Zabriskie holds off Rogers to win in Santa Cruz

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The battle for the general classification hit a fevered pitch on the road to Santa Cruz for the third stage of the Amgen Tour of California. David Zabriskie (Garmin-Transitions) pulled out a powerful stage win from a three-man general classification battle over Michael Rogers (HTC-Columbia) and defending champion Levi Leipheimer (Radioshack).

The climb up Bonny Doon Road was once again the launching pad for Leipheimer but this time Zabriskie and Rogers, who last year finished second and third behind Leipheimer in the overall, were ready and able to match his attack.

With 25km remaining over the top, it was up to Rogers and Zabriskie to tow a reluctant Leipheimer to the line if they wanted to keep a gap over the rest of the field. The two did the lion's share of the work, with Zabriskie pushing the pace in the final kilometre and then narrowly taking the sprint over Rogers from the front out of the last turn.

The stage win and time bonus pushed the Garmin-Transitions rider into the overall lead of the race, a position he never enjoyed in the previous editions of the race.

"I've been the runner up at the Tour of California a couple of times, but I've never won a stage and never touched the leader's jersey in the time the race has been going on. So just to touch the jersey is quite an honor," said Zabriskie.

The American said he thought he had lost the stage to Rogers in the sprint, and called the Australian "a fierce competitor" who will be a strong foe throughout the rest of the race.

Rogers confirmed Zabriskie's assessment, saying: "Dave doesn't look any stronger than me or Levi, he just got the jump on me today. The race is far from over."

Zabriskie's form hadn't made itself apparent yet this year - he had some doubts coming into the race but said: "The feelings I had today were really good. It's the first time I've been able to go that deep so far this season. Hopefully I can stay with Levi in the climbs to come."

Leipheimer said that he made mistakes today in the final metres and regretting losing the seconds in the time bonus. "I screwed up the finish - I knew about [the last] corner but there was a tailwind there. We drag-raced to the last corner and I could close the gap to Mick [Rogers], but the finish was too short to do anything."

Leipheimer was never fully committed to working with the two most dangerous GC riders in the race, as it did not give him a tactical advantage toward the overall classification.

"It doesn't really matter if we were gaining time on everyone else, that's not what my goal is," Leipheimer said. "I ended up losing time with the time bonsues, so I was a little disappointed with that.

"I didn't win, so obviously there was some mistake there, but it's not like I've lost the whole stage race."

Sagan threatens

The three strong men had built up a lead of 90 seconds at the top of the climb, but a large chasing group closed the gap to a dozen seconds over the next 25 kilometres to Santa Cruz.

The lead trio narrowly held off the chase largely due to the efforts of Zabriskie in the final kilometre. Behind, and capable of challenging for the general classification lead if he made the juncture, was best young rider and third overall Peter Sagan (Liquigas).

Sagan lost his team helper to a puncture in the run-in through Santa Cruz and had to be satisfied with taking the sprint for fourth.

"On the climb I felt good. Our guys went in front to try to bring the gap down," Sagan said. Despite falling short of claiming the overall lead, he said he was happy with how the day went and his best young rider's jersey.

"Yes this is a jersey I want to keep. This is a course that is really hard. There are many stages left to go and I just have to wait to see what transpires."

Absent from the chase was the morning's leader Brett Lancaster (Cervelo TestTeam), and thanks to the 17 second gap which separated Sagan from the leaders, the overall lead passed on to Zabriskie, who also gained a 10 second time bonus on the line.

Rogers out-sprinted Leipheimer to claim the six second bonus, and now trails Zabriskie on the general classification ladder by four seconds, with the Radioshack man behind by six.

The Liquigas rider kept his best young rider jersey with the finish, while Team Type 1 kept the mountains classification in the hands of Thomas Rabou thanks to the efforts of his team-mate Davide Frattini in the breakaway.

"Today it was our objective to keep the jersey and I tried to be in the break but it didn't happen," said Rabou. "My teammate Mr. Frattini he was in the breakaway and took away all the KOM points, so the points stayed within the team so it was a good day for us."

HTC-Columbia's Mark Cavendish remains in the green sprinter's jersey for another day.

Overall stirred, not shaken

Despite a clear start to the third stage in San Francisco, the rain wasn't quite ready to let the peloton enjoy a care-free day. The sun began to make its exit behind high clouds as the racers sped toward the first sprint of the day in Pacifica at mile 10.7.

Berhard Eisel (HTC-Columbia) led his sprinter Mark Cavendish to the top placing across the line, putting Cavendish into the outright lead of the points classification over stage two winner Lancaster. Eisel was second across the line ahead of Rabobank's Paul Martens from the intact peloton.

Several of the domestic teams tried to get a breakaway going on the sinuous route along the Pacific coast, with Christopher Baldwin (Unitedhealthcare-Maxxis) and Christopher Jones (Team Type 1) having a brief foray before Radioshack and HTC-Columbia brought them back.

Kurt Hovelynck (Quick Step) also tried to slip away, but with the second sprint fast approaching in Half Moon Bay at mile 19.4, he too was absorbed by the furious chase.

Cavendish did not take the second sprint, his lead-out overtaken by an attack from Jelly Belly before the 200m mark. The escape was caught before the line, where Karl Menzies (Unitedhealthcare-Maxxis) took the points over Alexander Kristoff (BMC Racing Team) and Cavendish.

The trip down the coast wasn't favourable to Jesse Anthony (Kelly Benefit Strategies), who fell back to the follow cars and then abandoned at the 32 mile mark.

With the sprint action behind them, the well advertised plan to let a small non-threatening breakaway go clear materialized at the turn to the first climb of the day, Tunitas Creek Road. Davide Frattini (Team Type 1) continued his team's press for mountain points by making the split along with Andy Jacques-Maynes (Bissell), Will Routley (Jelly Belly), Eric Boily (SpiderTech) and Ryan Anderson (Kelly Benefit Strategies).

The five ascended into the clouds which were pressed up against the redwood tree-lined hill, and as temperatures dropped and the rain began to fall, the peloton behind took the opportunity to stop for warm clothing and a nature break before the climb.

Given the green light to spend quality time out front, the five men built up a lead of 2:30 minutes by the top of the steep, narrow climb, cheered on by intrepid cycling enthusiasts who braved the foul weather to experience bike racing at its best. Frattini took the maximum points at the top over Anderson, Jacques-Maynes, Boily and Routley.

A steep, twisty and narrow descent followed, and with rain-slickened roads and the recent memory of multiple crashes on yesterday's stage, the peloton took the trip down gingerly.

The second climb began just as soon as the bottom was reached, and on the much less difficult category 3 ascent Frattini once again took the maximum points over Anderson, with Boily getting over Jacques Maynes for third and Routley holding last place over the line.

Toward the mid-way point of the stage, the five men enjoyed more than four minutes over the peloton en route to the third KOM of the day on Pescadero Road, a steeper but shorter pitch and only category four. Frattini took the top over Anderson, Boily and Routley knowing that their time in front would now be limited as the coming flat coastal road pushed the advantage toward the chasing peloton.

Radioshack was towing the pack along at a steady pace on the farm-lined scenic descent that followed, and once the peloton turned onto the Cabrillo Highway near the coast, the cross-winds began to make the five leaders lose impetus. Aided by the Cervelo team, the gap fell from a maximum of 4:55 minutes down to two minutes in a short amount of time.

The general classification favourites were locked and loaded and ready to fire on the Bonny Doon Road climb which was fast approaching, and the breakaway was in sight at mile 89.

Routley put in a last ditch bid for glory, attacking and holding 45 seconds over the bunch with Jacques-Maynes dangling 15 seconds behind, but the two were doomed to be caught after the turn onto Bonny Doon Rd.

The Jelly Belly rider had special insights into the day after spending the winter training in Santa Cruz. "This is definitely a day that I wanted to do well in. We rode solid in the break all day. We had a five minute gap and then a couple minutes later it was a minute and half," said Routley.

"It was disappointing because I was thinking that maybe we could go into the climb with two minutes and make it over half the climb and get lucky. I figured, hey we are going to get caught so I will show that I have legs, show that fact and get on the podium, make it worth it."

Bonny Doon ends on stalemate

Radioshack set a brisk tempo to reel in the two escapees for good at the base of the climb. As the road kicked up, Leipheimer, Armstrong and Horner set an ever increasing tempo.

The decisive moment came not from the ProTour riders but Unitedheathcare's Rory Sutherland, who launched the attack that pulled Leipheimer, Zabriskie, Armstrong and Rogers away. Armstrong and Sutherland could not hold the pace of the three who would go on to contest the stage win, and fell back to the chasing group.

"The plan was to split up the field and see if we could get Levi more time there," said Horner. "We thought he would have one or two guys, hoping for Rogers or Zabriskie. But having both of them there means they all went to the line together. I guess that means they are going to have to battle it out between the three of them on another stage."

"My legs were good," said Leipheimer, who last year used the climb to distance himself from Rogers and Zabriskie. "I was the one making the pace on the climb but was missing a little something on the climb to make the big difference."

With three of the top time trialists in the world working together to stay away, even the ever increasing chasing group could not close the gap and the stage and general classification battle went to Rogers, Zabriskie and Leipheimer.

For the second year in a row, Garmin-Transitions would take the stage in Santa Cruz as Zabriskie repeated last year's winner Tom Peterson's performance by pushing the pace from the front in the final kilometre and holding off Rogers in the dash for the line.

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