Stage Three winner in Santa Cruz, David Zabriskie, nearly lost the day on the line as he celebrated prematurely and enjoyed the frightened glance to the left as Rogers threw his bike forward with everything he had. Luckily for Zabriskie, the line came first, and he took his first Tour of California stage win. The win also netted Zabriskie his first ever jersey of any sort at the Tour of California.
Zabriskie spoke about the finale to start off the press conference: "Bonny Doon starts out really hard at the bottom. I knew I had to be at the front. We thought RadioShack would do their little thing, and they did. I made the group with Rogers and Levi and we drove it over the top."
The gap created on the climb looked to be a safe one, but over the final kilometers, "They were closing the gap quite rapidly. The fnish was different than it was last year. I gave it a good acceleration with about 500m to go, there were a couple of corners, but I held them off, and it was great."
Zabriskie's goals for Bonny Doon and the stage weren't what one would call sky high. He confessed that he was only hoping to follow Levi: "I wasn't hoping for any gap. My goal was to try to stay with Levi, so that was a success on the day. Coming into Santa Cruz was beautiful though, the sun came out, people were everywhere and old Dave got a surfboard!" The surfboard was an extra bonus for Zabriskie's win, which he received on the day's podium.
The stage win was a great success for Zabriskie and not one lost on the new Californian. "I've been the runner up here a couple of times (2006 and 2009). I've never won a stage, and I've never touched the jersey in the time this race has been going on. It's quite an honor, and this is my favorite race on the calendar. I'm proud and excited to wear it."
Looking forward, Zabriskie is hopeful for the rest of the week. "Coming into the race, I was a bit unsure about my form. The feelings I had today were very good though. It's the first time I was able to go that deep so far this season. Hopefully I can stay with Levi in continuing climbs to come."
Zabriskie moved to Los Angeles this year and spent some time Mother's Day morning taking a closer look at what should be the decisive stage in this year's Tour of California: the time trial. Asked about what mode of transportation he used to preview it, car or bike, Zabriskie shot back: "I did both. The course has a couple of one way streets, so I just did the parallel streets, but I have a pretty good idea of what it entails."