Austrians not enjoying California

The fourth stage of the Tour of California was a hard one for Team Gerolsteiner, as it lost five riders on the day. While four of them succombed to the stomach bug that is sweeping the peloton, Paco Wrolich crashed out of the race.

"I crashed during the neutralized zone only two kilometres after the start, in pouring rain," Wrolich said on his website, peterwrolich.at. "At first I wanted to keep on riding, but then I noticed that my left eyebrow was ripped open. I immediately dropped out and was put back together with six stitches – by Arnold Schwarzenegger's personal physician, by the way, who is serving the Tour of California as tour doctor."

Team-mate and fellow Austrian Bernhard Kohl is one of only three Gerolsteiner riders left in the race, and he also didn't enjoy the wet aand windy fourth stage. "I hope I don't experience many more days like that one," he wrote on his website, bernhardkohl.at. "Constant rain over 219 km and eight degrees (Celsius); and also a front wind that was so strong that we ended up being underway seven hours and 30 minutes. It was so cold that I could barely hold on to my handlebars."