Although the profile info says 5km, the Sacramento straight is only 3.1 kilometers long. It's all a question of acceleration and daily form, gaps definitively won't be more than a few seconds between the favorites.
Thomas Dekker, Stefan Schumacher, Stijn Devolder, Edvald Boasson Hagen and Taylor Phinney are the people to look out for.
Frank Schleck is first of the big names on the road today, 39th with 19 seconds down. Will Andy do any better?
Pieter Weening was one of the people who could make a surprise, but only surprise was his awful result. 112th with 47 seconds deficit.
Ruben Plaza also disappointed his fans. 116th, -47sec.
Then came Mark Cavendish who just needed to come close so he could be able to take over the yellow jersey after the flat stage tomorrow.
And he came close enough. 17th, -12sec.
The American time trialing wonderkid Taylor Phinney, one of the absolute favorites for todays stage. He set the current best time of 4'27 which stayed number one for quite a long time, but in the end he was 2nd, just 2 seconds down on the eventual winner. Probably has to work on his acceleration a bit in order to win such short prologues.
Maxime Bouet probably surprised many people with his 8th place, -10sec.
Make way for the champion! Stijn Devolder came to Sacramento to show off his shiny rainbow jersey, and came agonizingly close to his first ITT win after the World Championships. 3rd, -3sec.
Damiano Cunego was one of the not so clear favorites for the overall win. 21st, -14sec.
Denis Menchov was also good today. 15th, -11sec.
Another Trek Livestrong superstar, Guy East, rounded up the top 10 today. 10th, -10sec.
Thomas Dekker was also great, but nothing less was expected. 4th and seven seconds behind.
And finally, Stefan Schumacher. Current German individual time trial champion, and a huge favorite for the overall victory.
Today, he explained a lesson from time trialing handbooks.
4'25, 1st place and a great win for him, he'll get to wear the yellow jersey tomorrow, but it will be up to us to take it over from him.
And last, but not the least, Andy Schleck gave it a go. He was a bit better than his brother Frank, finishing 14th in the time of Denis Menchov, 11 seconds behind Schumacher.
As I have feared, the replay cannot be loaded and because of that there will be no extensive report for this stage.
To make the long story short: break of the day was there, Astana, Saxobank and Columbia worked to bring them in, we've set up our "a la Tour de France" sprint train. Devolder -> Maaskant -> Boasson Hagen -> Renshaw -> Cavendish.
What surprised me today were two things.
First is the game AI. Saxobank have brought Pozzato, Gasparotto, Bennati and Haedo for this race, and they all worked for Pozzato even though Daniele Bennati and Enrico Gasparotto have 82 in sprint, while Pozzato has only 77.
Second thing was the fact that Gregory Rast, that has 74 flat, is going 54km/h at full speed, while Stijn Devolder with 85 flat, +2 daily form, and 95% effort on dot goes only 51km/h.
Rast's acceleration propelled Breschel so fast that he almost singlehandedly defeated one of our best sprint trains ever.
Cavendish came first with just a wheel length advantage.
Too bad the replay is unusable, I would love it if you saw the screenshots of their two man train.
But nevertheless, Mark Cavendish's win and 20 second time bonification is enough to take over the yellow jersey from Stefan Schumacher.
Good job!
Points:
1 Stefan Schumacher Astana Cycling Team 0 25
2 Mark Cavendish Team Columbia - High Road 25 25
3 Taylor Phinney Trek Livestrong 0 20
4 Matti Breschel Astana Cycling Team 20 20
5 Stijn Devolder Team Columbia - High Road 0 16
KOM:
1 Karsten Kroon Rabobank 22 22
2 William Frischkorn Garmin - Slipstream 12 12
3 Fredrik Kessiakoff BMC Racing Team 8 8
If offense is the best defence, does it mean that defence is the worst defence?
If I should die before I wake, I pray the Lord will delete my browser history.
Upon looking at the start list for this race, we've agreed that nothing but success is going to satisfy us.
Heinrich Haussler will be there to win both sprints, as his only good rival is Slovenian rising star Aldo Ino Ilesic.
Our rider shouldn't have any problems as he will have a very good sprint train featuring Markus Burghardt and Johan Van Summeren.
To sum up, our goals are:
Win the race - Tony Martin will be our man, as Lovkvist is here just to get some race fitness in his legs.
Green jersey - There are only two sprints, and Tony Martin will be aiming for the overall win in the other three stages, they'll have to decide between themselves who will get the points prize.
This looks like the easiest job so far.
Start list:
Team Columbia
1. T.Lövkvist
2. M.Burghardt
3. H.Haussler
4. A.Kolobnev
5. T.Martin
6. M.Possoni
7. V.Reynès
8. J.Van Summeren
But first things first.
Thomas Lövkvist started the race for Columbia High-Road. He is only at the beginning of his training program, so we don't expect anything on today's stage.
He did set the current best time, but it stayed on only a little while. In the end, 13th -38sec.
Jose Mendes was one of the outside favorites, but he finished 18th, -41sec.
Fuji - Servetto leader, Carlos Castaño, managed only 17th place with 39 seconds down.
Michael Schär was good today, he was first with the time of 11'13 for a long time, but eventually finished 2nd, -29sec.
Another Fuji - Servetto rider, Javier Aramendia, solid 5th place, -32sec.
Gomez Marchante didn't even get a top20 result today. 23rd, -43sec.
Alexei Markov of Joker Bianchi was a surprising top10 finisher today, he is obviously in good form. 6th, -32sec.
Christian Meier was 2nd favorite for today, and he almost beat Schär to the line. Just two seconds behind Michael, 2nd place at the moment.
And then Tony Martin jumped on the stage. In a morning interview with the local press, Tony looked really optimistic and delighted with all the interest being shown in him, he had a bit of fun with the journalists. When asked about his form and GC aspirations, he responded in a funny and cheerful way. "I came here to kick ass and chew bubble gum, but unfortunately, I'm all out of gum."
And so he kicked some. 10'44, 29 seconds ahead of the runner up Michael Schär. What a dominant show of force.
Another Joker Bianchi rider, Stanislav Kozúbek, rounded up the podium today. Although he came in the time of Schär, computer had to decide the ranking. Markov and Kozúbek helped Joker Bianchi to 2nd place in overall team classification.
Tony was happy after the stage, expressing his desire to attack on the mountainous stage 5 and secure his yellow jersey. He said his legs were feeling great and all that he needs now is to focus, everything else will come to it's place.
The reason we can't afford to protect Cavendish's yellow jersey is the fact that there are two big climbs on this stage, and all the GC favorites will surely attack.
Stijn Devolder will, of course, be one of them.
Kanstantin Sivtsov was allowed to go into the breakaway, but the lack of form has made that job very difficult for him.
He tried, nevertheless.
But teams like Rabobank and Silence-Lotto didn't like the fact that there were 17 riders in the front.
As the break of the day still wasn't formed, with peloton swallowing the first group, Albasini gave it a go.
He was in a group with Zabriskie, Eisel and Horner, chasing Baumann, Sutherland and Pfannberger.
Albasini just didn't have the legs for today, he couldn't manage to merge with the front group on the flat roads.
But as soon as the first climb started, he took full control over the escape group, causing the split which included Horner, Pfannberger and Jorgensen.
Further down the road, Silence-Lotto riders were doing the chase.
The breakaway was caught some 2-3 kilometers from the top, so the KOM contenders could feas themselves with maximum points.
John Lee Augustyn was faster than Flecha, Kessiakof, El Fares and Bonnafond.
After the fast descent, everything calmed down, and peloton was peacefully going through the valley, getting a chance to enjoy the nice scenery.
It was surely a calm before the storm.
And just a few minutes after the riders reached the coast, Nick Nuyens attacked.
His solo effort will make the teams get into order again and assign new work orders.
But not yet. It was only after an attack from Szmyd and Bonnafond that teams went full gas.
Nuyens was already 2 minutes away.
Silence-Lotto and Saxo Bank were the most active teams. Andy Schleck and Thomas Dekker are feeling good.
Even thogugh the pace was high, Phinney decided to attack too.
At the foot of the second climb, Phinney was joined by Augustyn and Sprick.
Kohl did a good job protecting Devolder who pushed himself into a good position, and waited for the right time to attack.
He took his chance, and attacked before the other favorites, reaching Nick Nuyens together with Sprick.
Rohregger and Pate were close behind, Barredo, Schleck and Dekker responed to the danger.
Devolder had to go solo, because he lacks the sprinting ability.
Attack with less than 1km to the top.
Unfortunately, he couldn't make a gap.
Five man group: Thomas Dekker, Andy Schleck, Stijn Devolder, Carlos Barredo and Mathieu Sprick. 5km to go.
Behind them, another group of favorites: Damiano Cunego, John-Lee Augustyn, Stef Clement, Thomas Rohregger, Danny Pate, Stefan Schumacher and Nick Nuyens.
Meanwhile, second group was slowly gaining ground on the leaders.
Devolder didn't have a chance in the sprint, as expected.
Mathieu Sprick was going really well. Can he make it?
Yes, he's done it. Mathieu Sprick has outsprinted all the favorites, he gets to taste the champaigne today.
Andy Schleck will wear the yellow jersey tomorrow, I'm pretty sure it will stay on his back until the second ITT.
As we not only have the strongest team, but also have our important riders in good form, today's stage should be a stroll in the park for us.
By saying that, I don't want to say that other teams are bad, It's just a statement of the strength we possess.
Break of the day was formed after 50 kilometers of high tempo enforced by several other teams.
No favorites, Plaza was the only big name in the leading group.
Two kilometers behind, when the tempo slowed down, my boys were left to enjoy their day.
But when it came to business, our boys were up to the task.
Johan Van Summeren was once again our strong powerhouse.
Ceramica Flamina were interested in today's sprint finish too.
David Cañada was alone in the middle for the most of the day.
All the success we've had over the years could not be possible without a great team spirit.
Everyone works for everyone, so today even Tony Martin helped the team with the work, as only Columbia and Ceramica Flaminia chased the break.
With little more than 5km to go, we were in total control.
Reynes wasn't feeling too well today so we've pulled him out of the train in time.
Markus Burghardt was left leading out Johan Van Summeren and Heinrich Haussler.
Once Van Summeren took over, it was all practicaly over. Haussler just needed to cross the line, and we're done for the day.
And another dominant win.
One down, one more to go!
If offense is the best defence, does it mean that defence is the worst defence?
If I should die before I wake, I pray the Lord will delete my browser history.
Mark Cavendish will be back in the game today. Another chance to get a lot of points for the green jersey.
Our advantage is that now Saxo Bank has to work for both Andy and Filippo. Something like the stuff we have to do all season long.
One days rest will do us good.
We didn't send our riders in front today, there will be time for that when we secure the green jersey.
The break of the day was 10 man strong, mostly continental, except one rider from Cofidis and KOM contender Karsten Kroon.
Barla and Frischkorn unfortunately didn't make it to the front.
An integral factor in our victorious campaign has also been a good relationship with the Karma.
To make things simple: by helping others as much as we can, we hope to be assisted when we're the only ones who must work.
That's why we've decided to help Saxo Bank catch the breakaway.
When Frischkorn and Barla were caught, Quinziato and Hoste attacked the main field.
This was no longer our concern, as it was up to Saxo Bank to protect their jersey.
Sprint is all that matters to us.
As expected, the tempo was now very strong. Escape didn't have a chance.
They were all caught, the bunch sprint will decide the winner.
Martijn Maaskant was the locomotive, Devolder was allowed to rest and save his energy for the deciding ITT.
Maaskant did a great job leading out Boasson Hagen, Mark Renshaw and Mark Cavendish under the 5km line.
But once again, Astana's Gregory Rast was speeding like a bullet.
Rast and Breschel were faster than our four man train and had a slight advantage as we hit the 3km to go mark.
Matti was really awesome today. Will Cavendish be able to hold onto the 2nd place?
A photo finish has decided in our favor.
Mark will have to settle for 2nd, Matti Breschel celebrates his first win of the season.
Two very close finishes against a sprinter who is a class below Mark Cavendish, and a one man lead-out against my four man train.
It's 1-1 at the moment.
Something tells me this is not going to be an easy fight, but at least he'll get to wear the green jersey tomorrow.
Points Classification:
1 Mark Cavendish Team Columbia - High Road 20 45
2 Matti Breschel Astana Cycling Team 25 45
3 Filippo Pozzato Team Saxo Bank 16 32
4 Stefan Schumacher Astana Cycling Team 0 31
5 Stijn Devolder Team Columbia - High Road 0 28
KOM Classification:
1 Karsten Kroon Rabobank 6 28
2 Fredrik Kessiakoff BMC Racing Team 0 18
3 John-Lee Augustyn Barloworld 0 16
If offense is the best defence, does it mean that defence is the worst defence?
If I should die before I wake, I pray the Lord will delete my browser history.
Another chance for Haussler.
He is by far the best sprinter in this race and he must win again today.
The most important thing for my team will be to make sure that the breakaway doesn't gain too much time, as the course is slightly downhill all the way, and leaders can maintain a quick pace.
After the first and only KOM sprint, a nine man breakaway was formed.
And boy do I enjoy boring stages.
Breakaway gained time, when the moment was right we started working at the front.
Reynes and Kolobnev will try and contain the deficit.
Lovkvist and Possoni joined them at the front as the margin was now around 4 minutes, 80km to go.
I don't like when my riders lose too much energy, so they work together.
1km before the last intermediate sprint, four riders tried to join the leaders.
Pliushchin, Lastras, Roesems and Pires. It is obvious they have no chance as there is still almost 70km to go.
Just to be safe, I've ordered van Summeren to deal with this attempt the way he knows best. They didn't even come close to the breakaway.
As Columbia has done all the work on today's stage, it was only fair that other teams finish the job of catching the leaders.
A bit of well deserved rest before the bunch sprint.
Under the 20km to go banner, only 3 riders from BOTD are left in the front, but it is just a matter of seconds before they surrender too.
Physically not up to the task after a lot of hard work today, my riders couldn't make a sprint train.
Martin is in yellow, Burghardt is still looking for his form.
Haussler will have to do it alone, he grabs the wheel of Jurgen Roelandts.
With a bit of luck, Haussler managed to escape the rush in the middle of the road, he is safely behind Steurs, but Aldo Ino Ilesic is on his wheel.
Another few hundred meters and nothing is the same, except the fact that Haussler has a very good choice when looking for a backwheel.
He jumps behind Markov and launches his sprint with 1km to go.
Luca Pardini was good and tried to hold onto the slight advantage, but he was eventually overtaken by Haussler in the closing meters.
3rd win out of 3 stages, excelent race so far!
What pleases me the most is the fact that this is our first bunch sprint win without a train, a sign to take things more easily.
Today is all about safely carrying Mark Cavendish over the hills.
As Saxo Bank will work to protect Schleck's jersey and prepare for the sprint for Pozatto, constant breakaways will push the tempo too hard for Cavendish to survive.
Silence-Lotto will also work for Dekker and Boonen.
Let's hope everything goes well.
Just as I've expected, a lot of riders want to go in front.
Julien El Fares has gained some time and has a 1 minute lead in front of Ochoa who is between him and the big escape group.
Eventually the pace relaxed and Benatti was leading the peloton through the hilly landscape.
The break of the day was compact at the foot of the final climb, achieving the maximum advantage of around five minutes.
Some of the notable riders included in BOTD were Kim Kirchen, Oscar Pereiro, Ricardo Van der Velde, Maarten Wynants and before mentioned El Fares.
But the most important thing for us was the survival of Mark Cavendish, now he'll have the downhill to help him regain some energy for the finish.
Liquigas stated their intention to help Enrico Rossi get his first win of the season by doing the work with 40km to go.
Breakaway still had around a minute and a half lead.
With 20km to go, a number of escapees tried to place one final attack.
Julien El Fares and Mauro Facci were on the run, but peloton was going really fast.
Nevertheless, Mauro Facci was looking very good, although he really didn't stand a chance against the sprinters.
Maaskant -> Devolder -> Boasson Hagen -> Renshaw -> Cavendish
Unlike yesterday, our train was going much faster than Rast and Breschel.
Surely noone can beat us today?
Columbia dominates the sprint! Thanks for stating the obvious. Only Ponzi, Dumoulin and Rossi are following our train.
Wyss, Van Avermaet and Beuret manage to join them, Devolder is going like a rocket.
Dumoulin used Ponzi to get closer to Cavendish, and then launched his sprint when Hagen finished his lead-out.
For a moment, Cavendish was blocked by Hagen while Dumoulin was going very fast, even faster than Renshaw.
But eventually Mark outsprinted him in a close contest, he is now only a few points away from securing the green jersey.
A perfect lead-out by Columbia train of destruction!
Tony Martin is not really great in the hills so protecting his jersey will be our job.
The lack of punching ability will have to be substituted with good form, and Tony is fired up.
Bonus option is to help Haussler get as many points for the green jersey.
It seemed like Gomez Marchante would try and get away today because he attacked before the first KOM sprint, but three riders that were first to make a significant gap were Sentjens, Astarloa and Espeland.
When Marchante's group was caught, peloton slowed down.
As noone wanted to work with us, we've waited as much as possible to do our job.
Maybe a bit too much? The gap has risen to around 7 minutes.
Espeland and Sentjens were stronger than Astarloa and left him behind on the third climb, peloton was just a shadow in the distance, few kilometers down the road.
Igor Astarloa was halfway between the leaders and the peloton. He missed his chance on the climb.
Our boys pedalled like crazy, but couldn't seem to cut the lead by even the smallest bit.
Although Astarloa was caught, Sentjens, who dropped Espeland too, was still 3 minutes ahead.
And then some 30km before the finish, Gomez Marchante attacks the last KOM spint.
20km to go and he has a nice advantage over the pack.
Gutierrez, Kozubek, Pardini and Delfosse tried to catch him.
Martin and Haussler both responded, so did Rovira Pous.
Followed by Rujano and Goesinnen.
Roy Sentjens will surely make it all the way.
And he has done it! A magnificent breakaway victory, he's done it all by himself.
Elsewhere, favorites are sprinting for time bonifications.
Kozubek will snatch the 2nd place.
And Tony Martin just loses the podium to Jose Ivan Gutierrez.
Haussler is 9th, although it was very close.
Tomorrow's stage is classified as mountainous and that will suerly suti Martin much better.
Roy Sentjens will spend a day in yellow, but our rider remains the prime favorite for the overall victory.
Points Classification:
1 Heinrich Haussler Team Columbia - High Road 7 57
2 Roy Sentjens Landbouwkrediet - Colnago 37 53
3 Tony Martin Team Columbia - High Road 14 39
4 Stanislav Kozúbek Joker Bianchi 20 39
5 Olivier Pardini Verandas Willems 10 39
KOM Classification:
1 Magnus Espeland Joker Bianchi 26 28
2 Roy Sentjens Landbouwkrediet - Colnago 24 24
3 Igor Astarloa AndalucÃa Cajasur 20 20
I don't expect any attacks to succed today as the road is long and flat, so there is simply no place to make an attack that would be impossible for the peloton to eliminate.
We're hoping for another Cavendish victory today.
Have I said before how I love when the race is boring until the TV broadcast starts?
That way I know I haven't missed anything worth watching.
A nine man breakaway with Bonnafond, Kroon and Facci was 8 minutes in front at 100km to go.
Followed by Maxime Bouet.
And Laverde and Isaychev further down the road.
Saxo Bank and Liquigas were controling the pace of the main pack.
BMC have joined to share the workload at the front, and of course, breakaway was caught with some 20km to go.
Only Bonnafond and Kroon have survived, but not for long.
Our train was rolling like planned, but a strane feeling of deja vu was clicking in my head.
Where have I seen this before?
But again we were faster, like expected. And this time only Enrico Rossi took the benefit of our sprint train.
Like it would make any difference.. Obviously it didn't help him, my boys destroyed another sprint in style.
One-two with Mark Cavendish and Edvald Boasson Hagen.
A great race, 3rd win for Cavendish, great teamwork.
Our main goal for this race, green jersey, is almost secure as the difference between Mark and the 2nd placed Breschel is 27 points.
But tomorrow is the important stuff, the decider for the general classification, Solvang ITT.
And then the yellow jersey attacked. Sentjens was countered by Rovira Pous.
Irizar and Gomez Marchante were next.
And finally Tony Martin, followed by Rujano, Kozubek and Schar.
Martin reached the front of the leading group, he'll be alone against two Caisse and two Fuji-Servetto riders.
Tony has sent a radio message to the team car where he said he wanted to attack and that he was feeling great.
He made a small gap near the end of the climb, and decided to go full throttle on the descent.
Rujano, Marchante and Etxegibel were the only ones who could follow.
And they couldn't catch him.
Tony Martin has proved he's too strong for this race, and he secured the overall win with style.
Four stage victories, overall and points victory.
My riders have decided to call a team meeting after the Tour of California where we will put our minds on planning the race schedule for the next two months.
One of the main decisions will probably be to stop participating in the 2.1 races for the time being, or sending young riders to those races.
Points Classification:
1 Mark Cavendish Team Columbia - High Road 0 95
2 Matti Breschel Astana Cycling Team 0 68
3 Filippo Pozzato Team Saxo Bank 3 57
4 Taylor Phinney Trek Livestrong 25 52
5 Thomas Dekker Silence - Lotto 20 48
So, Stijn Devolder is still 3rd overall, one second behind Stefan Schumacher. Thomas Dekker is in yellow.
There is one more chance to mix up the overall standings, but what's done is done.
Overall victory has once again eluded my grasp in the California tour, but my goal of a top5 place is fulfilled and that makes me happy.
We have two more days on the sunny west coast and my riders seem eager to win both of them.
Perhaps a breakaway?
Profile of today's winner:
If offense is the best defence, does it mean that defence is the worst defence?
If I should die before I wake, I pray the Lord will delete my browser history.
