Peter Sagan’s sprint wins have become almost as much of a tradition in the Tour of California as Levi Leipheimer's standing on the winner’s podium in previous years. The 22-year-old sprinter on Liquigas-Cannondale took his third win in as many days on Tuesday, this time just nudging out Heinrich Haussler (Garmin-Barracuda) on the line.
Having been beaten early in the sprint by Sagan the past two days, Haussler got the jump this time, and though he went from a long way out, he almost held it to the line. But Sagan was able to sneak past in the final few meters, relegating Haussler to his third runner up finish in three days.
After surviving the day’s hills to duke it out in the sprint for the first time, Tom Boonen (Omega Pharma-Quick Step) took a solid third place after being in contention throughout the bunch kick.
Sagan is clearly head and shoulders above the other sprinters, and won today despite being quite far back with two kilometres to go. “I don’t know what to say because it’s also a surprise for me,” he said of his third consecutive stage win. “I’d like to thank my team because they did very good work today.”
The final ten kilometers were hectic and disorganized, with constant little attacks and multiple teams trying to control toward the finish. But every time it came back together, Sagan had team-mate Tim Duggan to control the affairs, and while things got messy again under the one kilometer banner, Sagan managed to time it perfectly yet again.
While he was initially hard to pick out as the bunch negotiated a final left hand bend, he suddenly appeared third wheel as Haussler started to kick. Sagan swung to the right of the Aussie at the last second to take it by half a wheel.
The stage began with four fewer riders than yesterday, as two riders from Team Bissell missed the stage two time cut, and BMC Racing’s Steve Cummings and Steve Morabito both were forced to withdraw with injuries from a late-race crash yesterday.
The route took riders from San Jose to Livermore in around 50 kilometers, but then headed back out of town for a roughly 140km loop that traversed Mount Diablo, the climb’s first appearance in the race. A handful of early attacks were unsuccessful before a break of four managed to get away. Sébastian Salas (Team Optum-Kelly Benefit Strategies), Jonathan Patrick McCarty (Spidertech-C10), Jeremy Vennell (Bissell), and Wilson Marentes (Colombia-Coldeportes) had a nearly four minute lead on the bunch after 25 kilometers.
Andrew Dahlheim (Bissell) climbed off early, leaving the American continental squad with just five riders remaining. So Vennell would look for glory for his diminished team out of the break, his second of the race after he went on the attack in stage one as well. At around 85 kilometers into the day, the break hit Mount Diablo with over eight minutes in hand on the main bunch.
The escapees hung together up the climb and Salas took maximum points at the top, but then lost contact with his breakaway mates on the tricky descent down. He had rejoined the break as the road flattened out, and their margin continued to hover around eight minutes as Liquigas-Cannondale kept things in check for Sagan at the front of the peloton.
With 80km to race, and over the next ten kilometers, the work of Sagan’s team had chopped a minute off the break’s advantage. As Frantisek Rabon (Omega Pharma-Quick Step) moved forward to help Liquigas-Cannondale with the chase, Vennell and Marentes attacked the other two and quickly pulled out a gap.
With 65 kilometers to go, they had two minutes on Salas and McCarty, and just under six minutes on the peloton. With four categorized climbs on the day, enough points were up for grabs for the KOM jersey to change. Even with one climb still left, Salas had earned enough points to take the polka dot jersey off of David Boily (Spidertech-C10).
As the kilometers ticked down, Rabon continued with a large amount of work up front, and it wasn’t long before McCarty and Salas were back in the main field. Omega Pharma-Quick Step had taken sole possession of the front of the main bunch under the 30km-to-go banner. And it was productive work as well, as the advantage for Vennell and Marentes was down to a minute and a half.
With the climb of Patterson Pass coming up, the gap to the leading duo was down to just over a minute. Vennell made a brief bid to get away alone, but when it became clear that Marentes was having no trouble following, the American sat up. With the writing on the wall, the gap began tumbling. It went from 50 seconds to 20 seconds in a matter of minutes, so Vennell and Marentes shook hands and retreated into the bunch.
Heading toward the base of the climb and with a crosswind on the right shoulder, Garmin-Barracuda cranked up the pace even further, and their work began to split the peloton to pieces. But a right hand bend converted the crosswind into a head wind, and more teams came to the front as riders were able to reattach behind. Both young and old had been caught out – Marcel Kittel (Argos-Shimano) and Robbie McEwen (Orica-GreenEdge) again – but both were able to come back.
But as the Patterson Pass climb kicked up, McEwen’s team-mate Leigh Howard suddenly began to suffer. The climb featured only a five percent gradient, but continuous headwinds made it a difficult slog. Fabio Duarte (Colombia-Coldeportes) felt the climb was difficult enough for an attack, so he accelerated and took Nicolas Roche (Ag2R-La Mondiale) with him.
With no single team controlling the peloton, the duo was able to pull out 25 seconds, and when it became clear that they would stay away at least to the top of the climb, stage two’s most aggressive rider Alexandre Geniez (Argos-Shimano) sprung from the bunch looking for some spare mountain points. Duarte hit the top first, followed by Roche, with Geniez further back. Vincenzo Nibali (Liquigas-Cannondale) led the peloton over a few seconds later. With ten kilometers to race, Geniez was back in the bunch and the two men out front had just 15 seconds.
Two kilometers later, they too decided that a handshake was best, sitting up, and Jens Voigt (Radioshack-Nissan) was the first to reel them in from the front of the shrunken peloton. From here, a series of little moves whipped the peloton into a frenzy.
Very soon afterwards an Exergy rider made a move, pulling out about four others, including Voigt. After another little flurry, Rabobank brought organization back to the bunch, if only for a minute. Another Exergy attack came with five kilometers left, after Duggan had come back to the front for Liquigas-Cannondale. The move had seven others following it, but it too was short-lived, as Duggan reorganized things at the front yet again.
As the pace pushed higher with 3km to go, Ag2R-La Mondiale and Rabobank traded punches at the front, looking out for their sprinters Lloyd Mondory and Michael Matthews, respectively. Under the Kenda one-kilometer kite, Argos-Shimano came forward briefly, but their lead out would crumble like the rest, and it was every man for himself into the final left hand bend.
Haussler went first and had Boonen on his wheel. But it was a drawn out sprint, and as Haussler started to fade slightly, Boonen went left and Sagan took the right. This time, youth prevailed over experience, as Sagan gave his two-arm, “the attempt is good” salute.