Staying with the breaks for 125 miles into a spitting rain paid off for Dominique Rollin on Thursday when he launched a solo break near the finish and won Stage 4 of the Amgen Tour of California.
Levi Leipheimer retained the leader's golden jersey, due to the efforts of his Astana team riding at the head of peloton and controlling the race.
If there is glamour in the sport of cycling, it wasn't in evidence in Thursday's stage. In addition to many cyclists being ravaged by stomach flu, the rest of the peloton spent the day pedaling 135 miles down the Pacific Coast Highway into rain and head- and side-winds between Seaside and San Luis Obispo.
How bad was it? The final results show that 15 riders dropped out during the stage, in addition to 3 who couldn't start in the morning. Among the drop-outs, Tom Danielson from Slipstream and Jackson Stewart (BMC Racing), who had just reclaimed the King of the Mountains jersey before climbing into an ambulance to be treated for hypothermia.
Breaks
The breakaways started almost immediately, but the one that formed 19 miles after leaving Seaside was the one that survived nearly to the finish. During the day, that break decreased to seven riders, while Astana chased at the head of the peloton, but not too hard. The day's average speed was about 20 mph.
The margin between the seven-man break and the peloton remained stagnant at about 2 minutes during most of the afternoon.
Then with about 12 miles to go to the San Luis Obispo finish, Rollin attacked. George Hincapie (High Road) and Iker Camano (Saunier Duval) countered, but even working together they couldn't catch the Canadian cyclist.
Leipheimer told his teammates to relax with just 8 miles to go. Team CSC took over at the front and tore apart the peloton as it picked up the pace. In spite of that, Rollin opened up a greater gap and soloed across the finish line.
O Canada
If you're familiar with Rollin, it may be from his third-place finish overall at the Tour of Missouri. In 2007 he was on the Kodak/Sierra Nevada cycling team, as well as a member of the Canadian World Championship Road Team.
The Montreal resident is a six-time Canadian National Road Champion, which is an amazing accomplishment considering he's just 25 years old.
At the Toyota-United website, Rollin writes:
“I prefer long field sprints or from a breakaway. I’m quite aggressive and if I can, I’ll make the race happen.”
That's pretty much what happened in Stage 4.
Top 10:
1. Levi Leipheimer (USA), Astana
2. Fabian Cancellara (Swi), CSC, 13 seconds behind
3. Robert Gesink (Nl), Rabobank, 15 secs.
4. David Millar (GB), Slipstream-Chipotle, 20 secs.
5. Gustav Larsson (Swe), CSC, 21 secs.
6. David Zabriskie (USA), Slipstream-Chipotle
7. Christian Vandevelde (USA), Slipstream-Chipotle, 23 secs.
8. Christopher Horner (USA), Astana, 25 secs.
9. Alexandre Moos (Swi), BMC, 29 secs.
10. Pena Grisales Victor Hugo (Col), Rock Racing, 31 secs.
For all work in the breakaway and the late chase, Hincapie moved up just five places to 21st and gained about 2 minutes, to 5:17 behind.
Recent Comments