February 18/08 10:49 am - Tour of California: Stage 1 photos, report and full results

Posted by Editoress on 02/18/08
 

Tour of California

Photos

JJ Haedo burst into prominence two years ago on stage one of the Amgen Tour of California (AToC) when he won the Sausalito to Santa Rosa stage, and today he repeated his victory to give CSC its second consecutive stage win, plus take the Points Jersey to go along with Fabian Cancellara's Yellow Jersey. Canadian Dominique Rollin (Toyota United) finished just off the podium in fourth place, and moved up to 18th in the overall standings.

The 156 kilometre stage took the riders from the shores of the San Francisco Bay in downtown Sausalito and headed north along the spectacular Pacific coast and through Point Reyes National Park, before turning inland for an eastern run to Santa Rosa, where the stage finished with three laps of a five kilometre circuit.

Although it was expected to be a sprinters finish, there were four significant climbs in the first 40 kilometres, with the main Category 3 climb on Coleman Valley Road at just over 100 kilometres. These proved to be enough to split the field up so that only a little more than half came into Santa Rosa in the front group.

The sprinters weren't helped by a solo attack from Jackson Stewart (BMC Racing) 27 kilometres into the stage, that lasted over 100 kilometres. Stewart stretched his lead to a maximum of 13 minutes, and crested the last climb still nearly nine minutes up, forcing the teams to chase, shredding the field.

"It didn't go exactly as planned," said Stewart. "We wanted to be aggressive and in moves, but we didn't plan on me being alone...."

Stewart was scooped up on the run into Santa Rosa, and almost immediately dropped. However, his day was complete, with the KoM and Most Aggressive Rider jerseys.

A group of approximately 40 crested the main climb together, with another 30 rejoining on the narrow descent, however, among those who didn't make the cut were Mario Cipollini (Rock Racing), Mark Cavendish (High Road) and Edvald Boasson Hagen (High Road).

Both Cavendish and Hagen were high on General Classification, so Slipstream was one of the teams driving the pace to support their GC hope Tyler Farrar. Quick Step was also at the front to set things up for Tom Boonen. Slipstream was in a possible position to take over the lead, after Farrar took intermediate time bonuses of three seconds, putting him only two seconds behind Cancellara - and both Cancellara and Boonen were part of the group that had to chase back on after the main climb. However, Slipstream's plans did not come to fruition when Farrar couldn't manage better than sixth in the final sprint.

Quick Step looked to be in good position for the final, when disaster struck on the last lap. High Road's George Hincapie went down after touching wheels, and Boonen was right behind him. Hincapie came rolling in minutes behind, but was given the same time as the peloton since the crash happened in the final three kilometres.

The Belgian managed to avoid going down, but was out of luck for contesting the sprint. The team tried to revise their plan and support Paolo Bettini, but it was too little and too late.

Haedo, on the other hand, had almost too good a lead out from race leader Cancellara. "The whole team was involved in the last lap; Jason (McCartney) took the front, then Karsten (Kroon) and Bobby (Julich). Fabian put me in a really good position, but I have to tell him to hold back a little bit because he is so powerful and I cannot go that long. But I won, and that's all that matters."

Dominique Rollin felt that he could have easily been in contention for the win, if he hadn't run into traffic with Bettini.

"The sprint was going good until the last 150 metres. I was coming on the far left, with lots of speed and then I ran in Bettini [not literally]. I think I started the sprint at the perfect time, but Bettini pulled off and I had to slam on the brakes and then go around him. I was going fast enough to win, but after [Bettini] I was just coasting because I had nowhere to go. So it's disappointing."

"This is the strongest field I have ever raced in, apart from the Worlds last year, and just to be that close to these guys is a confidence boost. I was fine on the climb, and it was a surprise to see guys like Boonen and Cancellara going backwards there. So it sure does give me confidence."

Race Notes

- Prior to the men's race arriving in Santa Rosa a women's one hour event was held on the circuit. Brooke Miller (Tibco) won, followed by Laura Van Gilder (Cheerwine) and Emilia Fahlin (High Road). There were two Canadians in the race - Jenny Trew (9th) and Leah Guloien (13th), both racing for Vanderkitten. The organizers (AEG) say that they hope to expand the women's side to three or four stages next year, but are discussing the matter with the UCI to make sure that they don't conflict with the Geelong World Cup.

- AEG President Andrew Messick was also asked about where they hoped to take the Amgen Tour of California in the future, and did it include the ProTour. "We want to be one of the most important races in the world, and the February period works well for the European schedule."

"For the ProTour ... it is a difficult question. Our race supports local teams, and we want to look carefully at regulations that would restrict the entry of domestic teams. We are wary of anything that might limit that."

- The Rock Racing riders who were excluded from the race - Tyler Hamilton, Oscar Sevilla, Santiago Botero and Kayle Leogrande - were seen riding on the course (outside of the race enclosure), eliciting comments from spectators, and angry comments by Cancellara at the post-race press conference, which basically boiled down to "Go home, you are not welcome."

Rock Racing has subsequently issued a statement:

Rock Racing's Santiago Botero, Tyler Hamilton, Kayle Leogrande and Oscar Sevilla rode parts of the course from Sausalito to Santa Rosa Monday for training. Botero, Hamilton and Sevilla were excluded from the race Saturday by Amgen Tour of California organizer AEG.

The four left Sausalito approximately 45 minutes before the start of Stage 1 and trained on the roads that were open to cyclists (even getting lost at one point). They were not in communication with anyone (staff, riders or team personnel) who was actively participating in Monday's race.

Rock Racing's Freddie Rodriguez, who finished ninth in Stage 1, said the four riders continue to train since they are still part of the team and plan to compete in upcoming races.

"We are expecting to ride as a full, united team and the four guys who are unable to race in the Tour of California are trying to stay in shape and continue training so they're ready," he said. "These four guys are still a part of our team and they are here to support us."

- JJ Haedo won his 5th AToC stage and with the AToC in just its 3rd year (with just 11 sprint stages completed) he has won nearly 1/2 of them.

- Tomorrow's stage starts in Santa Rosa and heads east to the state capital of Sacramento, covering 186 kilometres. There are two categorized climbs, the first - a Category 2 - only 20 kilometres into the stage. However, the final 100 kilometres is flat, so this is expected to come down to a bunch sprint. The stage starts at 10:00 am local time (1:00 pm EST) and is expected to last approximately three and a half hours.