Tour of California: Peter Sagan cruises to stage two win in Santa Cruz
Peter Sagan (Liquigas-Cannondale) went a perfect two for two in the Tour of California on Monday, setting up his sprint perfectly and cruising to the win whilst extending his lead in the overall classification.
Sagan rode a tight right-hand bend perfectly on a relatively narrow road for a sprint finish, taking the outside line and sweeping around Leigh Howard (Orica-GreenEdge). Howard was left on the back foot as Sagan opened his sprint, and while Heinrich Haussler showed a decent turn of speed as well, it was no match for the Slovak.
Haussler took his second runner up finish in as many days, and Howard hung on for third.
The speeding peloton reeled in a late move by Rory Sutherland (UnitedHealthcare), who put in a dig with three kilometers to race. Sutherland tried to ruin the large amount of work done by Liquigas-Cannondale heading in to the finale, but it was not to be, as Orica-GreenEdge and BMC Racing helped pull back Sutherland to set up the sprint.
But it was Sagan’s canny ride into the final bend and unmatched burst of speed that helped him take his fifth career win in California.
Sagan indicated in his comments after the stage that his knowledge of the finish helped him set it up perfectly. “When I was still in the front group on the last climb, I was thinking I would try and win another stage,” he said. “I knew the last corner was close to the finish so I took the turn from the first position, and I won the stage.”
The stage got underway in the Marina District of San Francisco, with a 188-kilometer ride slated to head to Santa Cruz. The route traversed the Pacific Coast for much of the day as the race moved into Santa Cruz County. Alexandre Geniez (Argos-Shimano) and Tom Zirbel (Team Optum-Kelly Benefit Strategies) were the first to try their hand in a breakaway, but were brought back relatively quickly.
After finishing fourth on the stage yesterday, Howard was interested in intermediate sprint points, and the Aussie took the first set after 28 kilometers were raced.
It took 30 kilometers, but the day’s primary break was able to get away, and it too included Geniez, along with Bradley White (UnitedHealthcare), Jeremy Vennell (Bissell), Michael Creed (Team Optum-Kelly Benefit Strategies), Lloyd Mondory (Ag2R-La Mondiale), and Juan Pablo Suarez (Colombia-Coldeportes).
The peloton soon relaxed and enjoyed the California countryside, lined nearly equally with cattle and schoolchildren at recess. The gap to the break of six topped out at nearly ten minutes before the main bunch started to crank it up past the feed zone.
The day’s menu served up two categorized climbs, the first being the category 1 Empire Grade road that kicked up after 112 kilometers. The pace in the main bunch began to pick up as the climb approached, and as the breakaway hit the lower slopes, it immediately showed the effects.
Creed and Suarez were the first to tail off, and then the French sprinter Mondory was dropped as well. As Michael Rodriguez (Colombia-Coldeportes) made a brief move off the front of the peloton, Geniez was putting the rest of his escapees under pressure. Only Vennell and White were surviving and Geniez began asking them for help, at least initially.
With the gap dipping below four minutes, Geniez decided the help would not be enough, so he moved off alone and drove a quick pace up the climb as the peloton eased back. The gap was quickly back out to five minutes before Garmin-Barracuda took control of the race behind.
With the increase in pace, some riders began feeling the heat, and at least one lost concentration long enough to slip off an embankment on the right side of the road, causing a bit of a pileup and a rare uphill crash. No one crashed hard, but one of the riders to hit the deck was the yellow jersey of Sagan. After a brief check of his left shoulder, the sprinter was back up again, and his team mechanic made up for a slow wheel change yesterday. Sagan had a new bike in nearly record time, as well as an extended push to get back up to speed.
The Slovak was quickly able to rejoin the bunch as Jen Voigt (Radioshack-Nissan) was chipping in to help Garmin-Barracuda with the pace making. Halfway up the climb, Creed and Suarez were the first to retreat into the peloton. Ahead, Geniez took maximum points at the top of the Empire Grade climb, and the early King of the Mountains David Boily (Spidertech-C10) burst from the peloton to take some remaining points.
With the gap back down to under four minutes and with Mondory back in the bunch as well, the peloton had just three men remaining to chase. Geniez hit the descent proper and had the motorbikes scrambling out of the way, as the young Frenchman took maximum risks on the way down. Garmin-Barracuda continued down the descent with most of their team leading the way, and their work at the front caused a split in the peloton as the road flattened out.
Sensing the potential hazard, Ag2R-La Mondiale scrambled three men to the front of the second chase group, likely with team leader Nicholas Roche caught out. They soon were able to bring the groups together again, and the only loser in the battle was Geniez, who saw his gap drop under three minutes as he hit the base of the second categorized climb of the day.
The climb of Bear Creek Road was not as long as Empire Grade, but may have been a bit steeper, and the grades bit in to Geniez quickly. Liquigas-Cannondale and UnitedHealthcare put men near the front as Geniez labored up front. With 37 kilometers to race and still on the climb, his advantage was under a minute, and Boily was dropped, along with many of the sprinters.
Sagan drifted back to the team car, and showing his trademarked relaxation, got a wheel change and was quickly off again. BMC Racing began collecting men at the front and Maxime Bouet (Ag2R-La Mondiale), one of the aggressors during stage one, put in another attack. He pulled five others with him, including Marc De Maar (UnitedHealthcare) and Luke Durbridge (Orica-GreenEdge). De Maar sprinted away again as the peloton had pulled them back, but he was only looking for intermediate sprint points, and he eased off after he had them.
Liquigas-Cannondale reassumed control as Sagan looked ready behind, and the Italian squad got a long pull from Tim Duggan as the route rolled down toward Santa Cruz. Under the 10km banner, American road race champion Matthew Busche (Radioshack-Nissan) went down in a crash that took out three or four others, though none appeared to have serious injuries.
Up front, Sutherland made his bid for glory, and a Bontrager-Livestrong rider made a brief attempt to go after him. Sutherland was still hanging on with a kilometer to go, but he was swept up by pairs of BMC and Orica-GreenEdge riders, with Sagan eventually assuming fourth wheel.
Sagan needed no lead out this time, as he chose the perfect line into the sweeping right hand bend inside the final hundred meters. With just a quick acceleration out of the turn he had five bike lengths – plenty of room to savor his second victory.
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