4th stage of the Tour of California seems to be one of the toughest. We're going up and down the rather long hills on this 152 km. long stage. Favourites for the stage are Rodriguez Oliver, Zubeldia, Sastre and Colom Mas, but having seen Zabriskie's fight for his jersey on the 2nd stage I would be very surprised if he isn't 'up there' at the end of this stage.
In the first break of the day, a couple of guys were just 10-15 seconds behind in the overall classement, including Stundzia, Ford and Lastras. Maybe because of that, Wikipedia neutralized the break right after the first mountain sprint of the day. After that, an even larger group tried to get away, including the riders who had just tried their luck, and in the end 8 riders got away:
E1: Bernucci, Montana, Lastras and Zirbel
E2: Stundzia, Coyot
E3: Mori, Ford
Of these guys, Bernucci had earlier managed to get a bunch of points in the mountain classification, and he seemed pretty determined to get the jersey today. Meanwhile, Pardilla of Credit Lyonnais launched a surprise-attack from the peloton, and although he wasn't followed by anyone he looked like a guy who dreamt about taking the jersey today.
Up front, Bernucci had left his companions and with 16 more points to the collection, he now officially had the mountain jersey.
At the top, Pardilla had catched Stundzia and Ford, still having Zirbel, Lastras, Montana and Bernucci in front of him. In the peloton, Wikipedia and Festina were setting a high pace, reducing the number of riders more and more. With 80 km. to go, the gap to the front was 3'55, and 1'26 to the Pardilla group.
At the foot of the last climb of the day, Tiralongo was the first of the "favourites" to attack. He was succesful and was countered by Fernandez Oliveira. Pardilla dropped his group and went with the two riders.
Morabito and the rest of the Festina riders managed to reel in Pardilla and Oliveira, though, and only Tiralongo of the Gazetta team got away. Eventually, though, he was also caught 5 km. from the top. Left in front was now the Bernucci-group, 1'29 ahead. Surprisingly, these four made it to the top, and they even managed to increase the gap to 1'38, mostly thanks to Bernucci. Here we are with less than 30 km. to go
With 10 kilometres left, they still had a gap of 1 minute, but unfortunately for Montana, he couldn't hang on to Bernucci's pace. In the peloton, it was Wikipedia fighting for Zabriskie's jersey. In the break, Zirbel of Slipstream is just 12 seconds behind Zabriskie, so if they make it he will most likely lose his jersey.
Here we are with 1.5 km. left. Bernucci, Zirbel and Lastras are righting side-by-side with the peloton right behind them. There's no sprinters left, though, so it's going to be close.
It definitely looks like a victory for the break, and Bernucci looks to take the victory. Zirbel is behind him, but if he can keep the peloton on distance he will take Zabriskie's jersey! The only loser here will be Lastras...
Bernucci takes the victory! 2nd for Zirbel and third for Lastras - and it seems like they managed to keep the peloton away.
Podgorny takes the peloton sprint ahead of Boogerd - they are in 30 seconds after the break.
