Christian Vande Velde and Tom Danielson stole the show Wednesday in Stage 3 of the USA Pro Challenge. But they couldn’t have done it without the help of David Zabriskie.

The Garmin-Sharp-Barracuda rider pulled much of the weight in a breakaway pack of cyclists sprinting from Buena Vista to Twin Lakes. It’s a role he’s grown accustomed to in this seven-day stage race.

“Dave usually doesn’t bring this much enthusiasm to most races,” said Vande Velde, who took over the yellow jersey as overall leader. “He’s 3-for-3 in every day of these breakaways. You can’t say enough about teammates like that.

“This is a team sport and without the team doing our thing, there’s no way Tom and I would be standing in front of you today.”

Danielson won the stage, and he credited Zabriskie for guarding him from a relentless wind that made it feel like they were “going nowhere.”

“The guy’s a bad, bad man,” Danielson said of his 33-year-old teammate. “I’m really lucky he’s on my team, and I owe my victory today to him and the team for sure.”

Upon further review

BMC protested the results of the Stage 2 finish in Mount Crested Butte where Tejay Van Garderen pulled away in a sprint to the line and seemed to win by at least a couple of seconds.

However, Vande Velde was awarded with the same time after taking second.

The protest was rejected by the jury that decides scoring matters.

“Sometimes it goes in your favor and sometimes it goes against your favor,” Vande Velde said.

Sprint to the line

Two seconds after Danielson crossed the finish line, Italian Damiano Caruso won a sprint for second. The Liquigas-Cannondale rider has been fast all week and took over the sprint jersey after Stage 3.

Danielson retained his king of the mountains jersey, as did Joseph Lloyd Dombrowski with the best young rider jersey.

Francisco Jarley Colorado Hernandez received the most aggressive rider jersey.