In my myopic American view, I think Danny Pate finishing second in the Criterium International is a bigger deal than Big Jens Voight winning the race for the fifth straight time.

OK, maybe not, but Pate’s podium IS a big deal, a  breakthrough finish for the 30-year-old American who won Stage 5 in St. Charles in the inaugural Tour of Missouri in 2007.

Pate, whose palmares also include an under-23 world time trial titlei n ’01, is one of the heroes of the anti-doping era in cycling. Racing in Europe in his early 20s, he didn’t like the whole doping scene in cycling, so came back to the U.S. to race on the domestic circuit.

He advanced through the U.S. circuit and ended up with Slipstream-Chipotle, which now as Garmin-Chipotle is in his first year as a UCI Pro Tour team and now Pate is racing on his terms (anti-doping) back in Europe.

And, might I add, excelling on his terms. He’s a workhorse for Garmin-Chipotle, a strongman who sacrifices himself for the overall good of the team. He’s an expert in the time trial, one of several on the Garmins, and he took third last year in a stage at the Tour de France. Now, he gets a podium at C.I.

On Sunday, he took second in stage 2, seven seconds behind Voight, and he solidified his spot with a solid seventh, just two seconds behind Voight.

Columbia-High Road’s Tony Martin won the TT to lead a dominant performance  by the Columbia’s with four of the top six finishers. He won the 8.3 kilometer TT in 10 minutes 5 seconds, 1 second ahead of Garmin’s Bradley Wiggins. Columbia’s Frantisek Rabon was third, Maxime Monfort fourth and Bert Grabsch sixth. Voight was fifth in the TT.

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