Goss gets his wish in Philly

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HTC-Columbia sprinter Matthew Goss got his wish, to turn from lead-out man for the team's top sprinters Mark Cavendish and André Greipel into a race winner. The speedy Australian powered to the line to beat Liquigas-Doimo's Peter Sagan and young BMC sprinter Alexander Kristoff from a 34-rider front group.

The sprint came after a hectic end to the 251km race, after a final break of four containing Daniel Oss (Liquigas-Doimo), Ermanno Capelli (Footon-Servetto), Serhy Grechyn (Amore & Vita - Conad) and Ryan Roth (Spidertech powered by Planet Energy) was absorbed on the final 5km finishing circuit with just 2km to go. The Liquigas-Doimo team was working hard to set up Sagan, placing Oss in that move to force other teams to chase, but were overpowered by HTC-Columbia in the end.

Team HTC-Columbia missed the key breaks throughout the day which kept them on the defensive. "We were not in the best position and missed the big breaks all day and had to do a lot of work on the front of the bunch, so it was nice to get the win," said Goss. "[Teammates] Craig Lewis and Frantisek Rabon, in the last 50km, really looked after me.

"I was in really good position coming out of the traffic circle and it all kind of stopped and everyone was a little too close to the front," said Goss. "I thought we were in a bit of trouble but then some guys came on the left and I managed to get to those guys. Two guys had a gap and I thought it would be trouble but that gave us something to chase."

Goss's victory makes it two-straight for HTC-Columbia, following André Greipel's sprint victory in 2009, and the 23-year-old Australian relied on his experience in two previous editions of the race to deliver the win. "I haven't spoken to him (Greipel) much about the race. I know the race pretty well and it’s a race I love so it’s good to win."

The wind, coupled with the high temperatures, made the 26th edition of the race particularly difficult. "I can't compare it to all the others but it was the hardest one I have done, even when in 2007 we went about half an hour quicker," said Goss. "The wind made the race really hard, especially along the bottom road [Kelly Drive - ed.]"

"I felt strong, I was still there but I didn't feel incredible. I couldn't follow Sagan when he went on the last climb [of the Manayunk Wall]. I had to take a risk and gamble, stay in the bunch and hope that it would come back together."

The last month has been especially good for Goss as the Australian won the Giro d'Italia's 9th stage on May 17. "I still think the Giro was my biggest race win. I don't want to take anything away from this race, I love this race and I wanted to win it so I was happy to be able to do that today."

Peter Sagan made his mark on the recent Amgen Tour of California where the 20-year-old Slovakian impressed with two stage wins, the sprint classification and the young rider classification. Sagan, however, had a difficult schedule between the conclusion of the Amgen Tour on May 23 and today's TD Bank Philadelphia Championship.

"I am tired because after California we went back to Europe and we came to Philadelphia on Friday night," said Sagan. "We were a little bit jet lagged and also after California we went training in the mountains at altitude. Also, there was a huge difference in temperature here and that is the reason half of the Liquigas team retired during the race because we were feeling the stress from the temperature and jet lag.

"During the sprint there was a problem with a guy that pushed me to the left and so it was a little bit close. I was forced into a different trajectory to the left."

Kristoff, a promising 22-year-old Norwegian who took the best young rider's jersey on the first stage of Tour of California, proved his talents by pulling off a podium finish in his Philadelphia debut.

"I was really far back and I found the wheel of Sagan," said Kristoff. "I tried to follow it but there was a lot of fighting for that wheel and crashing around the roundabout before the finish line. My lead-out guy, John Murphy got tired on the last lap and I think he dropped out [Murphy finished in 51st at 2:53 - ed.] so I had to sprint on my own.

"At the start of the sprint I was in the wind but I managed to get a wheel. I was on the right and went over to the left. I was a little bit blocked at the barriers and found an opening to go but it as a little bit too late and I was cramping in the sprint. I came fast but not fast enough."

Kristoff was worried about ascending the Manayunk Wall 10 times, but he managed to keep in contact with the field each time. "I tried to drift a little bit at the start and take it easy and then in the last few laps I tried to stay in position.

"People were falling off all the time. I managed to get over it, not always in the first group, but I would come back."

It's always sunny in Philadelphia

The race started under hot and humid conditions, with storms rolling in from the west making for blustery winds throughout the day that grew more intense as the finish approached.

A new sprint competition beginning at the end of three parade laps kicked off the aggression, with Dave Guttenplan (Mountain Khakis f/b Jittery Joe's) claiming the points.

The peloton split on the first lap, with a large group gaining time over the sluggish peloton. The group was too big for some, and Mike Friedman (Jelly Belly p/b Kenda) and Nathan O'Neill (Bahati Foundation) each took a turn off the front solo in an attempt to whittle down the bunch.

The strategy worked for their teams, and by the third trip up the daunting Manayunk Wall, the lead group had split to a more reasonable size.

The group contained Daniel Oss (Liquigas-Doimo), Chris Barton and Chad Beyer (BMC Racing Team), Bernardo Colex Tepoz (Amore & Vita - Conad), Jason Donald, Cesar Augusto Grajales, O'Neill and Bobby Lea (Bahati Foundation), Hayden Brooks (Fly V Australia), James Driscoll and Andres Pereyra (Jamis - Sutter Home), Kiel Reijnen and Will Routley (Jelly Belly p/b Kenda), David Veilleux (Kelly Benefit Strategies), Nick Waite (Kenda p/b Gear Grinder), Bruno Langlois (Spidertech powered by Planet Energy), Jonathan Clarke (Unitedhealthcare p/b Maxxis), Taylor Shelden (US National Team) and Chris Jones (Team Type 1).

The large breakaway stayed together until lap 6 when Routley put in a dig and went away solo.

"We were rolling but not good enough," said Routley. "I was trying to rally the guys in the break because Columbia is only one team so we had a chance to stay away. I put in a little acceleration to get more motivation from them and I ended up riding away."

He would hold off a concerted chase by the splintering group as the heat also whittled down the peloton.

100km solo was a tall order for the Jelly Belly rider, and on the penultimate large lap he was caught first by a chase of four: Daniel Oss (Liquigas-Doimo), Ermanno Capelli (Footon-Servetto), Christopher Jones (Team Type 1) and Cesar Grajales (Bahati Foundation) and then by another group from the closing peloton: Jackson Stewart (BMC Racing Team), Serhy Grechyn (Amore & Vita - Conad), Scott Zwizanski (Kelly Benefit Strategies) and Ryan Roth (Spidertech powered by Planet Energy).

This group contested the last trip up the Manayunk wall, where the final breakaway was selected. It was Capelli, Oss, Grechyn and Roth who survived until the final small lap, with Oss driving hard to hand his Liquigas team the win.

But the domestic teams had other ideas, and Jamis-Sutter Home, UnitedHealthcare and Kelly Benefit Strategies all worked hard to close down the gap. Once HTC-Columbia pitched in, it was game over for the escapees and the sprint came down to the typical wall of riders charging down the kilometre-long straightaway.

It was Goss who proved that lead-out men must also be top sprinters when he topped the heavy favourite Sagan to the line.

Bahati Foundation doubles up

Cesar Augusto Grajales and Nathan O'Neill, both of the Bahati Foundation team, won the mountains classification and sprint competition respectively, the former a concerted, calculated effort and the latter completely by accident.

"From the beginning of the race I was taking as many [mountain] points as I could," said Grajales. "I'm riding well and the plan was to have me in the right breakaway and try to go for it. There were guys sprinting for them, too, at the beginning. I was going really hard on the Wall and in the end they were like, 'Well you have the points already so we will just keep the race steady'.

"This jersey is really important," said the 37-year-old Colombian. "It is the biggest one-day race in the US so it was great for me and for the team."

The sprint prime competition was new to the race for 2010, paying out $5,000 to the winner based on results of seven sprints at the finish line on Benjamin Franklin Parkway.

"To be honest, I wasn't planning on the sprint at all, it just worked out," said O'Neill. "I saw Cesar [Grajales] was in the move and we had Jason [Donald] and Bobby [Lea] to take care of himself for the finish. Cesar wanted the KOM and we knew he could get that.

"We wanted to keep that break going," said the 35-year-old Australian. "I was killing it just to keep the break alive so he could get the [KOM] points and in doing so I kept some [sprint] points myself. We ended up chasing the KOM for $1,100 and inadvertently we get five grand as well so it was a good day."

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