Tour of California: Acevedo powers to Palm Springs victory

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Janier Alexis Acevedo (Jamis - Hagens Berman) took out a grueling stage on the summit finish at the Palm Springs Aerial Tramway, gaining enough time in the process to take the overall race lead on a day that ended the chances of several contenders.

After topping Tejay van Garderen (BMC) and Philip Deignan (UnitedHealthcare) on the stage, Acevedo now leads those two on the general classification - 12 seconds on the American and 27 seconds on the reinvigorated Irish rider.

The 27-year-old Acevedo had previously put on similar demonstrations at the Redlands Classic and Tour of the Gila, but to win a stage and don the race's leader's jersey for a team which hadn't even earned an invitation last year was something he said "was beyond words".

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"I was pretty calm throughout the day, trying to drink and eat as much as I could, the team did a very good job with that, and having Ben Jacques-Maynes in the breakaway helped," Acevedo said.

"They put me in a good position at the base of the final climb, and I was just hoping to have the legs. We knew it was a hard climb, but I hadn't actually ridden it when the team came here before Redlands, because I was sick then."

Acevedo attacked none other than race favourite, van Garderen, from a select group with 500m to go on the relentlessly steep finishing climb. Van Garderen had made perfect use of his team on the lower slopes of the climb and looked comfortable as the road continued to force riders off the back, but was forced to make a choice when Acevedo accelerated within sight of the white line.

"[Acevedo] he was super strong out there. When he attacked I was too afraid to go into the red because in this heat if you go into the red just a little bit you just can't recover. I made a little bit of a gamble to stay in my tempo and claw him back but he was definitely strong enough to hold on.

"He got the stage, and good on him, but I feel confident for the time trial, and I think I'm in a perfect position for the overall classification."

Acevedo took over the race lead from the day's yellow jersey wearer Lieuwe Westra (Vacansoleil-DCM) who was dropped in the first kilometre of the climb.

Also in a good position is third place finisher Philip Deignan (UnitedHealthcare), who felt strong enough to attack the lead group in the final half of the climb, and his move succeeded in distancing some strong competitors in the form of Matthew Busche (RadioShack) and Michael Rogers (Saxo-Tinkoff).

"I felt good on the climb and thought I'd have a go at it," Deignan said. "I didn't expect to stay away that long. I knew they were close, I knew Tejay was right there, but you never know. I was on the limit the whole way. But those last 3km went on forever. It was brutal."

"I think later in the week when it cools down it will be better for me."

The climb hampered the chances of Rogers, who is now fifth at 55 seconds, as well as Mancebo who is 1:03 behind.

"Tejay took some good time, it will be hard to bring back, but anything can happen, we'll try another day," Rogers said after recovering from the effort. "It was boiling out there, definitely survival of the fittest."

Mancebo was beside himself with agony after the line, struggling to get his words out. "The climb was too hard for me. The rest of the day was fine, but I didn't feel good. I knew the climb, and I knew it would be too hard for me, but in this heat it was impossible."

How it unfolded

The second stage of the 2013 Amgen Tour of California, with a profile quite similar to that of the first stage, followed the same formula as riders fought to conserve as much energy as possible on another blazing hot day. With yesterday's breakaway riders still at a hydration deficit, there were four new riders who made the day's escape, this time it was Bissell's Pat McCarty, Ben Jacques-Maynes (Jamis-Hagens Berman), Scott Zwizanski (Optum) and the first WorldTour breakaway from Sylvain Chavanel (Omega Pharma-Quickstep), who started the day 9:21 down on race leader Westra.

Kin San Wu (Champion System) was in the move when it first went, only minutes after kilometer zero, but the Hong Kong rider wasn't able to stay with his four companions.

The remaining quartet was quickly allowed a large advantage, and with four talented time trialists in the move, they gained a maximum of 12 minutes before Champion System and Saxo-Tinkoff began lending a hand to Vacansoleil-DCM to bring it back.

In the first sprint, McCarty took the points ahead of Jacques-Maynes and Zwizanski, but it was Jacques-Maynes who got the better of his companions on the first climb at Mountain Center, with McCarty mopping up the points for second place. The field came across 9:30 later, but that gap would fall on the long, gradual descent to Palm Desert.

On the descent there was a little drama as race leader Westra had a puncture, but the strong time trialist was able to regain the field without having to sacrifice any teammates. He'd already lost one, as Tomasz Marczynski abandoned the race mid-stage.

The concerted effort by Saxo-Tinkoff whittled the four leaders' gap down to five minutes on the valley floor, even though the peloton was distracted by sending riders back to the team cars for cool drinks.

With BMC helping to contribute to the chase, the gap began to plummet to four minutes, and Zwizanski tried to inspire his three mates with a small attack with 25km to go. He was countered by Jacques-Maynes and McCarty, as Chavanel sat on Zwizanski and made him close the gap, perhaps as punishment for breaking up the cooperation. When Zwizanski reformed the quartet, Jacques-Maynes attacked and opened up a gap the others initially disagreed about closing, but which eventually vanished under the impetus of the Optum rider.

With the aggression out of their system, and the gap under three minutes the four riders behaved themselves to maximize their chances of staying clear, although McCarty had the most to gain as virtual leader on the road. From behind, Optum's Jesse Anthony and Marsh Cooper attacked out of the field despite their teammate being up the road.

With 10km to go, 5-Hour Energy came to the fore to help nail back the lead to 2:25, working for green jersey holder 'Paco' Mancebo, and then UnitedHealthcare pitched in, bringing the gap down further to 1:30 with less than 10km to race.

At the base of the climb the break was caught and Philippe Gilbert took one last pull to force the initial selection. All the major favourites were accounted for in the main group however, yesterday's aggressor Andy Schleck (RadioShack Leopard) was soon dispatched with 5km to go. A little further up ahead, but trailing behind was the yellow jersey wearer of Lieuwe Westra (Vancansoleil-DCM). His time in the lead would be over at the end of the day.

BMC looked to keep the dwindling group under control which with 4km remaining contained just six riders. Mancebo (5-Hour Energy p/b Kenda), who finished second on Stage 1, was unable to stay with the pace set by BMC while Orica GreenEdge's Cam Meyer was also forced out the back. Deignan (UnitedHealthcare Pro Cycling Team) managed to skip away and was holding a small margin over the GC contenders that included Michael Rogers (Saxo-Tinkoff), van Garderen, Mathias Frank (BMC), Matt Busche (RadioShack Leopard) and Acevedo (Jamis - Hagens Berman).

Deignan continued to hold his gap with a little over 2km till the summit. Deignan was caught by the acceleration of van Garderen with only Acevedo able to hold the aspiring Tour de France rider's wheel. Deignan and Rogers were the next riders on the road but they were not going to be contesting the stage finish today.

Acevedo attacked a fading van Garderen nearing the final 500m and immediately gained a small advantage over the American. The relentless finish continued to kick up all the way to the line with just the final section easing enough for the Colombian to raise his arms before nearly falling over with exhaustion.

Van Garderen crossed the line 11 seconds down with the early attacker Deignan holding on for third.

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