday, 7 seconds behind, after the long climb to the line.

"To be truthful, I wish the climb was a little longer," said Konig, who claimed his fifth career win and first since a 2012 Tour of Britain stage win. "Today, I felt real good. I knew I would have a good race. I haven't won any big races, so this was very good."

Van Garderen, the 24-year-old BMC rider, was 12 seconds back. He took the overall lead with a 10th-place finish in the fifth stage, won the sixth stage and is within a day of his first pro stage race title. The eight-day event concludes Sunday with an 132.9-kilometer (80.7-mile) morning road race from San Francisco to Santa Rosa.

"I'm thrilled. I'm still soaking it in," said van Garderen, who was surrounded by four teammates through much of the final climb. "It was an unbelievable team effort. I knew they were strong, I knew they'd be motivated, but they went above and beyond expectations today.

Australia's Michael Rogers of Saxo-Tinkoff finished fourth in the stage in the same time as van Garderen and remained second overall, 1:47 behind.

"They (his team) made my life somewhat easy, although it still was a hard day but stress-free," said van Garderen, who finished fourth in the event last year and fifth in 2011.

With his runner-up stage finish, Acevedo moved into third place overall - 3:26 back.