Rabobank’s 21-year-old Robert Gesink climbed his way to the biggest win of his young career Wednesday in stage 3 of the Amgen Tour of California. Levi Leipheimer, who went clear with Gesink from a select bunch of chasers over Sierra Road, finished second on the day to take the leader’s jersey.

Slipstream-Chipotle’s Tyler Farrar started the day in the jersey — but with a stomach bug. He dropped out midway through the stage. However, it was inevitable that the American sprinter would have relinquished the lead on the race's most difficult climbing stage.

ATOC08-3: Farrar started, but a stomach bug finally forced him to pull out.

Photo: Graham Watson

Finishing in a 14-man group 19 seconds down on Gesink and Leipheimer were a handful of GC contenders, most notably CSC’s Fabian Cancellara and Slipstream-Chipotle’s Dave Zabriskie, both of whom could win the overall race with a solid time trial in Solvang on stage 5.

After shattering a small chase over Sierra with the help of their teammates, Gesink and Leipheimer quickly fell into a two-man time trial. The plan was simple, Gesink said: “Just get to the finish line as fast as possible.”

“We were just screaming at each other to ride harder, ride faster,” said Gesink, the best young rider at last year’s Tour of California.

ATOC08-3: Slipstream and CSC chased hard, but only limited the damage.

Photo: Graham Watson

Coming out of a lefthand turn before the finish, Gesink wound up his climber’s sprint to take his second major professional win. His first came at a stage in the Tour of Belgium last year.

"This [win] is a bit better because the field is better over here,” Gesink said.

Although not the longest of the race — that comes on Thursday — stage 3 featured the most climbing with five categorized climbs including the hors categorie grind to the 4,360-foot summit of Mt. Hamilton before the decisive Cat. 1 Sierra Road ascent.

“Today was the hardest stage we’ve seen in the three-year history of the Tour of California,” Leipheimer said.

How it played out

Early morning rain gave way to sunshine before the day’s start in Modesto. Morning talk among the team buses was about the stomach bug circulating through the peloton and race staff.

Some riders, like Health Net-Maxxis’ Karl Menzies, were feeling better after a few rough days. Others, like race leader Farrar, reported difficult nights. Farrar, early race best young rider Edvald Boassan Hagen (High Road) and Laurent Lefevre (Bouygues Telecom) would all drop out later in the stage.

Not long after the entourage left Modesto for flat farmland, attackers animated the race. Soon, three riders were clear on a move that would last until the base of Mt. Hamilton. The move included Rabobank’s Paul Martens, Crédit Agricole’s Cyril Lemoine and BMC’s Scott Nydam, who was wearing the most aggressive rider jersey for spending the majority of the previously day off the front alone.

The trio quickly built up a sizable gap and was later joined by Slipstream’s Steven Cozza, who was clearly feeling better after suffering through the stomach bug and a crash on stage 1.

New on the menu for 2008 was the climb up and over Mt. Hamilton before the race-favorite Sierra Road climb. Moving through lush rolling pasture, the four riders quickly built up a lead that peaked at around six minutes.

Behind, Astana led the group. The road grew narrower and rougher as the peloton wound higher up the cloud-enshrouded mountain.

Nydam took points at the three Cat. 4 KOMs before Mt. Hamilton, moving himself into the climber’s jersey.

The Chechu show

Once the peloton hit Mt. Hamilton, things got serious. Plagued by exclusions from the Tour de France, the Giro d’Italia and other major races, Astana went into the stage with an ax to grind.

“For team Astana, we had something to prove today,” said Leipheimer, referring to the grand tour exclusions. “We’re not going to hang out heads low. We’re the best team in the world. We came here to prove it. And we’re going to answer with our legs, and with our racing style.”

Stage 3 was the day to shake up the GC before the decisive time trial on stage 5. Leipheimer put his boys to work.

If Leipheimer was the conductor, José Luis “Chechu” Rubiera was the engine. Rubiera got on the front at the bottom of Mt. Hamilton and never pulled off, instead just modulating his pace at Leipheimer’s command.

“Levi was controlling the race,” said Victor Huge Pena (Rock Racing), who finished in the select chase group. “He was looking in everyone’s face. He was giving orders to Chechu: ‘Faster, slower.’ He was acting like the boss. It was nice to see a strong guy like this, controlling his team.

“The other guy who was really strong was Chechu Rubiera,” Pena said. “He was on the front all day, all day, all day. Everyone was dropped. Levi would say, ‘15, 14, 13,’ you know, counting the guys left as others were dropped. I remembered when he said, ‘five guys left,’ and I only saw four in front of me!”

They caught and passed the break about 3km from the top.

The leaders took on clothing just before the peak at the Lick Observatory, which was nearly hidden in clouds, before bombing down the incredibly tight and windy 4,000-foot descent at 40mph. The long road down reportedly contains 365 curves, according to a local postman.

ATOC08-3: Dropped on Hamilton, Hincapie fought back and then launched an attack on the way to Sierra Road.

Photo: Graham Watson

A few riders, including High Road’s George Hincapie and Cancellara, lost contact over the top of the climb but regained the front group on the descent to form a group of 17.

Hincapie attacked the group on the descent, building a lead that hovered at 35 seconds for a few miles. The plan wasn’t just to hit Sierra Road with a lead, Hincapie said. “The intention was a stage win,” he said.

Hincapie was reeled in as the small group began the Cat. 1 Sierra Road climb together.

Again Chechu took to the front. And again riders flew backwards like shrapnel.

“Chechu, he made me really proud,” Leipheimer said. “It’s been a couple of years since he’s ridden like that. It was really inspiring to see him ride like that, and I wasn’t going to let the guys down.”

After Chechu's effort on Sierra, there was Leipheimer and his Astana teammate Chris Horner, Gesink and his Rabobank teammate Mauricio Alberto Ardila, Slipstream’s Zabriskie and Rock Racing's Pena.

Pena saw the final stake drive.

“Ardila attacked and brought Gesink to the front with Levi,” Pena said. “And that was it.”

That move shelled Pena and Chechu.

ATOC08-3: Once Hincapie was caught Gesink ramped up the pace.

Photo: Graham Watson

The five — Leipheimer, Horner, Ardila, Zabriskie and Gesink — rode together for a while, until Gesink and Leipheimer pulled clear.

Zabriskie chased for a while with Horner in tow. On the descent the shattered chase group reformed.

With Gesink and Leipheimer’s advantage peaking at 1:15 then dropping down to 45 seconds with 10 flat-to-downhill miles to go, the chase group seemed likely to catch. With three of the world’s best time trialists — Cancellara, Zabriskie and Millar — along with 12 other strong riders, the math did not seem to favor the two climbers up front.

“Cancellara and those guys were pulling really fast in my group,” Pena said. “Gesink and Levi were f—ing strong. But you know, always in the last Ks of the races, the power is the same. The guys who are at the front are obviously the strongest. The guys who are at the back, we are the lowest. I mean, you can say, ‘Oh, Cancellara, Millar, la la la.’ Strong names, you know. But when they are pedaling… Gesink, he’s strong. And Levi, he’s here to win.”

Leipheimer admitted that even he was skeptical about his break’s chances when he heard the composition of the chase group.

Gesink grabs the stage, Levi the jersey

Photo: Casey B. Gibson

“When I heard it was Cancellara, I thought there was no way we could make it,” he said. “But as it got closer, I gave it more and more. By the time we got to the finish I had nothing left.”

Cancellara’s ability to make it over the race’s biggest mountains with the elite chase group surprised the peloton.

“It’s really a verification of how good he is right now,” Leipheimer said. “He blew us away in the prologue, which I kind of expected, but when I heard he was in the group behind, I was like, ‘What? Are you kidding me?’ I honestly wasn’t convinced we were going to make it after hearing that.”

Leipheimer in yellow, again, at the Tour of California.

Photo: Casey B. Gibson

With no time bonuses in play, Leipheimer took the lead over Cancellara by 9 seconds. Now, the race will likely come down to the time trial on stage 5. That individual event is 15 miles. In the 2.1-mile prologue, Cancellara put 6 seconds on Leipheimer.

First, the race faces the beautiful run down the coast to San Luis Obsipo, new home to the High Road ProTour squad.

“We will have a lot of pressure on our shoulders; we have to control the race,” Leipheimer said. “I’ve been there before, so I have that going for me. Tomorrow is the responsibility of teammates, and then it’s my job on Friday. I just have to concentrate on recovering and doing my best.”