May 17/10 22:40 pm - Amgen Tour of California: Stage 2 report, photos and results

Posted by Editoress on 05/17/10
 

Stage two of the Tour of California saw a complete rearrangement of the standings, as the peloton rode through steady, cold rain.  Brett Lancaster (Cervélo) won the stage in a small group sprint, and took the golden leader's jersey, ahead of Peter Sagan (Liquigas-Doimo) and Lars Boom (Rabobank).  Two Canadians made the front group - Frank Parisien (SpiderTech p/b Planet Energy) in sixth and Ryder Hesjedal (Garmin-Transitions), eighth.

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The 177 kilometre stage from the bike-friendly town of Davis to race favourite Levi Leipheimer's (RadioShack) home in Santa Rosa, took the riders over four categorized climbs.  From a slight drizzle at the start, the rain steadily grew harder, and the temperature dropped to the low teens.  The narrow rough roads added to the difficulty, with multiple riders crashing on the descents.  Andrew Pinfold (United Healthcare p/b Maxxis) had the worst crash, coming one day after losing skin in the final kilometres of stage one, he went down hard on the third descent, shredding his clothing and bandages, and had to abandon.

"He reopened his entire side from yesterday," team director Gord Fraser informed us.  "Very banged up would be an understatement..."

In a repeat of stage one, a small group of five went clear less than 15 kilometres into the race.  Andrew Randell (SpiderTech) was the lone Canadian, joined by Karl Menzies (United Healthcare), Thomas Rabou (Team Type 1), Jay Robert Thomson (Fly V Australia) and Michael Friedman (Jelly Belly).  The gap grew to six and a half minutes by the first KoM, and then to seven minutes, and at this point race leader Mark Cavendish's HTC-Columbia team was joined by RadioShack in the chase.

The combined power splintered the field, while the break was coming apart at the front.  Menzies and Rabou continued to chase points on the remaining two KoM's before being scooped up by a select group on the run into the finish.  The 26 riders who joined the break survivors included five RadioShacks (Levi Leipheimer and Lance Armstrong), four Garmin-Transitions (Hesjedal and David Zabriskie), two Saxo Banks (Andy Schleck and Jens Voigt) and two HTC-Columbias (Lars Yitting Bak and Michael Rogers).  In all, 15 teams were represented, with only Quick Step missing the train.  Heinrich Haussler (Cervélo) had mechanical problems and dropped out of the group.

Once the group was clear, RadioShack took control, driving the pace to reduce the possibility of any challengers rejoining the front.  A chase group with Hincapie and Haussler got within 15 seconds, before falling back in the final kilometres.  In the final 200 metres, Lancaster went to the front and held off Sagan by half a bike length, while the overall contenders rolled in behind.

"I'm pleased with my performance today," said Parisien.  "Having my teammate Andrew Randell in the breakaway simplified our tactics behind in the peloton, and gave us the inspiration to defend his efforts. I could follow the Radio Shack train [of Lance Armstrong's team] over the tough final climbs and stayed in the front group to the finish. I challenged for the win in the final sprint, finishing sixth on a very tough day."

At this point, RadioShack, Garmin-Transitions, HTC-Columbia and Saxo Bank are all in good position with their top riders ten seconds out of the lead.  Tomorrow, the race starts in San Francisco after a lengthy transfer from Santa Rosa.  The 182 kilometre stage heads along the Pacific Coast Highway, ducking inland twice to send the riders over four categorized climbs, before finishing in Santa Cruz.