Varese, Italy. (September 26, 2008)-Day four of the 2008 UCI Road World Championships featured the 173-kilometer men's U23 road race as Tejay Van Garderen (Fort Collins, Colo.) provided the U.S. National Team with its top performance of the day, finishing 25th out of the 167 riders who took the start. Van Garderen, a future pro who splits his time in Europe with Rabobank's farm system and the USA Cycling National Development Team, was one of three Americans to finish amongst the remains of the main peloton, 33 seconds behind the six-man lead breakaway.

Finishing alongside Van Garderen were Chad Beyer (Anthem, Ariz.) in 39th and the sixth-place finisher in Tuesday's time trial, Peter Stetina (Boulder, Colo.) in 52nd. Kirk Carlsen (Sandown, N.H.) placed 96th at +12:01, while Chris Barton (Ojai, Calif.) abandoned after working to help chase down the race's definitive breakaway.

Despite racing at a numerical disadvantage for much of the race, Colombia's Fabio Andres Duarte Arevalo used a well-time attack in the final kilometer to claim the world title ahead of silver medalist Simone Ponzi of Italy and third-place finisher John Degenkolb (GER).

With 10 laps of a 17-kilometer circuit on the agenda, the day's race took shape early on when an 11-man breakaway escaped from the field and later grew to 20 riders at the race's halfway mark. With Italy, Germany, France, Spain, Belgium, the Netherlands and Russia all represented in the initial break, it fell upon the U.S. squad to contribute to the chase efforts. But with roughly 70 kilometers remaining, a five-man lead group containing two Germans, two Italians and the Colombian had established itself as what would be the winning move.

"At the world championships, you always need to have a little bit of luck and good legs to do well," commented Stetina following the race. "We didn't have either today. There were a lot of moves early in the race but we were waiting for later. In the end, I just didn't have the legs and couldn't follow the right moves when I needed to."

The U.S. has never won a medal in neither the men's U23 road race since it was implemented to the world championship program in 1996, nor in the event's previous incarnation - the amateur men's road race - which ran from 1921-1995.

The U.S. continues the 2008 UCI Road World Championships on Saturday with the elite women's road race - an event in which the U.S. has not won a medal in 14 years. Competing for the U.S. will be Kristin Armstrong (Boise, Idaho), Amber Neben (Irvine, Calif.), Christine Thorburn (Sunnyvale, Calif.)
Katheryn Curi-Mattis (Mountain View, Calif.), Kori Seehafer (Louisville, Colo.) and Brooke Miller (Los Altos, Calif.)

2008 UCI Road World Championships
Varese, Italy
Sept. 23-28

U23 Men's Road Race
1. Fabio Andres Duarte Arevalo (COL) 4:17.02
2. Simone Ponzi (ITA) s.t.
3. John Degenkolb (GER) s.t.
25. Tejay Van Garderen (Fort Collins, Colo.) +0:33
39. Chad Beyer (Anthem, Ariz.) +0:33
52. Peter Stetina (Boulder, Colo.) +0:33
96. Kirk Carlsen (Sandown, N.H.) +12:01
DNF. Chris Barton (Ojai, Calif.)