THIS WEEK IN PRO CYCLING
Stage 3: Voigt wins stage, Leipheimer leads in Amgen Tour
Things didn’t start well for Team CSC at this year’s Amgen Tour of California. Largely due to shifting wind conditions, the squad’s time-trial specialists, including Dave Zabriskie and Fabian Cancellara, who went one-two at the 2006 world time trial championships, were shut out of the top three spots in the opening prologue in San Francisco.
The following day, three of its riders — Christian Vande Velde, Karsten Kroon and Zabriskie — went down in crashes, and Zabriskie left the race with a concussion. To make matters worse, the team’s new sprinter J.J. Haedo found himself tangled up in the final, just 200 meters from the stage 1 sprint in Santa Rosa, and was forced to hit the brakes, watching Graeme Brown and Greg Henderson battle for the stage win.
Since then, however, things could hardly have gone better for the Danish team sponsored by an American information-technology-services company. Haedo blasted out of the field at the end of stage 2 in Sacramento, beating ProTour sprinters such as Thor Hushovd and Freddie Rodriguez by such a large margin that it bordered on embarrassment. And in San Jose Wednesday, the team’s popular German headbanger, Jens Voigt, did what he does best — he drove a breakaway and sprinted out of a small group for the stage win.
With two wins in a row and Voigt now sitting in second overall, behind race leader Levi Leipheimer of Discovery Channel, it’s fair to say things are turning around for last year’s No. 1 team.
"On stage 1 we lost David Zabriskie, and J.J. almost won but got hooked in the sprint," Voigt said. "Nothing worked out. But with two stage wins, we are happy now."
After spending the day in a 17-man breakaway, Voigt and Jason McCartney (Discovery Channel) hit the day’s decisive climb up Sierra Road with enough of a head start to hang on to hard-charging climbers Leipheimer, Chris Horner (Predictor-Lotto) and Robert Gesink (Rabobank). The five-man group then stayed away over the remaining 10 miles, its one-minute advantage dwindling to just a handful of seconds over a group of 30 riders.
With Gesink sitting on, McCartney allowed a gap to open, leaving just Voigt, Horner and Leipheimer to contest the sprint, which Voigt easily won. Leipheimer finished second, allowing him to keep the yellow jersey with a three-second lead over the German CSC rider.
"Jason and the whole team were extraordinary today," Leipheimer said. "Today was a real bike race. It really was a battle. I saw [Discovery teammates] Allan [Davis] and Tony [Cruz] and Brian [Vandborg] get dropped and come back, just suffering with a grimace on their faces. I knew that with Jason up there, that was going to be the key. I needed him, and it worked out perfectly. Jason was phenomenal today."
The early going
Though the sun shone brightly before the start in Stockton, heavy clouds rolled in, bringing temperatures down into the low 60s. The 95-mile stage began with a pair of neutral laps, followed by a 5-mile neutral roll out of town, past a Hormel Foods plant and into flat agricultural plains. Two large climbs awaited the peloton, the first being category-4 Patterson Pass, 30 miles in, and the last being category-1 Sierra Road, the steepest climb of the race, beginning at mile 72.
One rider did not take the start — Quick Step-Innergetic rider Leonardo Scarselli, who crashed during the stage into Sacramento Tuesday and was taken to the hospital, where he was cleared of any fractures.
The first 20 miles of the stage were very flat before a 10-mile gradual climb to Patterson Pass, allowing plenty of time for breakaways to form. From the gun there was an immediate attack by Sliptream-Chipotle rider Will Frischkorn, which drew out Colavita’s Alejandro Acton. They were joined by Phil Zajicek (Navigators Insurance) and Brian Dziewa (Jelly Belly), then by Sebastian Hinault (Crédit Agricole) and Karl Menzies (Health Net-Maxxis). But the reaction from the field was swift and final, with the pace picking up. Once the day’s first breakaway attempt was reeled in, Acton attacked the peloton again, but was quickly brought to heel.
At mile 4 another break formed, containing 17 riders. While the peloton’s team directors quickly thumbed through its composition, the group slowly slipped away from the field. In the break were Voigt and McCartney, Bram De Groot (Rabobank), Torsten Hiekmann (Gerolsteiner), Aaron Olsen and Jakob Piil (T-Mobile), KOM contender Jurgen Van De Walle (Quick Step-Innergetic), Mads Kaggestad (Crédit Agricole), Mauro Da Dalto and Charlie Wegelius (Liquigas), Kyle Gritters, Shawn Milne and Kirk O’Bee (Health Net-Maxxis), Steven Cozza and Frischkorn (Slipstream-Chipotle), Nick Reistad (Jelly Belly) and Mike Sayers (BMC), who was recovering from hitting a pole during the closing circuits in Sacramento Tuesday.
Initially Voigt acted as cheerleader of the breakaway. "I told them, ‘Okay, boys, it’s now or never,’" Voigt said. "’It’s 20 to 30 seconds, let’s go now, we don’t want to have to go again. The finish line is in front of us, so stop looking back. If we work together, we will be outnumbering them.’"
"There were 16 of us, because McCartney wasn’t allowed to ride, but they only had five or six riders riding in the peloton. I would say everybody worked as well as they could. Maybe some riders were afraid or intimidated by the massive climb at the end, which is normal."
There were no riders represented in the break from Predictor-Lotto, the U.S. national team, Toyota-United or Navigators Insurance. With Discovery stringing out the peloton, along with three riders from Predictor-Lotto, the gap grew from 24 seconds at mile 10 to 35 seconds by mile 16.
Voigt was the highest-placed rider in the group, 10 seconds down on Leipheimer. By mile 26, as the road turned upward towards Patterson Pass, the gap had stretched to 1:05. Back in the peloton, Leipheimer had a few words with Horner, looking to get a couple more Lotto riders to lend a hand. With his usual grin, Horner shook his head. No. So Discovery dialed up the pace.
"I would have to take responsibility for that group getting away," Leipheimer said. "There were too many guys. I should have paid attention or been in there myself. The plan was to put Jason or Brian [Vandborg] in the break, which worked out well when I came up to [McCartney] on the climb. But with the size of that break, it became unmanageable."
At the 50km point the gap had risen to 2:15. As the breakaway approached the day’s first KOM points, McCartney picked up the pace, stringing out the group. Frischkorn and De Walle battled for KOM, with Frischkorn pipping the Belgian at the line to defend teammate Tom Peterson’s KOM jersey. Behind, the Discovery team was under enough pressure to move protected rider Tom Danielson into the wind to help chase.
As the breakaway rolled into Livermore for the first intermediate sprint points at mile 44, Voigt attacked the group and easily rode away. Four miles later the gap had swollen to 4:30. Looking to trim the group down and slow its pace, McCartney attacked his breakaway companions, opening up a 10-second gap. But no one took the bait, and the Iowa native sat up and went to the back, sitting on and waiting for Sierra Road. Joining McCartney at the back of the break was Cozza, who was rubbing his left calf, standing over his saddle and stretching.
At the day’s feed zone the gap hit its maximum of 5:00. As the leaders hit the winding, rolling hillside of Calaveras Road, Discovery continued to set the pace behind, shedding riders from the U.S. under-23 national team.
"When the gap was up to five minutes, we didn’t panic, but it was stressful," Leipheimer said. "To be honest, we were trying to close it when it was 20 or 30 seconds, but we couldn’t. There was a tailwind, and when you are doing 65kph, it’s hard to go 70. The speed was too fast. So we sort of calmed down and accepted the fact that this was going to be an all-day adventure when the gap went up. We knew we had Calaveras Road and Sierra Road, and that the break would explode on Sierra."
Discovery eventually got some help from Rabobank, whose decision to lend a hand seemed a strange tactic to some, with De Groot up the road.
"I totally understood [Rabobank’s] decision to start chasing," Voigt said. "They had [Mauricio Ardila] in ninth after the prologue. If he is confident he can go over the climb well, it made sense to me. I didn’t like it, but I understood it. They are here to win. We don’t have just one team to work. They wanted to take more responsibility."
Also lending a hand was Lance Armstrong, who rode in the caravan with team director Johan Bruyneel.
"To have a seven-time Tour de France winner in the car, on the radio, was very special," Leipheimer said. "He was excited, cheering us on, giving us words of encouragement. It made everyone dig that extra bit."
Health Net’s Shawn Milne attacked the breakaway at mile 61, opening up a 10-second gap. No one was interested in chasing, and his lead stretched out to a maximum of 30 seconds at mile 65, while the breakaway’s margin over the peloton was halved to 2:30. As the clouds over the rolling hills grew dark, so did the break’s chances of survival.
"When the gap moved towards five minutes I thought, ‘Okay, this looks quite promising, I think we can make it," Voigt said. "Then the peloton started coming back really fast, and Discovery had the Rabobank team helping them with the chasing. I figured I just needed to survive the first steep part of the climb."
The fast descent down Calaveras Road led into the town of Milpitas, where a five-mile stretch through neighborhoods led to the base of Sierra Road. Along the way the course passed Piedmont High School, where a digital sign outside read, "Where is Floyd? He didn’t do it!"
And then there were five
As the peloton reeled in the shattering breakaway at the base of the Sierra Road climb, McCartney attacked, taking Voigt, Piil, De Groot and Kaggestad with him, while Wegelius dropped off the pace. Behind, Ivan Basso and U.S. road champion George Hincapie set the pace for Leipheimer.
"Ivan was very strong at the bottom," Leipheimer said. "He was so strong that George had to tell him to slow down. I know I was feeling it. I asked him to go as far as he could, and he did. He made my job very easy."
Midway through the climb Leipheimer surged to bridge across to McCartney, with only Horner and Gesink able to hold the pace.
"Levi is on another page than the rest of us and he could have gone over the top ahead of us, but he knows he has to wait for the rest of us if he wants to make it to the finish ahead of the bunch," Horner said. "He looked really comfortable."
As McCartney dialed up the pace, Piil was the next rider from the breakaway to drop from the lead group, followed by De Groot and Kaggestad. Only McCartney and Voigt remained from the original breakaway, and once Leipheimer, Horner and Gesink made the bridge, five riders led the stage.
Just under a minute behind was a group of 13 riders, including Kaggestad, world champion Paolo Bettini (Quick Step), Christian Vande Velde and Bobby Julich (CSC), Michael Rogers (T-Mobile), Rory Sutherland (Health Net-Maxxis), Chris Baldwin (Toyota-United), Ardila and De Groot (Rabobank), Oliver Zaugg (Gerolsteiner), Dimitri Fofonov (Crédit Agricole), Franco Pellizotti (Liquigas) and Josep Jufre Pou (Predictor-Lotto).
With only Leipheimer, McCartney and Horner setting the pace, the gap remained 50 seconds at the bottom of Sierra Road, 10 miles from the flat, straight run-in to downtown San José. Voigt and Gesink sat on, albeit for different reasons.
"Over the top I didn’t need to ride," Voigt said. "I was waiting for my team captain Bobby Julich, and it was also good to protect my legs a little bit. I had a free ride for the last 20km. Then I started to think, ‘Okay, I have a fair chance to win the stage.’"
The descent down Sierra allowed a second chase group of 18 riders to catch on to the group of 13, creating a 30-man chase with 10 miles and one-minute to close.
"When we got over the top and got on to the flats, I have to tell you I was having fun," Leipheimer said. "Chris, Jason and I were really flying. We were putting down some smack. I even told Chris, ‘Man, we are flying.’ I know it was a big group behind us, and it’s almost impossible to stay away."
Gesink sat on, irking the others. In the final kilometers, with the Dutch rider on his wheel, McCartney simply slowed, allowing a gap to open.
"I never even saw the Rabobank rider with us because he never took a pull," Horner said. "I never looked back, so I never saw him. I don’t understand his strategy. You can’t play cat and mouse with Jason McCartney after all the work he did in the break. So McCartney just rode him straight out of the break."
Voigt said the young Rabobank rider simply couldn’t pull through.
"I think Gesink was on the limit on the climb," Voigt said. "I think he needed to save his legs a little but. There was nothing odd about it."
As the group of 30 riders closed in on the trio in the final kilometer, Voigt timed his sprint to perfection, easily pulling ahead of Leipheimer, with Horner taking third. Just three seconds behind, Bettini took the bunch sprint for fifth.
"I would have liked to have gotten to the finish with a minute on everyone else," Leipheimer said. "That doesn’t make me feel secure, and on top of that, Jens can time-trial pretty well. I am a long way from overall victory. I am going to give it everything, and hope that I have a good day on the time trial."
With 13 seconds picked up in time bonuses, Voigt moved to within three seconds of Leipheimer. Health Net rider Rory Sutherland moved into third overall, 15 seconds down, while Horner moved into fourth, 16 seconds down. In all, 37 riders are within one minute of Leipheimer heading into Thursday’s Queen Stage from Seaside to San Luis Obispo. The decisive time trial awaits Friday in Solvang.
"We will see. It’s the first race of the year," Voigt said. "This is into the unknown. I could win with a one-minute advantage. I could be losing with two minutes. We had our secret little 5 or 6km time trial in our training camp, and I finished second. I was beaten by one or two seconds by [world time trial champion] Fabian Cancellara.
"As the say, it’s not over until the fat lady sings," Voigt said. "We have a fair chance, but also Levi has a fair chance. He is a great rider. He’s a great TT rider. It’s still really open."
Race notes
Nine riders did not make the time cut: Brian Dziewa (Jelly Belly), points leader Allan Davis (Discovery Channel), Scott Stewart (U.S. national), Chris Stockburger (U.S. national), Irish national champion David McCann (Colavita Olive Oil-Sutter Home), Chad Beyer (U.S. national), Gustavo Artacho (Colavita Olive Oil), Sheldon Deeny (U.S. national) and Emile Abraham (Priority Health-Bissell). With Davis eliminated, Voigt’s ride tied him with Graeme Brown in the sprinter’s jersey competition. The German also was voted into the most-aggressive-rider’s jersey. Van De Walle and Peterson are tied on points in the King of the Mountains competition, while Predictor-Lotto rider Matthew Lloyd took over the best young rider’s competition, seven seconds ahead of Gesink, with Peterson in third, 3:05 behind.
To see how the stage developed, simply click here to bring up our live update window. Mobile users can click here to follow the action using their mobile-device browsers.
Amgen Tour of California
Stage 3 (top 10)
1. Jens Voigt (G), CSC, 3:43:44
2. Levi Leipheimer (USA), Discovery Channel, same time
3. Christopher Horner (USA), Predictor-Lotto, s.t.
4. Robert Gesink (Nl), Rabobank, 0:04
5. Paolo Bettini (I), Quick Step-Innergetic, s.t.
6. Stuart O'Grady (Aus), CSC, s.t.
7. Enrico Gasparotto (I), Liquigas, s.t.
8. Dimitri Fofonov (Kaz), Crédit Agricole, s.t.
9. Bram De Groot (Nl), Rabobank, s.t.
10. Sergey Lagutin (UZB), Navigators Insurance, s.t.
General classification (top 10)
1. Levi Leipheimer (USA), Discovery Channel, 12:46:25
2. Jens Voigt (G), CSC, 0:03
3. Rory Sutherland (Aus), Health Net-Maxxis, 0:15
4. Christopher Horner (USA), Predictor-Lotto, 0:16
5. Ardila Cano Mauricio Alberto (Col), Rabobank, 0:17
6. Ben Day (Aus), Navigators Insurance, 0:18
7. Ryder Hesjedal (CAN), Health Net-Maxxis, 0:19
8. Michael Rogers (Aus), T-Mobile, s.t.
9. Sergey Lagutin (UZB), Navigators Insurance, 0:20
10. Stuart O'Grady (Aus), CSC, s.t.
