The 3,7km opening prologue with no less then 5 Americans in the top 10 of which 4 came from the Slipstream team. A decent 10th place for a not 100% fit Posthuma.

Even though on paper the 2nd stage looked like it could favor a breakaway the last 2nd category climb at 25km before the finish was not selective enough to get rid of the sprinters. Oscar Freire finished 7th where Matteo Carrara racked up another win for Quick Step.

Stage 3 gave the opportunity to take revenge, and they did ! Freire won the stage in front of Hushovd and O'Grady.

Stage 4 with a mountainous route into San Jose

Stage 5

A late attack by Kolobnev succeeded and he won with 44" over a sprinting pack, Rabobank played it cool and tries to get Posthuma in the TT tomorrow as fresh as possible. Oscar Freire took the lead to early and in the last 200m got passed by Hushovd, Cancellara and Bettini. He ended up in 7th place

Stage 6, a 26km TimeTrial

After the dissapointing result in the mountain stage where Gesink and Weening couldn't bridge the gap to Cobo all hope now goes to Posthuma, at the moment he is at +1.12" behind leader Cobo of Saunier Duval. After a great 7th place in the TT 25" behind stage winner Cancellara he moved up to 6th place in the GC. Weening is now the second best Rabobank rider at 15th place 2.18" behind. With one hilly stage remaining all focus is now on Posthuma

Stage 7 - AMGEN Tour of California

The last hilly stage of the TOC and the last chance for the GC guys to make a move. The usual early break (Menzies, Borrajo, Olson, Bucholz) got caught on the last categorized hill of the day at KM105. After that the attacks began. First Voeckler followed by Moos, Bettini, Schleck, Pauriol and Sevilla. A strong group where Voeckler never got caught and the group behind them splintered fast climbing up the steep hill. Shortly after that hill the group got reeled in by Saunier Duval protecting Cobo and Langeveld and De Maar who were working for their leader Posthuma who had a great form of the day. The goal for this stage was to try and get Posthuma some more time as Botero was very close to Posthuma. Even though the gap was too big to attack the leaders jersey Gesink set up an attack with Posthuma in his wheel at 20KM before the line. With Gesink working at 100% the next 10KM the gap stayed near a steady 44". After Gesink did his work and dropped back to the pack Posthuma was on his own. At 5KM the gap had dropped to 20" and Posthuma had to start a long tiring sprint to the line. But in the end HE MADE IT with only one bikelength ahead of the sprinting peleton. No time gap was made but the bonus seconds brought him up one place overtaking Botero with 1". Freire sprinted to 12th place and cheered for his teammate as he saw him cross the line in 1st place. Fred Rodriguez of Rock Racing took 2nd place and Pierrick Fedrigo took 3rd.

Flat stage into Pasadena. Freire sprinted to his second victory after taking stage 3

Omloop het Volk (1.HC)

Kuurne-Brussel-Kuurne(1.1)

A short recap of the first two months along with the current rankings