Lean, Green Machine Wins Stage 3 in California

By Jim Friebert — May 15, 2013–California

Edited by Jen Benepe

With his Cannondale team timing their sprint train to perfection, Slovakia’s Peter Sagan delivered his first win at the big California

race in stage 3 Tuesday.

He was just ahead of Mick Matthews (Orica Greenedge) and Tyler Farrar (Garmin-Sharp-Barracuda) who was third.

Sagan broke three-time Champion Levi Leipheimer’s Amgen Tour of California stage win record of seven last year when he took five stage wins. His stage wins at America’s largest cycling race now total nine, including today’s dramatic victory.

“The last three kilometers were crazy with all the sprinters who wanted to win,” said Sagan of today’s finish. “When I won I knew it was a good stage for me.”

After two days of baking and broiling on the bikes, 119 riders were treated to a more hospitable Tour of California when temperatures fell to the 80’s.  Tuesday’s stage also offered a break, dropping to 110 miles, 14 less than on Monday’s broiling mountain climb.

Support crews too got a break: instead of preparing 200 bottles and innumerable ice bags as they did over the previous two stages, the average dropped to 150 full bottles per eight riders.

One hundred racers finished as a massive pack, with the last fifteen all coming across the line in the following several minutes – no one passing out from heatstroke, no one 18 to 36 minutes behind as they were in the previous two stages.

Tuesday’s stage saw a big move from breakaway specialist Jens Voigt who attacked from the gun.

Voigt’s break formed and reformed with a gruppo of other break riders, a virtual Who’s Who of pros, including Leopard teammate, Andy Schleck, Didier and Jungles; Sylvain Chavanel (Omega PQ); four BMC riders, Tejay van Garderen, Brent Bookwalter, Mathias Frank, and Michael Schar, and a host of others including Sagan and a Cannondale teammate, Baden Cooke and two younger Orica Greenedge charges, Cameron Meyer and his brother Travis Meyer.

Later Voigt was joined by Mick Rogers and Saxo-Tinkoff teammate, Chris Baldwin, Carter Jones of Bissell, Alex Cadelario of Optum, and two more breakaway aces, Juan Antonia Flecha of Valconsoleil-DCM, and Francisco Mancebo of 5-Hour energy. You might ask who was left in the field!  Buhler? Anyone?

Of course this escape group stayed out over the first Nissan King of the Mountain, and Carter Jones solidified his hold on that jersey, but for all the other teams left in the field  – their directors were screaming, their race would be over if the escape stayed away, so the concerted effort of a hundred-rider peloton reeled in the 23-rider break just after that KOM, at least for a moment.

Andy Schleck, stage 1 winner Lieuwe Westra, Chad Beyer, and the young Bontrager team’s Gavin Mannion began building a lead they had hold for most of the day.

In fact with 55 kilometers, 34 miles to go, they were still three minutes ahead of the peloton, at a steady 25-26 mile-per-hour pace.

With 18 kilometers to go, Chad Beyer of Champion Systems made a solo jump off the front, but couldn’t gain more than ten second.

With 13K to go, it was a solid mass with lots of blue shoulders (Garmin, UHS, Omega Pharma) and a half dozen lime green Cannondale pros all across the two lane road, gutter to gutter.

As they got closer to the Santa Clarita finish, just inside 10K or six miles, using the wider streets the red BMC jerseys became more evident, with the mixed colors of younger pro continental teams hiding behind the big pro tour engines.

Leopard Trek’s Spaniard, Markal Irizar jumped with 5K to go but like Beyer, and others earlier he couldn’t get more than a few seconds ahead, so at 4K, and 3K to go, there was one big, fast, forty mile-per-hour field!

Then bam! Bontrager’s Ryan Eastman hit the deck with just 2.5K to go. Ouch!

Two kilometers, 1.7, 1.4, then one mile to go, and no single team could take control: there were sprint trains of Cannondale, Garmin, Orica Greenedge, UHC, and BMC all trying to take it single file, but they couldn’t pull away!

And thousands of people were treated to the best view of a Santa Clarita finish in years, a long, long straightaway we could all witness, with Peter Sagan finally throwing his arms in the air, for a second then bending his elbows for his version of the “Harlem Shake” over the line.

Unlike the last two days, long delays in insufferable heat, fans had shade, big screens, big trees, perfect for bike racing and spectators, and a podium presentation with the same players but much bigger smiles than Monday!

2013 Amgen Tour of California Stage 3 Results