Timmy Duggan climbs brutally steep mountains during competition and dedicates endless hours training for the sport that consumes his life. But he rarely grabs the glory.

A Boulder native who will be participating in this week’s USA Pro Cycling Challenge, Duggan is often called on to help a top sprinter with a chance of winning an event race to the front. In the selfless world of pro cycling, many loyal teammates put in the time for a one-man spot on the podium.

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“One of my strengths as a cyclist is just my recovery day after day,” said Duggan, 29. “I can just kind of go all day, slave away. Day after day I’m … setting the pace and I don’t really get so tired.”

Not that he minds. His proficiency on two wheels earned him a spot on the five-man 2012 U.S. road cycling Olympic team, where Taylor Phinney missed out on a medal by less than a second and settled for fourth.

The blond-haired cyclist who rides for Liquigas-Cannondale, based in Italy, proudly displays his heritage with a weathered cap emblazoned with the Colorado flag pulled low over his face. And it may be precisely such heritage that earns him a stage win in the second annual Pro Challenge, which careens into Colorado Springs Aug. 24.

“I know every single kilometer of the route, about every pothole and piece of road kill on the side of the road,” Duggan said before a training ride through Garden of the Gods in early August. “And for sure, that’s a huge advantage.”

That Duggan is even racing professionally is itself a major achievement after a career-threatening crash at the 2008 Tour de Georgia that left him with a traumatic brain injury. He says it took a year before he felt healthy, first hopping back on the saddle to avoid lingering regret from never again trying the sport that he originally took up as a way to stay in shape during the summer as an Alpine ski racer.

Duggan’s close friend and Liquigas-Cannondale teammate Ted King understands the magnitude of the injury better than most after seeing the effects of a stroke on his father nine years ago.

“Day-to-day when I’m back home I see what it’s like for the family, the caregivers, the people coming back from that brain injury themselves,” said King, who grew up in New Hampshire and joins Duggan as the only other American on his pro team. “It’s absolutely a miracle what Timmy’s come back from.”

His cycling coach for the first several years of his cycling career, Brian White, says switching from ski racing to cycling suited Duggan because his undying effort to improve more directly led to competitive success in the latter.

And according to White, it’s such resiliency from the injuries and setbacks that separates him from the best cyclists in the world joining him on the start line. 

“He has been as if not more challenged than any other athlete I’ve known over the years,” said White, who trained at the Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs as a road racer in the late ‘80s and early ‘90s and works as a psychiatrist in Cooperstown, N.Y. “He has gone through a lot and stuck to it and his perseverance is unsurpassed.”

Once again healthy and riding the energy of the overwhelming crowds who lined the London course, King says the veteran in his eighth year as a pro is riding “absolutely incredible” heading into one of the most prestigious stateside competitions.

Back on familiar ground, Duggan will take his familiar role as a backstage man, hoping sprinters like Vincenzo Nibali will finish the tour-ending stage in Denver with the title. But he’s eyeing his rare moment in the spotlight.

“Going into team meetings Timmy will put his hand up and say, ‘I really want to go for this particular stage,’” King said. “And I would bank on the team backing him up for that.”

The Pro Challenge peaks at an altitude of more than 12,000 feet, and Duggan’s comfort in the thin air could make him a central component of his team’s success.

With his 2012 U.S. national championship jersey across his slight frame, Stage 6 (Aug. 25, Golden to Boulder) – which closes on the city that hold memories of his amateur and pro career – would make for a storybook ending.

“I’ll be going full gas for that one,” he said.

Children race underwater robots Saturday at a science fair held at Peterson Air Force Base’s Patriot Park. The science fair, organized by the Challenger Learning Center of Colorado and The Rocky Mountain Company Grade Officer Council, featured 30 educational booths focused on science, technology, engineering and math and was attended by nearly 2,000 children and parents. Photo by ERIN PRATER/THE GAZETTE

Timmy Duggan of the Liquigas-Cannondale team trains in Garden of the Gods Thursday, Aug. 2, 2012, in preparation for the USA Pro Challenge Aug. 20-26, 2012. Stage 5, Aug. 24, will travel through the park and finish in downtown Colorado Springs. Photo by CHRISTIAN MURDOCK, THE GAZETTE

Christian Murdock, The Gazette