Team Garmin-Barracuda's Dave Zabriskie of Westlake Village, California earlier today succeeded at collecting his seventh national time trial champion title by winning the time trial at the 2012 USA Cycling Professional Time Trial National Championships in Greenville, South Carolina.

Zabriskie overcame temperatures approaching 90 degrees Fahrenheit and completed the 20.7-mile course in 00:40:41:44, six seconds faster than his closest competitor, BMC Racing Team's 23-year-old Tejay van Garderen of Fort Collins, Colorado, who earned the silver medal.

"Wearing the Stars-and-Stripes does not get old," Zabriskie commented after the finish and added "The last few years I've brought it with me, even though I know I can't wear my Stars-and-Stripes on this day, but I hang it up in my room to remind myself how much I like it and how people want to take it away from me. I enjoy wearing it."

Zabriskie was the last rider to start the course, but he didn't waste any time making noise. Each of his three laps were the fastest of the day, including completing his first lap in 00:13:18, unseating van Garderen's impressive mark of 13:23 as the fastest of the day. The 23-year-old van Garderen was the 16th of 35 riders out of the starting gate and his final time of 00:40:47.90 stood as the fastest until Zabriskie bumped him from the top spot.

Van Garderen said he was surprised to learn he was only six seconds off the winning time after conceding 34 seconds to Zabriskie in a time trial over a similar distance last week at the 2012 Amgen Tour of California.

"It was a good ride," van Garderen said after the finish and continued "I look back and I left everything on the course. I can't say that I have any regrets. Six seconds is a tough pill to swallow. But six seconds is a tough pill to swallow. It would have been easier to get second place by 40 seconds. When it's six seconds, that's when you look back and you're like, 'Could I have gone a little better there or taken a corner different?' What's done is done."

Van Garderen's BMC Racing teammate Brent Bookwalter of Athens, Georgia collected the bronze medal, finishing with a time of 00:41:08.06.

Racing in front of several family members and close to his home in Asheville, North Carolina, Bookwalter said he was also encouraged by his result. "Third place is nice and it's nice to get on the podium," he said and added "But I'm not going to stop here. I'm going to try to keep working to get that jersey."

Last year's silver medalist, Tom Zirbel of Boulder, Colorado and Team Optum powered by Kelly Benefit Strategies placed fourth, 15 seconds faster than the fifth-place finisher Nathan English of Berkeley, California and Kenda 5 Hour Energy powered by Geargrinder.

The same course at Clemson University-International Center for Automotive Research (CU-ICAR) served as the venue for the U.S. Handcycling Series Time Trial.

Aaron Trent of Colorado Springs, Colorado, a competitor in the C4 category, registered the best time, completing the 22.2-kilometer course in 33:08.00. Also winning their respective categories were: Ryan Boyle of Dewitt, New York in T2, home turf rider Bryant Young of Greenville, South Carolina in C2, Jason Kimball (Spring Lake, North Carolina) in C3, Anthony Pedeferri (Camarillo, California) in H1, David Randall of Mansfield, Ohio in H2, Carlos Moleda of Bluffton, South Carolina in H3 and Scott McNeice (St. Petersburg, Florida). Among the women, Ashley Brelsford Dana (Putney, Vt) registered a time of 00:47:32:45 to win the women's H2 while Thea Rosa of Cool, California won the women's H3 category.

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