Hesjedal wins Amgen Tour of California finale

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Michael Rogers closed out the Amgen Tour of California with a well-earned overall victory, matching the attacks of his closest competitors on the challenging 134.4km circuit to maintain his slim margin over David Zabriskie (Garmin-Transitions) and Levi Leipheimer (Radioshack).

The two contenders threw every attack they could at the HTC-Columbia man on the final ascent of the Rock Store climb, but the top came too soon to cause a separation. The group with Rogers came to the line together behind five riders who contested for the stage win.

"It was certainly a tough day, but I'm so excited to be able to hold onto the golden jersey and win the overall Tour of California," Rogers said, crediting his team for stepping up to the challenge of defending his race lead which he had held since stage five. The only time he was isolated was on the final ascent of the five-kilometre Rock Store climb when he found himself up against his closest challengers.

With only nine seconds' lead, the bonus seconds available on the line could have been enough to vault Zabriskie over Rogers and into the overall win, but they instead went to his teammate Ryder Hesjedal, who attacked across to the day's breakaway along with Radioshack's Chris Horner and out-sprinted George Hincapie (BMC) and Carlos Barredo (Quick Step) to claim the final stage victory.

Despite Horner and Hesjedal being just over 90 seconds behind in the standings, Rogers was content to let them go and keep their teammates under close watch.

"It wasn't always a perfect situation for me, having two riders from Radioshack and two from Garmin," Rogers said of the final climb. "I just had to limit my losses and make sure first and foremost Dave and Levi didn't go away from me.

"Having a bit of time buffer over Ryder and Chris Horner I was able to let them go, which made [it] more of a three-man race, something I could control a little better."

Control them he did, matching acceleration after acceleration from both riders until the climb was over and there were no more real opportunities for them to get away.

Up ahead, Hesjedal and Horner had bridged to the remnants of the day's breakaway at the start of the twisty, technical descent, giving them a moment's respite for the sprint. Horner led the sprint out from the last corner only to have Hesjedal come past and take the win.

"It's the nicest win [at the moment] because it's the most recent," Hesjedal joked at the press conference when asked to compare the win to his Tour of Spain stage. "Since I started with this team at the beginning of 2008, I have gotten to a lot of places I wanted to be in my cycling career. To keep that going, I think I'm doing that well. Today is just a nice confirmation of that."

The Canadian's attack could have jeopardized his teammate Zabriskie's position in the overall, since he brought with him Radioshack's Chris Horner, who was the highest placed rider on GC to make the front of the race. But the move also put further pressure on Rogers.

"The race was Mick's to lose... I wasn't afraid to take Chris along to overtake Dave in the general classification. It was up to Mick to keep that in check," continued Hesjedal.

"We wanted to ride aggressively today and show ourselves well, and to win on the last day shows that really well. That was kind of the focus near the end.

"For Dave to get away from Mick and overcome that deficit was a tall order, and I think we did the best we could and came away with the best we could."

Peter Sagan (Liquigas-Doimo) lost his high position in the overall classification by coming in with the group one minute behind, but did just enough to secure his points and best young rider classification wins.

"I am very happy because I think it was a good job to get two jerseys, and for me it was most important because it was an important race. I'm really happy and look forward to coming back next year," said Sagan.

Thomas Rabou (Team Type 1) had already clinched his mountains jersey but still went on the attack to further pad his lead by taking the third climb of the day.

"I woke up this morning and I was thinking it would be really cool to be in the break with the KOM jersey, so I tried to do it and my goal was achieved for today," he explained.

The end in sight

The grand finale of the Amgen Tour of California kicked off from Thousand Oaks, the home of the race's long-time title sponsor. Only 83 riders took the start under sunny skies, with Philip Deignan (Cervelo Test Team) the sole rider to drop out overnight.

Before the day was out more than half the peloton would take an early exit from the torturous 33km final circuit either voluntarily or for falling outside the time limit.

As has been the case every day this tour, the attacks began from kilometre zero and continued until a breakaway was established. This time however, the peloton would splinter into several groups before settling down for the long haul.

On the first lap a 13-rider move formed ahead of the first trip up the "Rock Store" climb on Mulholland Drive. The group included Fly V Australia's Phil Zajicek who, at 2:49 behind on general classification, was too much of a threat to let go. Zajicek attacked the move along with Dominique Rollin (Cervelo TestTeam) as the chasing bunch grew nearer, further putting the pressure on the favourites.

By the top of the first KOM, the furious pace of the Garmin-Slipstream team had neutralised the move, and Tom Danielson, Hesjedal and Zabriskie led over the top ahead of HTC-Columbia's Tony Martin. They had also succeeded in breaking the peloton into several groups.

The action picked up again on the second trip up the climb, with four going clear: Maarten Tjallingii (Rabobank Cycling Team), Rollin, Bradley White (Unitedhealthcare) and Rabou.

The quartet was caught as the climb kicked up, but were soon countered by Quick Step's Carlos Barredo. The Spaniard was joined by Rabou and this time the breakaway stayed clear to contest the mountain sprint.

Behind, the break of the day was forming as Yaroslav Popovych (Team Radioshack), Sebastian Langeveld (Rabobank Cycling Team), George Hincapie (BMC Racing Team), Oscar Pujol Muñoz (Cervelo Test Team) and Jeremy Vennell (Bissell) caught up to Barredo and Rabou over the crest and began the fast drop back down to the end of lap two.

The seven men built up a lead of nearly three minutes, never enough to threaten the yellow jersey of Michael Rogers, although the Garmin-Transitions team was intent on bringing the gap down so Zabriskie would have a shot at gaining the time bonus on the finish line.

Final lap fireworks

With one lap to go, the dead weight had been shed from the peloton and the chase was lifted to a red-lined pace as the Garmin-Transitions team was intent on setting up the win.

The advantage of the breakaway was down to 1:45 and the chase in full flight heading into the climb when Levi Leipheimer suffered an ill-timed flat tyre but was able to rejoin the peloton in short order before the climb began to bite.

He put the adrenaline rush provided by the incident to good use as he blasted out of the bunch and was quickly marked by Rogers on the climb, setting off a firestorm of attacks. The activity failed to break the GC stalemate, but instead reduced the group to Rogers, who was the sole HTC-Columbia representative, Leipheimer and Horner and Zabriskie and Hesjedal.

A fierce pace set by Leipheimer swept up the remnants of the break, picking up Radioshack teammate Yaroslav Popovych, who went straight to the front and set tempo for his captain. For his efforts he was awarded the Most Courageous jersey for the day.

Up ahead, only three riders survived from the original move - Hincapie, Pujol and Barredo - with a rapidly falling gap of 50 seconds. Hesjedal countered one of the many attacks, drawing out Horner and leaving Zabriskie alone to keep an eye on his foes.

"I followed and made it on just in time for Ryder to punch it, and I got on his wheel," said Horner. "Of course I had a shot at GC because you never know what is going to happen behind. I rode 100 percent and bombed the descent, barely able to hold on to Hesjedal in the corners.

"I led it out at the last corner just to see if I could get as much time as possible. I didn't know what was happening behind."

Both Zabriskie and Leipheimer put in several digs that kept Rogers chasing, but by the time he was really on the ropes, the top of the climb had come and the descent allowed him to nail back the two aggressors.

"I had great legs today and when you have good legs, and you know the moment to attack is coming you get really excited," said Leipheimer. "I felt awesome, but then I had a rear flat. It took some of the sting out of my legs to come back, but it didn't discourage me from trying to break open the race."

There was a point Leipheimer thought he had Rogers in difficulty, but, he said, "Somehow Michael clawed his way back, and showed why he's the winner of the Tour of California."

Leipheimer, who has won the past three editions of the race said he was not disappointed to be going home without a fourth yellow jersey, acknowledging that in past years he was the best prepared rider after the winter and there was clearly stronger competition this year.

"I'm not disappointed. I rode well and gave it everything I had. I was the main animator of the race and I have to take pride in that."

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