American Floyd Landis retained the golden jersey in the Amgen Tour of California today, thanks to his Phonak team keeping the breakaways on the line.
But it was Juan José Haedo who once again surprised the sprinters and raced out front at the finish in San Luis Obispo. It's cool to see a virtual unknown racer beat the accomplished sprinters at their game.
Perhaps I shouldn't say unknown; Haedo made himself known on Monday when he won the finishing sprint in Santa Rosa. On Thursday Haedo beat Freddy Rodriguez (Davitamon Lotto) and Andre Korff (T-Mobile) at the line.
The 25-year-old sprinter is the four-time Argentinian national champion, according to VeloNews. He's on the brand new Toyota-United Pro team, coached by former pro cyclists Frankie Andreu (also an OLN commentator) and Harm Jansen. Haedo has had several domestic cycling wins in the past couple of years, including two at the Tour of Redlands.
Landis, who lives in Murrieta, California, picked up the leader's jersey in the 17-mile time trial on Wednesday. Some, like Team CSC director Bjarne Riis, say he'll probably be able to keep it until the finish. Landis' Phonak team, based in Switzerland, just has to reel in any breakaways that contain riders close in the general classification.
The 130-mile bike race took over scenic Highway 1 down the rugged coast of California for today's stage. The scenery is awesome, even on the jittery video feed at Amgen Tour of California's website. It should be spectacular on ESPN2 tonight.
More hills on Friday as well, as the peloton heads into the Santa Ynez Mountains before arriving in Santa Barbara. Then just one more day until Sunday's finish at Redondo Beach.
Here's a link to Landis' blog if you want to wish him well.
Top 10 in GC:
Floyd Landis (USA) Phonak Hearing Systems, 12.37.38
David Zabriskie (USA) Team CSC — :29 behind
Bobby Julich (USA) Team CSC — :34 behind
George Hincapie (USA) Discovery Channel –:45 behind
Nathan O'Neill (Aus) Health Net p/b Maxxis — 1:08 behind
Levi Leipheimer (USA) Gerolsteiner — 1:10 behind
Cadel Evans (Aus) Davitamon-Lotto — 1:29 behind
Thomas Danielson (USA) Discovery Channel — 1:49 behind
Christian Vandevelde (USA) Team CSC — 1:55 behind
Jason McCartney (USA) Discovery Channel — 1:58 behind
King of the Mountains jersey — Bernard Kohl, T-Mobile
Sprint jersey — Juan Jose Haedo, Toyota-US Pro
Best Young Rider jersey — Thomas Peterson, Team TIAA-CREF
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