Tour of California

Peter Sagan wins stage 5 at 2011 Amgen Tour of California

Peter Sagan (Liquigas-Cannondale) won stage five of the Amgen Tour of California on Thursday, extending his lead in the sprint classification in the process, while RadioShack defended Chris Horner’s golden jersey going into Friday’s Solvang time trial.

Former world champion Oscar Freire, the sole survivor of a daylong break that came apart on the final KOM of the day, nearly collected a well-deserved victory for his team’s title sponsor, Rabobank — which also sponsored the day’s stage — but he found himself snatched up inside the final 3km as the sprinters’ teams drove the disintegrating bunch to the line in Paso Robles.

As the catch came, BMC’s George Hincapie tried to steal a march on the sprinters, but the sneak attack fizzled. Then Jeremy Vennell (Bissell) attacked and led the raging bunch under the red kite marking 1km to go.

But he fell just short, too, and Sky led the peloton past, trying to set up Ben Swift for a second stage win. Then HTC’s Leigh Howard abruptly punched it to the left, Swift followed, coming up on his right — and suddenly Sagan rocketed past both of them to take the win. Howard hung on for second with Swift third.

“In the last kilometers I thought the group would break up more,” Sagan said. “There was a lot of confusion due to so many sprinters’ teams being there.”

A long day in the saddle
The 217.4km stage, which started in Seaside, was to have rolled down Highway 1 alongside the Pacific Ocean before heading inland toward the finish. But spring landslides forced a reroute, and instead the course wound east through Fort Ord into Laguna Seca, home of the Sea Otter Classic, and onto Highway 68, bound for Laureles Grade, the first of four KOMs and 10,000 feet of climbing on the day.

A fast four-mile descent brought the race into Carmel Valley for the first of two sprints for the stage. Two more KOMs followed before riders got to enjoy a long descent along the Carmel Valley River.

After the second sprint in Greenfield the terrain moderated a bit as the course rolled through farm country and the towns of King City and San Lucas. But with more than 30 miles remaining the peloton rarely saw a flat stretch of road again.

Patrick McCarty (SpiderTech-C10) began the day in the mountains jersey with 12 points, a tie with Levi Leipheimer (RadioShack). Stage-four winner and overall leader Chris Horner (RadioShack) sat third with 10.

Horner was comfortably in charge of the overall, 1:15 ahead of teammate and three-time AToC winner Leipheimer with Tom Danielson (Garmin-Cervélo) third at 1:22.

How it unfolded
The attacks came early and often but nothing stuck until a four-man group — Oscar Freire (Rabobank), Christopher Froome (Sky), Daniel Martin (Garmin-Cervélo) and Chris Baldwin (Bissell) — got a gap over the first KOM at Laurels Grade. Freire took the KOM ahead over Froome and Martin, and he took the first sprint, too, in front of Martin and Baldwin.

The foursome grew to become an 11-man escape 29km into the stage: Freire, Baldwin, Martin and Froome from the original break; Martin Velits (HTC-Highroad), Stefan Denifl (Leopard-Trek), Maarten Tjallingii (Rabobank), Jeff Louder (BMC), and Brad White (UnitedHealthcare); plus KOM leader McCarty and Jesse Anthony (Kelly Benefit), who had tried a dig earlier going into the first mountains sprint.

“I was in a little bit of trouble on the first climb,” said McCarty.

McCarty took the honors on the second KOM at Carmel Valley Road, followed by Anthony and Froome. And as the race passed the 60km mark the break had an advantage of more than three minutes, with RadioShack running things back in the bunch. That made Martin the race leader on the road — the Garmin rider started the stage in 12th place, 2:05 down on Horner.

Anthony took top points atop the third KOM, trailed by McCarty and Baldwin, and the race rolled southward through the Salinas Valley toward King City with the break holding firm to its three-minute advantage.

With 100km to race a crash in the peloton took down a fair crowd — Alex Dowsett (Sky); Gustav Larsson and Sebastian Haedo (Saxo Bank-Sungard); Ben Jacques-Maynes (Bissell); Alejandro Borrajo (Jamis-Sutter Home); and Luca Damiani and Jacob Rytlewski (Kenda-5-Hour Energy). Dowsett, Larsson and Jacques-Maynes would abandon the race, the latter with a broken collarbone. He was taken to an area hospital after race doctors diagnosed the fracture.

World champion Thor Hushovd (Cervélo) also abandoned, saying via the team’s website: “I haven’t been feeling well since I arrived and today I just felt empty. I couldn’t continue. I’m very disappointed to leave the team and the race. I would have liked to finish because the last day was a goal for me. I wish the team luck. I’m proud of what we have done here so far.”

Tick, tock
RadioShack began nibbling away at the break’s lead as the race rolled through Lockwood, pulling the escapees back to within two minutes with 64km to go.

Forty kilometers from the line the break held 1:45 over the bunch, still led by RadioShack with Liquigas-Cannondale waiting in the wings for Sagan.

McCarty, Freire and Denifl separated themselves from the break en route to the fourth and final KOM at Interlake Road, 33km from the finish. McCarty got it, with Freire second, and as they crested Freire and Denifl kept going, but McCarty sat up, his red KOM jersey secure for now. The peloton rolled over the top some two minutes later.

Once over the top, the bunch got serious about sweeping up the remnants of the break with U.S. champ Ben King at the head of affairs for RadioShack and Liquigas contributing some riders to the pursuit. The pace began spitting riders out the back, among them RadioShack’s Jason McCartney, his two-truck duties over for the day.

Twenty kilometers from the line Freire and Denifl held firm to a two-minute lead as the reduced peloton closed in on the last of their erstwhile break-mates. Then Liquigas put two men on the front, hoping to reel in the leaders and set up Sagan for the stage win.

Ahead, Freire was suddenly on his own — Denifl had flatted and dropped right out of the hunt. It would be a long 15km for the former world champion, who was fighting to win the stage sponsored by his Rabobank team.

The final kilometers
Freire had 90 seconds with 10km to race, his team car alongside him and director Erik Bruekink urging him on. Behind, RadioShack had pulled off the front and HTC-Highroad was driving the chase.

Freire was still giving it all he had, but the bunch was closing in. A crash took down BMC’s Brent Bookwalter and Jeff Louder, Bissell’s Andy Jacques-Maynes and Team Type 1′s Rubens Bertogliati, but the chase continued.

Five kilometers from the finish Freire had just 30 seconds and HTC was ramping up the pace. Liquigas was lurking nearby, as were Cervélo and Sky, and the chase had the leader in its sights.

And that was that — 2.5km from the line Freire was snatched up — “I really exploded on the final climb,” he said — and the sprint was on. Or was it? First Hincapie had a dig, but got nowhere. Then Vennell tried his luck, briefly taking a gap before Sky drove the peloton past him for Swift. Howard led out the sprint, and Swift followed, but it was Sagan who had the most left in the tank at the line.

“Peter and myself had a very good ride today, with good teams around us,” said Horner, who confirmed his hold on the golden leader’s jersey going into Friday’s 24km individual time trial.

On paper, three-time winner Leipheimer might be considered the favorite for the stage win in Solvang. But Horner seems confident in his ability to make a race of it — even if he’s racing his own teammate.

“My legs are good,” he said. “I had a great position all day, staying out of the wind. I had the best position in the field. Should be good legs tomorrow.”

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