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Boonen bounds to California win, as Farrar moves into jersey
Tom Boonen has now won stages of major races on three continents. The big Belgian blew past High Road’s Mark Cavendish to grab the stage 2 win of the Amgen Tour of California in a drizzly downtown Sacramento. Gerolsteiner’s Heinrich Haussler came second with the recently out-of-retirement Mario Cipollini showing he still can turn the pedals with a third-place performance.
Coming into the final 400 meters, British sprinter Cavendish exploded off the front of the field, opening a huge gap. There was just one problem: he thought he was leading out teammate Gerald Ciolek, who was no longer on his wheel.
At around 150m, Cavendish sat back in the saddle, obviously expecting his teammate to come flying by. When no one came, Cavendish glanced back, saw what had happened, and made a last-ditch effort to keep the sprint alive himself.
The veteran Boonen calmly kept himself in the draft until his scheduled departure. His flight came in right on time.
“The last kilometer I got in front with Paolo [Bettini],” Boonen said. “It was a little bit of a mess. It was Cipo' who let the High Road guy go. With 200 meters I saw Cavendish with 30 meters in front of me. Everything opened up, I started sprinting and I just caught him at the finish line, just in time.”
Almost as stunning as Boonen’s victory was the roar of the old Lion King, Cipollini.
“It’s incredible for me,” Cipollini said at the finish. “After three years of no racing, I am very, very old, 41 years. I think it’s incredible.”
It truly was a day for the sprinters, with Slipstream-Chipotle’s Tyler Farrar moving into the yellow jersey after scoring bonus seconds in both intermediate sprints.
Yellow in Davis
The day’s two intermediate sprints proved pivotal in the general classification. Slipstream’s Farrar, who began the day in a rainy Santa Rosa just two seconds out of the jersey, launched himself into the lead by taking valuable seconds at both spots. With BMC’s Scott Nydam alone off the front through both, Farrar dualed with High Road’s Ciolek, who started the day nine seconds down on GC. Ciolek was second at the first one; Farrar second at the second. With 3, 2 and 1 second available for the first three respective men across the line, Farrar had scooped up three total seconds to leapfrog Fabian Cancellara (CSC) by a solitary second for the yellow jersey.
“Basically today played out exactly how we hoped it would,” Farrar said. “We knew there were a few time bonuses up for grabs. Luckily enough, by the time the bonuses rolled around there was only one guy up the road. And we were able to give it a go. The team was amazing today. Those guys delivered me perfectly to every bonus sprint.”
Big Move Crew
BMC’s initials may stand for one thing in the bicycle world, but at the Tour of California it means Big Move Crew. For two consecutive days the American Pro Continental team has launched solo riders off the front in Hail Mary moves. Jackson Stewart rode alone from mile 17 to 78 on stage 1. On stage 2, it was Nydam, who went clear virtually from the gun, building a maximum lead of a whopping 15 minutes.
Nydam handily took the two KOMs and the two intermediate sprint bonuses. Behind him, BMC was aggressive on the KOMs with Stewart earning enough points to keep him in the KOM jersey overnight.
“Our team goals were just to build off of what we accomplished yesterday,” Nydam said. “We have three strong riders sitting in good position for GC. Jackson went up the road yesterday. My name was on the short list to go up the road [today]. I’ve ridden these roads dozens of times over the winter. I knew what to expect. As soon as we hung a right up Minute Valley Road, I went first through the corner, ended up with a little bit of a gap because of the wet roads, and just took it from there.“
At mile 95, the rain started to pick up, and Nydam started to fade back. His team car pulled alongside to load him up with bottles for his teammates who would soon be swarming him along with the rest of the pack. He was absorbed at mile 97.
CSC and Slipstream shared policing duties on the front of the pack into Sacramento, where big crowds waited in the rain. Beginning the three parade laps of the state capitol, Quick Step-Innergetic moved up to position Boonen.
With less than two laps to go, stage 1 winner J.J. Haedo (CSC) flatted. His teammate Cancellara, in yellow, pulled over to give up his wheel. Both riders were able to chase back on. Wearing the green sprinter’s jersey, Haedo still managed to place fifth after his effort to regain the group.
