May 17/12 18:45 pm - Tour of California: Stage 5 report and results

Posted by Editoress on 05/17/12
 

Current U.S. National Time Trial Champion Zabriskie Ends Peter Sagan’s Four-Day Run in Yellow after Grueling Time Trial in Bakersfield

Under cloudless skies and temperatures that reached above 100 degrees, David Zabriskie (USA) of Garmin-Barracuda outrode his competition and into the yellow Amgen Race Leader Jersey during the Stage 5 Individual Time Trial in Bakersfield, finishing in first place with an overall time of 35 minutes, 59 seconds. Coming in 23 seconds behind him was Jens Voigt (GER) from RadioShack-Nissan-Trek. Tejay van Garderen (USA) of BMC Racing Team finished 42 seconds behind Zabriskie and moved into second place overall only 34 seconds behind.

“My house is two hours from here, so I came out in the winter,” said Zabriskie, the current U.S. Time Trial champion, who is hopeful his result here at the 2012 Amgen Tour of California will bode well for his Olympic ambitions to represent the United States at the London Olympic Games. “I rode it. I videotaped it on the iPad and watched it quite a few times. I knew where I wanted to go hard. I knew when I wanted to go easy – soccer field, petting zoo, make it to the tree line go down easy come up strong. I had a real plan going into this race.”

Zabriskie took over the lead of the eight-day race from Peter Sagan (SVK) of Liquigas-Cannondale, who has dominated the race thus far, holding the Amgen Race Leader Jersey for four days straight. Sagan, who said he “didn’t feel good from the start,” finished the Time Trial in 52nd place with a time of 39 minutes, 26 seconds.

In what many of the cyclists cited as “one of the toughest time trial courses in the history of the Amgen Tour of California”, cyclists raced on an 18.4-mile route that included several 100-foot rollers. As the cyclists neared the finish, they still had one climb to tackle – China Grade – which presented an eight percent climb to the top and then a hard left. Then, the riders faced a slightly uphill, .44-mile run to the finish.

“I spent a lot of time on the time trial bike in training,” said van Garderen when asked about his preparation for today. “The course today was a tough one because there were no corners; pretty much just straight road. Yeah, there were a few ups and downs but the entire time was in the bars with the exception of the final climb. Just staying in that position for that long is hard on your arms, whereas, if you had a few corners you can kind of sit up and take a bit of a breather. So it was on the power the whole time which was really hard.”

As expected, the Individual Time Trial proved to be decisive, shaking up the General Classification standings. Zabriskie now leads the race in first place, followed by van Gardener in second and Robert Gesink (NED) of the Rabobank Cycling Team. Previous race leader Sagan now sits in 31st place.

When asked if he was going to fight to keep the Amgen Race Leader Jersey, Zabriskie responded, “Definitely. I’m not going to lie down and give it away. David Zabriskie is going to fight until he’s lying on the ground almost dying. To win would be the biggest win in my life, my career. It would be amazing; definitely not an easy thing to come by. It would be a beautiful thing.”

With no Sprint or King of the Mountain (KOM) competitions today, Sagan will now wear the Visit California Sprint Jersey, while Sebastian Salas (USA) of Optum Powered by Kelly Benefit Strategies will keep the Nissan King of the Mountains Jersey. Yannick Eijssen (BEL) from BMC Racing Team remains in the Exergy Most Aggressive Rider Jersey and Markel Irizar Arranburu in the Amgen Breakaway from Cancer® Most Courageous Rider Jersey. Luke Durbridge (AUS) of Orica-GreenEDGE will wear the Rabobank Young Rider Jersey.

Results from today's 5th stage of the Tour of California