United States
13 March 1978
1.72m
58.50kg
2004
Sobe/Headshok (1999-2001), Mercury (2002), Saturn Cycling Team (2003), Fassa Bortolo (2004)
A rider on the rise, Danielson capped off a successful first season with the Discovery Channel team in 2005 by finishing eighth overall at the Tour of Spain. In his second career Grand Tour start (he was forced to pull out of the Tour of Italy with an injured knee) Danielson rode strongly throughout to make the top 10 and signal his official arrival. Danielson began the year with an impressive victory at the Tour de Georgia and also came through with solid results in various other stage races throughout the season.
Danielson began the season with a fifth place finish at the Tour de Langkawi in Malaysia, an event he won back in 2003. Following Paris-Nice, Danielson put in a strong effort at Semana Catalana, finishing fourth. A strong performance in the race´s most difficult stage to the 2,080m Coll de Pal moved him into 10th overall but a second in the final time trial placed him fourth. Less than one month later, Danielson scored the biggest victory of his career in Georgia, taking the hardest stage to Brasstown Bald to gain the race lead for good. Danielson led four teammates in the top 12 in the time trial stage, placing seventh, two places and 46 seconds ahead of defending race champ Lance Armstrong. After a challenging day in the mountains the next day, Danielson won the race to Brasstown Bald in solo fashion in front of a huge crowd amid snowflakes. Danielson gained a four-second lead and maintained it the next day to clinch overall victory.
A confidant Danielson started the Tour of Italy but a lingering knee injury forced him to withdraw on stage nine. Solid recovery led to a fifth place finish at July´s Tour of Austria and a top 20 finish at the Sachsen Tour. At the Vuelta, Danielson gutted out his top 10 finish on the heels of solid time trial results (fifth, sixth and ninth in the race´s three TTs) and in the mountains as well, keyed by top 11 finishes in back-to-back mountain top stages.
Danielson came to the Discovery Channel team following his first full season competing in Europe back in 2004. The 28-year-old former mountain biker, who won a US collegiate championship while attending Fort Lewis College back in 2001, had one race victory in 2004, breaking a 10-year record in the Mt. Evans Hill Climb in Colorado. Danielson won the 45km event, one that features an elevation gain of 1,981m and reaches a final altitude of 4,304m, four minutes faster than the race´s previous best time. On the continent, Danielson had a handful of solid performances, including top 20 finishes at the Tour de Romandie and the Euskal Bizikleta and an impressive ride on stage seven of the Tour of Switzerland, capped by the 13.3 km climb to Malbun.
In 2003, with the Saturn team in the US, Danielson and teammates dominated the domestic scene after winning the early season Tour de Langkawi. Other victories in '03 included the Nature Valley Grand Prix, the Cascade Classic, the Tour de Toona and a repeat win at the Mt. Washington Hill climb. In '02, Danielson won the nine-stage Tour of Qinghai Lake in China, taking a pair of stages, including the penultimate mountain stage, to go from 42 seconds down in third place to a lead of 2:10.
Danielson helped create the Fort Lewis College Cycling Scholarships fund to assist young cyclists at his alma mater.
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14th, stage 15, Tour of Spain
16th, stage 14, Tour of Spain
8th, stage 11, Tour of Spain
10th, stage 10, Tour of Spain
5th, stage 9, Tour of Spain
5th, stage 1, Tour of Spain
30th overall, Clásica San Sebastián
2nd, overall Mountains Classification, Sachsen-Tour International
16th, GC, Sachsen-Tour International
11th, stage 5, Sachsen-Tour International
15th, stage 2, Sachsen-Tour International
5th, GC, Tour of Austria
2nd, stage 4, Tour of Austria
7th, stage 2, Tour of Austria
1st, GC, Tour de Georgia
1st, stage 5, Tour de Georgia
13th, stage 4, Tour de Georgia
7th, stage 3, Tour de Georgia
7th, stage 2, Tour de Georgia
14th, stage 5b, Tour of the Basque Country
4th, GC, Semana Catalana
10th, stage 3, Semana Catalana
5th, GC, Tour de Langkawi
8th, stage 8, Tour de Langkawi
9th, stage 4, Tour de Langkawi
69th, stage 1, Tour de Langkawi
1st, Mt. Evans Hill Climb
11th, stage 5, Euskal Bizikleta
15th, stage 7, Tour of Switzerland
18th overall, Tour de Romandie
19th overall, Euskal Bizikleta |
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