Team BMC Racing's George Hincapie out-sprinted Team HTC-HighRoad's Tejay Van Garderen on the rain-soaked streets of Aspen, Colorado, to win Wednesday's stage 2 of the USA Pro Cycling Challenge 2011.

Hincapie was part of a six-man group that escaped from the main peloton on the run-in from Independence Pass on the 209.8-kilometer stage. It was Hincapie's first victory for Team BMC Racing and his first since winning a third U.S. national road championship title on August 30, 2009 in his hometown of Greenville, S.C.

"It has been awhile," a highly joyful Hincapie told Roadcycling.com and Roadcycling.mobi and added "We had four guys at the top of the climb to help Cadel (Evans) come back, so I thought I might as well take a chance. It worked out perfectly."

"I thought I was in pretty good shape coming into this race," Hincapie added and continued "I saw a couple guys going and decided to bridge up to them. Once I saw Tejay (Van Garderen) come across I knew he and Tom Danielson were going to go for the GC and knew I had a great shot to win the stage. It was nice to be able to finish in such a beautiful city with my hands in the air."

Hincapie also moved into second overall, 16 seconds behind Van Garderen, who became the race's third overall leader in three days. Tour de France winner Evans led a small chase group home to finish seventh, 45 seconds after Hincapie, and is sixth overall, 51 seconds off the lead.

"Tejay rode great today," HTC-HighRoad sports director Brian Holm said and continued "He was strong enough to make a solid attack on that last climb, and he he put us back in the lead as a team so it was a success."

"The attack on the climb, [Van Garderen] got away with Levi Leipheimer (Team RadioShack) and a few others. When they got caught there was still time to make a move on the downhill to the finish."

"The downhill was fast but safe enough for an attack, and about six riders got away. Tejay had the right position to get the [leader's] jersey and he did."

Commenting on the team's impressive performance in today's stage Team BMC Racing sports director Michael Sayers told Roadcycing.com and added "Every single guy rode well and contributed today. And I'm sure Cadel (Evans) wasn't disappointed he had someone up the road today to take the pressure off a bit." Thursday's stage is a 16.1 km, mostly uphill individual time trial in Vail.

The seven-day 2011 USA Pro Cycling Challenge race concludes Sunday in Denver with 70.9-mile Golden to Denver road race.