May 19/10 19:15 pm - ATOC: Stage 4 report, photos and results

Posted by Editoress on 05/19/10
 

David Zabriskie (Garmin-Transitions) held onto the leader's jersey at the Tour of California after stage 4, with the 195.5 kilometre race ending in a bunch sprint.  Francesco Chicchi (Liquigas) took the stage win, ahead of Juan Jose Haedo (Saxo Bank) and Mark Cavendish (HTC-Columbia).  Guillaume Boivin (SpiderTech p/b Planet Energy) was the top Canadian in tenth, with the same time as the winner.  Ryder Hesjedal (Garmin-Transitions) finished in the pack, and is the top placed Canadian rider overall, in seventh place at 27 seconds behind his teammate Zabriskie.

Photo gallery

Francesco Chicchi wins Stage 5

A breakaway group of eight riders attacked in the opening kilometres of the race, including Canadians Ryan Anderson (Kelly Benefit Strategies) and Rob Britton (Bissell).  Anderson rode with the break over two mountain passes to gain enough points to claim the lead in the Climber's Jersey competition.

"It was the plan for me to go with the early break," explained Anderson.  "I was in a break yesterday, and got some points in the mountain competition, so today seemed like a good chance to try for some more points and maybe take the jersey.  This is my first time in a leader's jersey, and the team will try to defend it."

The rest of the break included Lars Boom (Rabobank), Jurgen Van De Walle (Quick Step), Jeremy Powers (Jelly Belly p/b Kenda), Max Jenkins (United Healthcare p/b Maxxis) and two Team Type 1 riders - Davide Frattini and Scott Stewart.  The TT1 riders and Jenkins were dropped on the opening Sierra Road Category 1 climb, leaving five up front.  This dropped to four after Anderson peeled off when the second KoM was passed - Boom, Britton, Van De Walle and Powers.

The group worked well together, and gained over six minutes, as Garmin sat at the front of the peloton riding tempo.  In the rolling middle part of the course the gap began to drop slowly and was down to three minutes with 45 kilometres to go.  As the race entered the town of Patterson, the peloton hit crosswinds and a crash took down nearly 30 riders, including race leader Zabriskie and much of his team.

RadioShack was at the front of the group of 25 that missed the crash and immediately raised the pace, forcing a long, hard chase before the rest of the field rejoined them.

The break was still dangling a minute off the front, down to Boom, Britton and Van De Walle after Powers was shelled in a series of attacks by Boom and Britton.  As they entered Modesto the gap was falling quickly, with HTC-Columbia, Liquigas and Cervélo all starting to set up their trains.  The finish included two laps of a 4.5 kilometre circuit, and Boom tried to stave off capture with a last ditch solo effort, to no avail.

HTC-Columbia were unable to take control of the sprint as they usually do, with Cervélo and Liquigas both in the mix.  Chicchi launched himself into the lead, straight down the center of the finishing straight, and neither Haedo or Cavendish were able to respond.

Race Notes

- Armstrong went down in a crash on the finishing circuit, which sent the announcer into hysterics:  "Armstrong went down, he went down ... but it appears he is okay, I want to repeat, he is okay, no shoulder problems, no wrist, he is back on his bike..."  This went on for a couple of minutes before the announcers decided to get back to ... oh yeah, the bike race.

- Anderson says that he will try to rest up tomorrow, after two days in breakaways, and save his energy for Friday's biggest day of climbing, to try and retain the jersey.

- SpiderTech is now 4 for 4 on top-10 finishes in their first Tour of California; certainly living up to team director Steve Bauer's promise to be aggressive every day.