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Perfect sprint for Hushovd, Leipheimer still in yellow

Published: Feb. 17, 2009
2009 AToC, stage 3: Hushovd
2009 AToC, stage 3: Hushovd
Photo: Casey B. Gibson

Everyone was expecting Columbia-High Road’s Mark Cavendish to ace his first chance of winning a stage of the 2009 Amgen Tour of California on Tuesday, but a tussle on the final corner kept him from even challenging the eventual stage 3 winner, Thor Hushovd of the new Cervélo TestTeam. Hushovd easily took the windblown 101.4-mile stage from San Jose to Modesto by a couple of bike lengths from three-time world champion Oscar Freire or Rabobank, with Cavendish’s lead-out man Mark Renshaw in third.

Despite crashing 30 miles into the stage, Levi Leipheimer of Astana comfortably kept the yellow jersey to retain his 24-second overall lead on Columbia’s Michael Rogers, with Garmin-Slipstream’s Dave Zabriskie still in third and Astana’s Lance Armstrong in fourth. Leipheimer and his teammate Chris Horner both fell within five minutes of each other shortly after the pace slowed following a hectic opening that included the Cat. 1 climb of Sierra Road.

2009 Amgen Tour of California
Stage 3, San Jose to Modesto, 167.7 km km (104 miles)

Winner: Thor Hushovd (Cervelo TestTeam)
Leader: Levi Leipheimer (Astana)
Winner's average speed: 37.5 kph (23.3 mph)
Rabobank Best Young Rider: Robert Gesink (Rabobank)
Best Team: Team Columbia-Highroad
Herbalife Sprint Leader: Francisco Mancebo (Rock Racing)
Amgen Couragous Award: Bradley White (OUCH)
California King of the Mountains Leader: Bauke Mollema (Rabobank)
Peloton: Edward King (Cervelo), Darren Lill (Team Type 1), Ian MacGregor (Team Type 1), Alejandro Borrajo (Colavita), Phil Zajiek (Fly V), Cyril Dessel (Ag2R) and John Gadret (Ag2r) dropped out with injury or illness. Cam Evans (OUCH), Phil Southerland (Team Type 1) and Brad Huff (Jelly Belly) were disqualified for holding on to a vehicle. That leaves 119 riders to start stage 4.
Up next: Stage 4's 186 km (116 miles) from Merced to Clovis includes five categorized climbs.

“It was my fault,” Leipheimer said. “I just looked down for one second. I wasn’t fully concentrating. And it was windy out there and it’s hard to ride in a straight line. Everyone was going from left to right, and the next thing I know I touched a wheel and went down on my ass. I can certainly feel it on my butt. It’s like when you stub your toe … maybe a little bit bigger than that.”

Garmin’s Christian Vande Velde and Steven Cozza fell over Leipheimer, but all three soon got going. Horner spent longer on the deck when he fell right in the middle of the pack, after skidding on one of the road studs. The weather was again cold, wet and windy, but of slightly less intensity than on stages 1 and 2.

It was perfect weather for Hushovd, who excels in the usually mucky Belgian classics. Both he and runner-up Freire are recent winners of Ghent-Wevelgem. And Tuesday in the Central Valley of California the weather was more like Flanders in April. Hushovd joked that the conditions even felt cold for him after training in “balmy” Norway. In truth, the conditions and the eight-corner, 2.8-mile finishing circuit in Modesto perfectly suited the former Tour de France points champion.

“These final circuits were very nerve-wracking,” race leader Leipheimer said. “It’s the first time we’ve done a field sprint like that this year. It’s back to racing, man. I forgot how hectic it can be.”

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The more hectic the better for the burly Hushovd. “Our team did a great job today,” he said. “It’s the first time we’ve worked together. Now I know these guys will be one of the best lead-out teams in the world. And we should be up there in the big races this year ... Hayden Roulston started the lead-out with more than 1K to go, Dominique Rollin pulled into the last corner, and then Brett Lancaster started the sprint, and I passed him with only 150 meters to go.”

It all sounded so simple for the Cervélo team; but Cavendish and Team Columbia were experiencing all sorts of problems behind them. The American team’s troubles actually began four hours earlier on Sierra Road, the brute of a climb that had formed the vital difficulty of the stages into San Jose the past three years.

2009 AToC, stage 3: The foursome was away most of the day.
2009 AToC, stage 3: The foursome was away most of the day.
Photo: Neal Rogers

The action started right after the peloton left the neutral zone in San Jose, with the squally rain showers already whipping against the riders’ faces. Four men attacked and were 45 seconds clear by the time they hit the crowd-lined Sierra climb after five miles.

The best placed of the four was Rabobank’s Dutch hope Bauke Mollema, the winner of the 2007 Tour de l’Avenir, who started the day only 2:14 behind Leipheimer on GC. With him went Liquigas’s Dane Brian Vandborg, and two Americans, Team BMC’s Jeff Louder and OUCH-Maxxis’ Brad White. The gap dropped to 10 seconds on Sierra’s initial “wall” where stage 1 winner Francisco Mancebo of Rock Racing jumped across to the four leaders. His impetus helped the break move 55 second clear by the summit, where Mancebo snaffled the first-place points to consolidate his lead in the KOM competition.

That was all the Spaniard was looking for. He didn’t want another long day out front as his had on Sunday into Santa Rosa. As he dropped back, the four original breakaways extended their lead to a maximum of 5:35, and they were only hauled in two miles from the finish, just when Cervélo was ramping things up for Hushovd.

More than half the field was dropped by the front group of 35 up Sierra’s wicked grades, including Cavendish who only caught back after chasing with three teammates for a dozen miles down, up and around a seemingly endless series of curves, and frightening descents in the rain. Three men crashed in this opening stretch, with Cervélo’s Ted King fracturing the upper humerus of his right arm; Ian MacGregor of Team Type 1 hitting a parked truck and suffering multiple contusions to his chin and left shin; and Bissell’s Omer Kern also crashing on the Sierra descent and escaping with multiple bruises. Meanwhile, Sky V's Phil Zajicek, who had crashed and broken his wrist on Monday, was dropped on Sierra Road and abandoned 18 miles into the race

The efforts that Cavendish and his teammates made early in the day, along with their steady pursuit of the breakaway in the crosswinds that buffeted the pack in the flat finale, probably contributed to their lack of cohesion on the Modesto circuit.

“In the Tour Down Under we worked as a team and didn’t have any troubles,” lead-out man Renshaw said, “but with the wet roads and the cat-eyes (Aussie for road studs), Mark got knocked off my wheel before the final corner. And when that happens you just can’t come back from that.”

2009 AToC, stage 3: Hushovd - it wasn't even close.
2009 AToC, stage 3: Hushovd - it wasn't even close.
Photo: Courtesy Amgen Tour of California

It appeared to be Rock Racing’s Fred Rodriguez who bumped Cavendish off of Renshaw’s wheel, while the tussle allowed Swiss champion Markus Zberg of BMC to move ahead of the Aussie onto the wheel of Columbia’s George Hincapie. So when Hincapie cranked up the speed behind Hushovd, Lancaster and Freire, Renshaw was too far back to follow. That was it for the angry Cavendish, who just cruised across the line in fifth place.

Better weather is forecast for Wednesday’s hilly 115.8-mile stage 4 through the foothills of the Sierras between Merced and Clovis. Nine riders dropped out Tuesday, while three others were disqualified for holding on to their team cars on Sierra Road, to leave 119 men in the race.

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