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Haedo takes deserved win after racelong CSC-Discovery battle
When people look back at the developing history of the Amgen Tour of California they will say that the race came of age on stage 6 of the 2007 edition. Even though Saturday’s 105.4-mile stage from Santa Barbara ended in a mass sprint in sunny Santa Clarita, won by Team CSC’s J.J. Haedo from T-Mobile’s Greg Henderson and Quick Step’s world champion Paolo Bettini, this was no parade.
Haedo was happy to take his second stage win of the week, to match the two he took last year, but that looked unlikely when his CSC teammate Stuart O’Grady was leading a nine-man breakaway that seriously threatened Levi Leipheimer’s Amgen Tour yellow jersey.
"It was stressful," Leipheimer said. "Everybody came out with guns firing, they came out to crack us. It was a very hard race."
The racing matched the spectacular course, featuring four climbs in the first 55 miles and culminating in the already infamous Balcom Canyon, which saw an even bigger gathering than the 10,000 fans who showed up last year. In fact, the California Highway Patrol said the crowds on this stage were the largest seen on any of the 15 stages that have been contested in the Tour of California’s first two editions.
The festive crowds were entertained by live bands in the sprint town of Santa Paula and at the finish in Santa Clarita, but the riders themselves were the main entertainment. Just as CSC’s Jens Voigt warned Friday night, the CSC team was determined to make life difficult for Leipheimer and his six teammates and attacked from the start, knowing that they had four riders in the top six overall — Jens Voigt, Bobby Julich, Stuart O’Grady and Christian Vande Velde — none of them more than 1:24 off the pace.
"It’s really not important who’s winning from us," said Voigt, "as long as someone from us is winning. And I was happy to give it away [to any of the others]."
The instant attacks on twisting back roads forced Discovery to immediately go on red alert. Less than three miles into the race, with the pursuit already full on, Discovery’s Tony Cruz hit the rear wheel of teammate Ivan Basso and fell, bringing down another teammate, George Hincapie, while Leipheimer just avoided them. It was a critical crash, not only because an X-ray after the stage showed that U.S. champion Hincapie had broken his left arm near the wrist, but also because the incident left Leipheimer with only four teammates.
"I was kind of hoping that guys would be polite and wait," said Leipheimer, "but that’s racing. We were down for a while and we had to wait a long time before they could come back because [the peloton] was split in two."
While the injured Hincapie and Cruz were struggling behind in a big group that also contained Predictor-Lotto’s Chris Horner, a battle for the King of the Mountains jersey was going on in front, keeping the pace high. After Rabobank’s Colombian Mauricio Ardila and Health Net-Maxxis’s Shawn Milne kept clear over the first two climbs between Santa Barbara and Ojai, KoM leader Christophe Laurent of Crédit Agricole was outsprinted twice by chief challenger Jurgen Van de Walle of Quick Step.
And though Frenchman Laurent eventually kept the lead by three points over the Belgian, their infighting contributed to the Discovery team having a much harder struggle. Eventually, when the pace eased momentarily after the day’s third climb, a five-man counterattack went clear. O’Grady was the break’s spark and he was joined by another danger man, Michael Rogers of T-Mobile, along with Rabobank’s Matt Hayman, Quick Step’s Bram Tankink and Liquigas’s Enrico Gasparotto.
These five men slammed the pace on a swishing downhill toward Santa Paula, pursued by four others: Predictor’s Josep Jufre, Quick Step’s Giovanni Visconti, Navigator Insurance’s Viktor Rapinski and Slipstream-Chipotle’s Danny Pate. Through the sprint at Santa Paul, the front nine came together, with a 1:50 lead over Leipheimer’s pack, and 2:30 over the group containing Cruz and Hincapie.
By the time the Hincapie group caught back to the peloton, after chasing for more than two hours, the nine leaders were three minutes clear. Over Balcom Canyon, where the massed thousands were privileged to see real racing this year, in contrast to the stalemate situation in 2006, the Discovery team had to refocus its defense of the jersey with 50 miles still to race.
The leaders kept on the pressure over another uncategorized climb and then along the flat roads through the citrus groves of the valley.
"Everyone was working well together," said Pate. "O’Grady was pulling really hard … he was really drilling it out there when he was leader on the road."
Drilling it just as hard at the head of the snaking peloton was the remarkable Hincapie, apparently ignoring the pain from his broken bone. He was perhaps the strongest rider in the chase, which continued for another 90 minutes. Also powerful in the Discovery team pursuit — which finally made the gap dip below the 1:20 danger margin with 15 miles left — were Dane Brian Vandborg, third-placed Jason McCartney, Tom Danielson and Basso.
Talking of his relationship with Basso later, Leipheimer said, "When someone sacrifices as much as he has for me, that goes a long ways to solidifying a friendship, a bond." No doubt, the 33-year-old American will sacrifice for Basso at some future point in their new team relationship.
Once on the three laps of a wide and fast 3.5-mile finishing circuit in Santa Clarita, Health Net helped Discovery close down the leaders, who were finally caught inside two miles to go. Crédit Agricole for sprinter Thor Hushovd and CSC for Haedo initially led the end-game charge, but the German teams Gerolsteiner (for Robert Förster) and T-Mobile (for Henderson and Gerald Ciolek) led the 90 or so riders into the final kilometer.
"We were supposed to have Greg tee-up Ciolek, who’s faster than Haedo," said T-Mobile team manager Bob Stapleton, "but it just didn’t happen. Ciolek got lost somewhere."
Teammate Henderson confirmed, "We were setting it up for Ciolek and he was on my wheel, and I had [Michael] Barry in front of me and [Adam] Hansen, so we were in good position. Then a swarm came, and Ciolek lost my wheel.
"I still had Barry, and he slotted me on the back of Gerolsteiner. I kept looking around, looking around, and Ciolek couldn’t make it back to my wheel, so I was like, ‘All right, I’ll have to sprint.’ Förster took off at 200, and I went past him and I selected the 11 [-tooth cog], which, in a slight head wind and a slight uphill sprint, was maybe too big for me after a hard day, I don’t know."
Meanwhile, Haedo was biding his time. "No one had a full team so I had to fight my way through with Voigt," said the CSC sprinter. "I was on Hushovd’s wheel with 500 meters to go. He was in a good position but there was a head wind and it was slightly uphill, so I waited a little longer than usual."
Haedo’s final 50-meter rush just took him past Henderson for the win, while Bettini, also finessing the conditions, came past a tiring Hushovd to take third. All these men will be happy to fight again Sunday in the Tour of California’s final stage, a 10-lap, 77.5-mile circuit race at Long Beach.
You can bet, though, that Leipheimer and his superbly strong teammates won’t be looking for a repeat of their epic chase on the memorable stage 6.
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Amgen Tour of California
Results
Top 10
1. José Juan Haedo (Arg), CSC, 105.4mi in 3:56:04
2. Greg Henderson (NZl), T-Mobile, same time
3. Paolo Bettini (I), Quick Step-Innergetic, s.t.
4. Thor Hushovd (Nor), Crédit Agricole, s.t.
5. Fred Rodriguez (USA), Predictor-Lotto, s.t.
6. Robert Förster (G), Gerolsteiner, s.t.
7. Luca Paolini (I), Liquigas-Bianchi, s.t.
8. Alexander Candelario (USA), Jelly Belly, s.t.
9. Alejandro Acton (ARG), Colavita Olive Oil-Sutter Home, s.t.
10. Russell Downing (GB), Health Net-Maxxis, s.t.
Overall
1. Levi Leipheimer (USA), Discovery Channel, 22:17:56
2. Jens Voigt (G), CSC, at 0:21
3. Jason McCartney (USA), Discovery Channel, at 0:54
4. Bobby Julich (USA), CSC, at 1:06
5. Stuart O'Grady (Aus), CSC, at 1:16
6. Christian Vande Velde (USA), CSC, at 1:24
7. Michael Rogers (Aus), T-Mobile, at 1:32
8. Ben Day (Aus), Navigators Insurance, at 1:38
9. Franco Pellizotti (I), Liquigas-Bianchi, at 1:41
10. Ryder Hesjedal (Can), Health Net-Maxxis, at 1:57
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