Cavendish Wins a Crash Marred Stage 1 of Amgen Tour of California
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5/16/10 - At the end of the 170km opening stage of the Amgen Tour of California, HTC-Columbia led their sprinter Mark Cavendish to victory with a perfect lead out around the streets of downtown Sacramento.
"I'm really happy," said Cavendish after the stage. "I thought it was going to be a bunch sprint and the team controlled it perfectly. When you've got eight guys giving 100% and all trusting each other it just works. Only one guy crossed with their hands in the air but it's a team effort.
Mark Cavendish (HTC-Columbia) took the win in Sacramento in a crash filled finale. JJ
Haedo (Saxo Bank) finished in second and Alexander Kristoff (BMC Racing Team) was third. .
photo © Tim de Waele
"The beginning was quite hard when the attack was trying to go but after that the team controlled it all day to keep the gap down. A couple of teams helped us along the way and then we took over. We've got the best team in the world for leading out a sprint and we know not to take over too early or too late.
"I trust Mark Renshaw's wheel, he trusts Bernie Eisel's wheel, Bernie trusts Tony Martin's wheel and it just goes like that. I'm the one who crosses the line first but all the guys in front of me deliver me perfectly.
The Amgen Tour of California gets underway with a huge crowd in Nevada City.
photo © Tim de Waele
Earlier in the race, Marc de Maar of UnitedHealthcare Presented by Maxxis covered an early move by former Rabobank teammate Maarten Tjallingii that turned into the main break of the day, a four-rider move that saw them out front for the better part of 100 km, and not getting caught by the peloton until 15 km to go.
“It was a good move,” de Maar said. “We worked well together. But once the sprinters’ teams things took over the chase, we pretty much knew that the break wouldn’t last.”
Maarten Tjallingii (Rabobank), Paul Mach (Team Bissell), Chad Beyer (BMC) and
Mark De Maar (UnitedHealthcare-Maxxis) spent more than 74 miles in a four-man breakaway.
photo © Tim de Waele
Coming into the three finishing circuits, the team’s sprinters – Karl Menzies and Andrew Pinfold, with Matt Crane along to help with lead-out duties – positioned themselves well toward the front of the pack in anticipation of the bunch sprint.
But on the second to last lap, a touch of wheels sent Pinfold to the tarmac. While he escaped injury, he sustained bruising and road rash, but did finish the stage. Menzies and Crane were still well-positioned in the top 20 of the bunch. One the back stretch of the final lap, more of the typical first-day nervousness in the bunch forced Menzies up against the HTC-Columbia team bus along N Street. Amazingly, he stayed upright and avoided serious injury, but he was out of contention.
Meanwhile, Crane was still holding his position near the front coming out of the final corner onto the long finishing straight until a touch of wheels sent Tom Boonen (Quick Step) to the ground, along with a large portion of the pack.
“I thought I was in good shape to get around the crash and then all of the sudden, Boonen was on the ground in front of me,” Crane said. “I really couldn’t do anything to avoid him and I t-boned him.”
BMC Racing Team’s Gearge Hincapie also crashed landing on his back and head, leaving him sore but with minimal road rash. "Tom Boonen went down and I rode over his bike," the U.S. national champion said. "I'm disappointed because I had good legs."
