Amgen Tour of California – Stage 4
Talk about a tough day at the office. With temperatures soaring above 90 degrees all day, the boys powered through 130 miles on a course featuring six KOM summits, with three additional uncategorized climbs thrown in for good measure.
“It was definitely the hardest, longest day of the tour,” said Team Exergy Director Sportif Tad Hamilton of Stage 4’s Sonora to Clovis course. “If the boys weren’t going up, they were going down.”
A break didn’t get away today until the second climb, when a group of 11 riders slipped away. It marked the first time that all UCI Pro Tour teams jumped into the break, and they stayed away until the final KOM. After returning to the main field, some hard attacks on the last big climb split up the peloton. Everyone expected a fast run into Clovis, but the Liquigas crew sat up and waited for Peter Sagan's lead out man, allowing the peloton come back together.
At that point it was down to the sprint. The last corner came with 750 meters to go, and Exergy sprinter Fred Rodriguez moved into great position for the sprint. Unfortunately, between the corner and the finish line he got hung out on the front and had to reshuffle. He couldn’t get going again and ended up in 11thplace.
And despite the mass of big-named sprinters in the bunch, the same two names came out on top for the fourth time this week: Peter Sagan in first and Heinrich Haussler in second. Liquigas’ Sagan now has seven Amgen Tour of California stage wins to his credit, an ATOC record.
With half the tour in the books, the Team Exergy boys look good. And having been in the mix for all four sprint finishes so far this week, Fast Freddie looks great. He currently sits in fifth place in the overall general classification, 36 seconds behind Sagan.
Tomorrow’s Stage 5 course, in contrast to today’s long and mountainous route, is short and flat: an 18.4-mile individual time trial in Bakersfield. Racing begins at 2 p.m. MDT. Live coverage starts on NBC Sports Channelat 2:30 p.m. MDT. Morgan Schmitt should be out on the course as coverage begins. Andres Diaz starts at 3:11 p.m., Matt Cooke at 3:14 p.m. and Freddie takes to the road at 4:04 p.m. MDT.
