Three cyclists go head to head in Tour of California stage finish
Reporting from Santa Cruz -- Here’s what Versus television viewers did not get to see as Stage 3 of the Tour of California on Tuesday afternoon neared the end, about 4 p.m., with the sun sparkling off the Pacific Ocean and the boardwalk packed with cycling fans:
After more than four hours on the road, Levi Leipheimer, Michael Rogers and Dave Zabriskie sprinting on their bikes as if they were boys again racing home from school, three guys, shoulder to shoulder, going as fast as their legs would let them, unaware of the shouting crowds, the waving banners, the banging cowbells.
One, two, three, they sailed across the finish line and the winner was unaware he was first.
“Really, I thought Michael was ahead,” Zabriskie said.
But Versus had already cut away to the Montreal Canadiens- Philadelphia Flyers playoff game, which actually was pregame interviews and analysis.
An angry Lance Armstrong (who is 12th overall, 27 seconds back) posted an angry response on his Twitter account blasting whoever at Versus made the decision to switch away from the race.
A Versus spokesman said contractual obligations forced the network to go to hockey.
Race spokesman Michael Roth said that the race ran over the estimated finish time of 4 p.m. because riders were still fatigued from the effort of riding in the rain Monday.
Zabriskie, who rides for the Garmin-Transitions team and who has made Los Angeles home for the last 10 months, completed the trip in 4:26.09 and is now the overall leader by four seconds over Rogers, a soft-spoken Australian who rides for HTC-Columbia. Zabriskie has an overall time of 13:09.33.
In third was three-time defending champion Leipheimer of Team RadioShack, who gave this blunt assessment of his day: “I screwed up at the finish,” he said. He is six seconds behind Zabriskie.
It was a big day for the Colorado-based Garmin team. American Tyler Farrar, 25, won the 10th stage at the Giro d’Italia on Tuesday. Team director Jonathan Vaughters said it was proof that Farrar might be ready to challenge HTC-Columbia sprint star Mark Cavendish for stage wins at the Tour de France and that Zabriskie’s performance at the Tour of California is an indication the 31-year-old might be an overall contender in France in July.
This is the first time in five years that Zabriskie will put on the leader’s yellow jersey. Last February, Zabriskie had a training fall and broke some ribs. Vaughters said he was unsure what form Zabriskie would be in for this race. So far, so good.
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