Slovak Sagan's success continues in California

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He may be just 20-years of age but Peter Sagan (Liquigas-Doimo) showed why he has such a bright future ahead after securing a Amgen Tour of California stage victory as a neo-professional in the central valley town of Bakersfield. The Liquigas-Doimo rider powered away on the uphill sprint ahead of Michael Rogers (HTC-Columbia) and race leader David Zabriskie (Garmin-Transitions).

"I am happy because when you win you are always happy," said Sagan, who has been hinting at a stage win the entire Tour, coming second in Santa Rosa and winning the sprint from the chasing group in Santa Cruz. "This one was really hard."

Sagan now sits just 15 seconds behind the overall lead, but played down his chances to take home the Tour title on Sunday. "There are some hard stages for the overall classification - I will give it everything I can before the time trial," he said, noting that the time trial may be a bit long for his capabilities.

It was a day of drama all around, as Rogers took advantage of a split in the peloton on the first KOM, which left most of the sprinters behind, to focus on his general classification position over stage wins for Mark Cavendish.

On the challenging six kilometre circuit which included a steep kilometre-long climb, Rogers followed a massive effort by Zabriskie but could not match Sagan's attack, choosing instead to jump past the Garmin rider at the line.

"Once again my team delivered me really well, but Peter Sagan is obviously a huge talent and really fast, which is not something I'm not really renowned for... so the best man won," said Rogers.

He may have lost the stage, but Rogers' sprint for second place tightened the situation of the general classification, drawing himself equal to Zabriskie on time and taking over the yellow jersey thanks to his favorable stage placings. The top four riders are now within seconds of each other, with defending champion Levi Leipheimer now at 12 second in third and stage winner Sagan in fourth 15 seconds back.

"The team rode really aggressive the whole day. I got sprint thanks to the help of some excellent sprinters in Mark Renshaw and Mark Cavendish for the time bonus early on in the stage," said Rogers.

While he was no match for the Slovakian in the sprint, the Australian was satisfied with the efforts of his team to put him in the yellow jersey. "I'm very happy to put the jersey on and I would say that every second counts," he said.

The Garmin-Transitions team leader Zabriskie tried to repeat his performance into Santa Cruz, and led the peloton for the final 500m in an attempt to win the stage, but instead waved goodbye to his days in the yellow jersey - at least for now.

"It was another beautiful stage, everyone rode an aggressive race. Our team rode great all day," said Zabriskie. "We did everything we could to retain the jersey, hats off to Michael Rogers for his time bonuses and for capturing the yellow."

For Sagan the win was his first on American soil and his team's second consecutive stage win of the Amgen Tour of California. It also served to solidify his position as best young rider of the race.

The fifth stage of the Amgen Tour of California headed out from Visalia under the cloud of controversy raised by Floyd Landis' allegations of widespread doping by his former team-mates including one Lance Armstrong, now riding with Team Radioshack. All eyes were on Armstrong and his long-time team director Johan Bruyneel as they categorically denied the charges to a mob of media amassed outside the team's bus.

Armstrong's day didn't get any brighter, despite the clear skies and pleasant temperatures. At just three miles into the stage a massive crash took down nearly half the peloton, Armstrong included. The seven-time Tour de France winner abandoned the race soon after, fearing a broken elbow but subsequent x-rays came back negative for breaks.

Other riders impacted by the crash were Stuart O'Grady (Saxo Bank) and Heinrich Haussler (Cervelo) both of whom abandoned as well. Before the day was out Jay Robert Thomas (Fly V Australia) and Daniel Holloway (Bissell) would also call it quits, bringing the peloton down to just 115 riders.

With the chaos of riders seeking medical treatment and replacement bottles lost in the crash, the racing didn't get underway until just before the first sprint of the day in Lindsay at mile 16.2. Garmin-Transition's Robbie Hunter topped Rogers and Mark Cavendish (HTC-Columbia) at the line.

Rabobank and Quick Step were keen to get into the move today, perhaps hoping the general classification had opened up enough to allow a breakaway to stay clear to the line. The two teams launched a number of attacks but the bunch was still all together at the second sprint of the day thanks to the efforts of the teams of overall leader Zabriskie, the mountains leader Ryan Anderson's Kelly Benefit Strategies team and HTC-Columbia.

At the second sprint Karl Menzies (UnitedHealthcare-Maxxis) took the points ahead of Jeremy Powers (Jelly Belly) and Paul Martens (Rabobank). Once the sprint was behind them, Rabobank continued to ride aggressively, with Sebastien Langeveld, Quick Step's Nikolas Maes and Andrew Randell (Spidertech) forming a brief breakaway which was soon reabsorbed.

The efforts had stretched the elastic to its breaking point, and soon a break finally formed that everyone could finally agree upon. Those men were Mark Renshaw (Team HTC-Columbia), Grischa Niermann (Rabobank Cycling Team), Kurt Hovelynck (Quick Step), Paul Mach (Bissell), Benjamin Day (Fly V Australia) and William Dickeson (Jelly Belly-Kenda).

Mach was the best placed on general classification, sitting behind Zabriskie at 1:49 minutes, while Niermann was the next best at 4:38 minutes. Mach became the leader on the road almost immediately as the peloton sat up and allowed the break to ride away.

The six men gained a maximum of 6:30 minutes on the bunch as the leaders hit the 5km point before the day's first KOM at mile 57, where Mach claimed the bonus over Niermann, Hovelynck, Dickeson and Day.

Behind the leaders the peloton began to split under the pressure of Radioshack and Garmin, leaving behind Cavendish, who would not be adding to his tally in the points classification and Anderson, mountains leader, once the group lost five minutes on the first half of the peloton.

Five men entered into the circuits in Bakersfield with 1:45 minutes on the chasing yellow jersey group, with Dickeson managing to get back into the group after being dropped as the group went under the one kilometre to go banner on the first of two laps.

The six continued to attack each other on the final, and on the climb heading into one lap to go, Dickeson, Hovelynck, Mach and then Niermann could no longer hold the pace of Day and Renshaw. Day then dispatched his fellow Australian, continuing on solo to the top of the climb with seven kilometres remaining.

"There were quite a few attacks coming into the finish, and it was a game of patience trying to figure out which one to go after," Day said of his solo move off the front.

He went into the stage with no knowledge of the course to come, and said: "it was a bit bloody harder than I thought it would be".

"I drew a lot of inspiration from the crowds, but on the last lap the peloton was just too close," Day said.

Holding only 25 seconds to the peloton, Day was now pursued by Jens Voigt (Saxo Bank), who rocked out of the bunch past all the former breakaway riders but failed to make it across to the Fly V Australia rider. The lights went out for Day on the final lap as the Liquigas-Doimo team began to up the tempo to deliver best young rider Peter Sagan to the line.

Also positioned near the front were Zabriskie, Rogers and Leipheimer, keeping each other in check with their mind on the steep climb in the final kilometre and the 10 second time bonus on the line. Zabriskie chose to lead all the way to the line much as he did to Santa Cruz, and handed the stage like a gift-wrapped present to Sagan, the second stage win for Liquigas in a row. Rogers pipped Zabriskie to take the second place time bonus over Zabriskie, bringing himself equal on time.

The stage is now set for the newest Amgen Tour of California challenge, a 217.7km stage with seven categorized climbs and a finish after the long ascent to Big Bear Lake.

"I'm counting for a tough day," said Rogers. "I'm sure Radioshack, who still have a lot of guys in contention, are not going to go away from this race without giving everything they can to deliver. There's a heck of a lot of climbing and a lot is at high altitude, so that will take a lot of out of the riders, too.

"I'm quite confident in my team to help me make it over the last couple of climbs," he said.

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