George Takes Two
Stage 5 of the Tour of California, rolling into Santa Barbara on Friday, proved almost a carbon copy of the other stage with a Cat. 1 climb, with Discovery Channel’s George Hincapie out-sprinting a small group to take the victory.
With the win, 32-year-old Hincapie rode himself into the sprint leader’s jersey. However, with no time bonuses on the stage, he couldn’t move up in the overall standings as the other race favorites also finished in the 34-strong lead pack.
Hincapie remains in fourth place, about 45 seconds off the pace, as the current podium also stayed unchanged: Phonak’s Floyd Landis continues to lead, 29 seconds ahead of CSC’s Dave Zabriskie and 34 seconds ahead of CSC’s Bobby Julich
Although CSC has two of the three best-placed overall riders, former race leader Levi Leipheimer, of Gerolsteiner, said he’s “unimpressed” with the Danish team. “They haven’t won a stage and they haven’t attacked the race at all,” said Leipheimer, who recorded the fastest time in the prologue.
A three-man break hit the race’s final climb – the Cat. 1 ascent of San Marco Pass Road – with a two-minute advantage, but the gap was dropping quickly under the pressure of a Phonak-led chase. About midway up the climb, Leipheimer jumped ahead to the lead group, followed by Saunier Duval’s Ricardo Ricco.
“I didn’t really think I could get all the way [to the finish] but I wasn’t going to just sit there,” said Leipheimer, who handed the leader’s jersey over to Landis after a blistering ride by the Phonak captain on Wednesday’s individual time trial.
Leipheimer and Ricco rolled over the San Marco Pass Road summit — the high point of the Tour’s route, topping out at 2200 feet – with a 20 second-advantage on the chasing field. With the attack, Leipheimer collected enough points for the KOM jersey.
Discovery Channel worked to bring back the breakaway pair, catching them with about 15 kilometers to go.
“We knew we wanted to have as many guys as possible over the climb and to try to take me to a stage win,” said Hincapie. Teammates Michael Barry, Tom Danielson and Jason McCartney towed the lead group toward the beachfront finish line, with Hincapie staring his sprint about 300 meters out.
Gerolsteiner’s Fabian Wegmann finished second, with Davitamon-Lotto’s Chris Horner taking third. The winning group covered the 105 miles in 3:52:02, with another 20-man chase group coming through about 1:15 back.