Well, at least, you fooled me with your beginning It definitely sounded like "thanks, I'm gonna break up with the story".. so, that makes the news even better. Just take your time for this, you do not have to update every day
Good to see this AToC continue, it's your team's most succesfull this season!
Now to the bad news: I had the whole stage 5 report on my Ctrl+c, and just realised that while writing that, I actually "ctrl+ced" another thing without noticing... I'm so stupid
Sorry for any mistakes that there are on this report, but I had to write it as fast as possible (while I still remembered what happened, had already deleted replay) and also I'll now study for a test tomorrow, so better not spend more time correcting it (already spent too much time writing it again). Thanks for the comprehension
May 20th: Amgen Tour of California
Stage 5: Visalia - Bakersfields, 213.8 kms
Before tomorrow's queen stage, the Tour of California heads south for a flat stage finishing in Bakersfield. I may have said flat, but it sure has some climbings to give the pure sprinters some problems. It should be enough to contain Walker for a good result, but Kangert has performed great on these last days, including on the flat sprint stage - we're surely counting on him for today.
Sebastian Langeveld was without a doubt the strongest rider on today's break, and sure one of the main pace makers. When the 9-riders group reached the top of today's biggest climb, they were more than 10 minutes ahead of the peloton.
And when they crossed the last mountain sprint, with 47 kms to go, the situation was quite similar: 9 minutes of advantage for them!!
On the peloton, Euskaltel tried to make the pace, but without success: 30 kilometers left and the gap was still in 8 minutes! At this moment, in time, Evan Oliphant (+5'26) was the virtual yellow jersey!
But he and the other 4 escapees saw Langeveld and other 3 escapees slip away in the second Bakersfield-surroundings final circuit!
The peloton came on an amazing fast pace, with more than 50 riders already having dropped! Walker struggled by now, so our chances of a good result today were all up to Kangert.
Langeveld and Dan Craven cracked the other 2 escapees and were alone in the lead with 4 kilometers left, to sprint for today's win!
The peloton wasn't far behind, though, and caught one escapee after another. When the sprint for them started, they were trailing the two leaders by 50 seconds!
Back to the front, no surprises as Sebastian Langeveld outsprints Dan Craven for today's victory! Everybody was actually surprised at the Rapha Condor rider strength, who was the less skilled rider and didn't count with the slipstream advantage, but still gave Langeveld a hard time, being beaten by a bike's wheel!
The sprint of the peloton was dominated by Armstrong and Lorenzetto, with the Italian edging out the RadioShack rider for the last podium position. But look who's 5th: it's Tanel Kangert, with another awesome result for us in California!
Today winner is Stage Results
1
Sebastian Langeveld
Rabobank
5h26'04
2
Dan Craven
Rapha Condor - Sharp
s.t.
3
Mirco Lorenzetto
Lampre - Farnese Vini
+ 33
4
Lance Armstrong
Team RadioShack
s.t.
5
Tanel Kangert
Rio es Carnival/Seara/Vivo
s.t.
6
Luis Pasamontes
Caisse d'Epargne
s.t.
7
Michael Albasini
Team HTC - Columbia
s.t.
8
Koldo Fernández
Euskaltel - Euskadi
s.t.
9
Mark Cavendish
Team HTC - Columbia
s.t.
10
Johan Van Summeren
Garmin - Transitions
s.t.
And our streak of awesome-unbelievable results continues!! Kangert had performed great in the flat stage, and even better on the climbing stages.. this stage was perfect for him! And he showed that, getting 3rd on the peloton sprint! He actually also felt really, really well today (+5). What a performance this guy has been putting on USA! Btw, I actually thought Lance had edged out Lorenzetto, but the judges though of it in another way...
May 21th: Amgen Tour of California
Stage 6: Pasadena - Big Bear Lake, 217.0 kms
And here it is. For most, this is the most important and exciting stage of the race. The climbers will have to move if they want something, otherwise tomorrow's ITT will kill their chances. For us, this would be the most crucial stage for the mountain competition. But Kangert has a very solid lead on that and is performing extremely well, so we've decided to keep him on the pack: we're going for the best possible GC.
Well, the departure. 5.233 elevation meters awaits the riders. Not the funniest day for most of them.
There were a lot of mountain points out there, so we decided we'd better do by having someone covering them. The chosen one was Jorge Giacinti. He succesfully collected full points on the 2nd, 3rd and 4th KOM sprint. That was more than enough, so after this one he could relax a bit.
But the peloton wasn't for jokes today. Paced by Euskaltel, they never let the gap get bigger than 4 minutes, and, in the first kilometers of the last mountains of the stage, only 81 riders could still follow the speed.
More and more riders continue to fall as the peloton reached today's last mountain sprint. With the break gone long ago, Leipheimer won the sprint against Gesink for full points. Seara/Vivo still had 4 riders among the 56 left.
Several attacks were made through the CA 18 road by almost all favorites, but none of them had success. Heading for the last climb, with 30 kms remaining, the front group was diminished to 34 riders. VÃtor and Kangert were there to represent our team.
But it didn't take long before the expected happen. VÃtor couldn't follow the pace anymore, so Kangert would be alone for more than 20 kilometers.
A selected group of 21 riders powered through the last turns in direction of the Big Bear Lake. Kangert had successfully kept contact with it, although he struggled a lot for that.
And Sanchez went for a last minute attack! Strange move, given he was one of the best sprinters in the group.
But Leipheimer chased him down furiously, and going for the last hundred meters, the RadioShack rider was moving past bike after bike, and was almost in the lead!
Zabriskie and Costa came closing in the last turn! With the finish line in sights, who will be the winner?
Rui Costa! With an amazing acceleration in the last kilometer, he wins the stage! He had to stick with a podium in stage 2 just behind Sánchez, but now he takes his revenge!
Today winner is Stage Results
1
Rui Costa
Caisse d'Epargne
6h35'09
2
Levi Leipheimer
Team RadioShack
s.t.
3
Samuel Sánchez
Euskaltel - Euskadi
s.t.
4
David Zabriskie
Garmin - Transitions
s.t.
5
Alberto Contador
Astana
s.t.
6
Luis Pasamontes
Caisse d'Epargne
s.t.
7
Cadel Evans
BMC Racing Team
s.t.
8
Lance Armstrong
Team RadioShack
s.t.
9
Andriy Grivko
Astana
s.t.
10
Tony Martin
Team HTC - Columbia
s.t.
A good stage for us. Kangert finished 15th with the same time as Costa, and so loses no time in the queen stage of the race. He struggled a lot for that, really a lot, much more than I had expected (based on his current performances here). I even though he could get dropped in the flat finish. The only reason that didn't happen was that, again, he had an excellent daily form (+4). Giacinti, btw, performed great, collecting 22 points, which even put him on 2nd on that classement. And yes, Kangert has now mathematically secured his jersey!
May 22th: Amgen Tour of California
Stage 7: Los Angeles (ITT), 33.0 kms
The AToC moves west to La La Land, better known as Los Angeles, for a 33 km time trial through the roads of the biggest city in California. It should also decide the race winner, given the 9 first riders are separated by no more than 30 seconds. We expect a good ride by Kangert, following his last performances, but we wonder how good can it be.
Lars Boom didn't have a good ride, but it was enough to set the early best time.
Michael Rogers upped Boom's time by 37 seconds. But that meant nothing, as a surprisingly strong Beñat Intxausti finished 1'42 ahead of the HTC rider!
To the cheers of the crowd, David Zabriskie knocked Intxausti off the best time, being 43 seconds faster than him.
But there came the TT monsters. Tony Martin and Contador were by far the main favorites for today's stage. The German champion was the first to get on the road, caught Basso on his way and easily clocked in for a new provisional lead - 41 seconds ahead of Zabriskie.
El Pistolero came right after Martin. He was 1 second faster than the German on the intermediate time check, finishing 5 seconds faster: new best time!
Levi Leipheimer came to California looking for his 4th consecutive title. But, in his 3 wins, he won the main ITT. Not this time - provisional 5th, 50 seconds behind Contador.
Tanel Kangert specialty is time trials, but he's miles away from these guys. That's why we got very pleased with his provisional 12th, 2'21 behind Contador. That should be enough to keep him by overall Top 10 at the end of the day.
Cadel Evans, who put in a great ride on stage 3, where he won, couldn't repeat such performance level here, getting provisional 8th, 1'33 down on Contador.
Samuel Sánchez was the last rider out on road. Having a small advantage of only 28 seconds to the current stage leader - all thanks to bonus seconds - it would be a surprise to see him keep his yellow jersey. And indeed he wasn't able to do so. 1'23 behind Contador, he finished the stage 6th.
Today winner is Stage Results
1
Alberto Contador
Astana
44'55
2
Tony Martin
Team HTC - Columbia
+ 5
3
David Zabriskie
Garmin - Transitions
+ 46
4
Levi Leipheimer
Team RadioShack
+ 50
5
Rui Costa
Caisse d'Epargne
+ 1'23
6
Samuel Sánchez
Euskaltel - Euskadi
s.t.
7
Lance Armstrong
Team RadioShack
+ 1'24
8
Beñat Intxausti
Euskaltel - Euskadi
+ 1'31
9
Roman Kreuziger
Liquigas - Doimo
s.t.
10
Cadel Evans
BMC Racing Team
+ 1'34
A nice stage for us. Kangert finished 15th, 2'22 behind Contador. Given his abilities, that's a very good result. He clocked in faster than guys like Bobridge and Rogers. And remember he spent most part of stage 3 in the breakaway, which sure has an influence. By the way, I think we're now receiving back all the bad luck we had through the season so far. For the third consecutive day, Kangert got a daily form of either +4 or +5 (this case +5). And that happened on the very crucial stages of the race =D After Kangert, our best rider today was Giacinti, 44th (+ 3'47).
May 23th: Amgen Tour of California
Stage 8: TO/Westlake/Agoura Hills, 138.1 kms
After a week of good racing, the Tour of California comes to an end. But it won't be an easy day for the riders. The 'Rock Store' climb, as it's called by locals, will be negotiated four times in the 33 km-long circuit through Westlake Village surroundings, although the descent to a flat finish might very well see a big group sprint. Kangert has performed nicely on these kind of stages, but will his not so good recovery finally get him?
We had hopes that after a hard week of racing, the peloton would let a break go clear, so we managed to get Nazaret in the middle of the escapees. He felt really well on the first climb, even better than Kangert on some parts. His companions were Manuel Quinziato and Lars Boom.
On the flat section going for the last climb and with the break a minute ahead, Contador tried to go alone. Quite agressive yellow jersey, huh?
He was later joined by Sánchez, and those two quickly made their way up to the breakaway group.
In the back of the peloton, Tanel Kangert was in big trouble! Our Estonian had cracked, and lost contact to the front group! Would he lose his Top 10 placement on the last day?
On the front, Contador and Sánchez had worked hard to keep their lead, sumitting 33 seconds ahead of the 25-rider peloton.
Time for Kangert to hit the top, and he's more than 50 seconds behind the bigger group in front! At least he still had Nazaret and Morandi with him, but could they get him back to front?
Despite Sánchez great downhills abilities, the two leaders were caught 4 kilometers away from the finish.
Our riders did everything they could, but finishing the descent, we were 1'15 behind the favorites group.
On the sprint up front, Roman Kreuziger hold off Contador and Martin, the GC dominators, to win California's last stage!
The KoM jersey wearer came home 48th, 1'13 behind Kreuziger, which downs him to 12th in GC. Not the kind of result we were expecting for today.
Tough stage. Much tougher than we thought it would be. But also Kangert had 'an off day' (-2). Actually, it wasn't an off day, but yes an 'non-great day'. I mean, in the last three days, he got either +5 or +4, that's why he kept with the favorites on Big Bear, that's why he did good enough to hold his Top 10 on the TT. We were way lucky in the race, this is stage was 'normal'. Ps.: Nazaret had +4. Added to Kangert negative daily form, that explains why he was feeling better than Tanel in the first climb (before he attacked to the break).
The best stage racer in the world adds another win to his palmarès: Contador got the lead after winning stage's 7 ITT, and kept it safe by finishing second on the last stage. Good performance from him, who also got Top 10s on both mountain stages (3 and 6). These 2 are the first wins for him in this season as he continues his build up for another Tour de France win. The quite long time trial favored Martin, while Levi couldn't get his 4th win but might be pleased with a 3rd in such strong start list.
As for us, this was our most awesome race of the year, without any doubt: we got 12th in the overall, Kangert dominated the KoM competition since the beginning, and we got 3 Top 10s, one of them being a podium in the first mountain stage, which was for sure our highest result here. We even got to lead the teams classement for two days following Giacinti's succesfull breakaway on stage 4. Simply awesome! As said on the last day of 5 Jours de Dunkerque: we wanted to show ourselves to the rest of the cycling world. And proudly now I can say: mission accomplished.
Our riders will now have 3 days to rest before lining up for the start of Ronde van Belgie, our next race, where the sponsors wants us to get a Top 5. No need to say it will be our best riders in their best form. As said, AToC was also a last preparation for this. If we get near our level of racing here, the goal should be easily achievable. Stay tuned!
Pity that Kangert got out of the Top-10 with last stage But 12th overall + KoM-jersey within such a strong field is still a very good result! Well done! This was definitely the Rio-team, we were waiting for so long Keep this up and the results will get even better!
It definitely sounded like "thanks, I'm gonna break up with the story".. so, that makes the news even better. Just take your time for this, you do not have to update every day 
Well done! He's doing a really good job in California. Let's hope, he can perform like this in tomorrow's queen stage. Fingers crossed 
But 12th overall + KoM-jersey within such a strong field is still a very good result! Well done! This was definitely the Rio-team, we were waiting for so long 
