Tour of California: Will Routley claims breakaway win

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Will Routley (Optum p/b Kelly Benefit Strategies) rode the perfect race during stage 4 of the Tour of California Wednesday, winning the stage from a six-rider breakaway and adding to his lead in the mountains classification by taking all three of the day's KOMs. Gregory Daniel (Bissell Development Team) and Kevin De Mesmaeker (Team Novo Nordisk) rounded out the top three on the day.

Overall race leader Bradley Wiggins (Team Sky) successfully defended his yellow jersey, and gained four seconds on second placed Rohan Dennis (Garmin-Sharp) as the Australian was caught in a split in the peloton in the finale.

Routley has featured in every breakaway of the race so far, and his gambit to add to his mountains classification lead on stage 4 paid off big with the stage win.

"Things went better than planned," Routley said of the day's result. "Of course the goal was to go in the break for the KOM points again. It was a little harder to get in the break today than it was the last few days. I had a couple teammates kind of launch me across at the right time. I had been feeling really, really good sprinting at the top of the climbs, so really that was my whole focus, just to try and lock that down."

The 165.1km stage down the California coast from Monterey to Cambria featured one sprint and three major climbs, none of which were greater than a category 3. The last climb came just over 40km from the finish, leaving plenty of time for the sprinters' teams to bring things together for a final bunch gallop.

Except the peloton waited too long to get serious about chasing and failed to make the catch, leaving sprinters Mark Cavendish (Omega Pharma Quick Step) and Peter Sagan (Cannondale) frustrated at missing out on a possible stage win.

Omega Pharma's Tom Boonen said the sprinters' teams waited a bit too long to pick up the chase, but he also credited those in the breakaway with riding a very intelligent race.

"They were going slow when they needed to, and they were going fast in the final," Boonen said. "And that's the way you win the race."

Boonen said the chase was full speed after the last climb, but even that wasn't enough to close the gap as the breakaway benefited from a strong tailwind.

"The climb before actually I went to the others and said we have to start pulling with two or three extra guys, because in the front they were waiting for the last part to speed up, I could really tell," Boonen said. "At that point we started riding full speed straight away going 75k an hour trying to get as soon as possible a minute or a minute and a half off their lead, so the other guys would start pulling as well to take their morale away a little bit. But it lasted too long, and with tailwind they were going full speed in the front as well."

The six-rider breakaway that escaped the bunch just a few kilometers into the stage included Routley, Daniel, De Masmaeker, Chris Jones (UnitedHealthcare), Jonny Clarke (UnitedHealthcare) and Matt Cooke (Jamis-Hagens Berman).

The leaders, all of whom were well down on the general classification, cooperated well together and quickly started building their advantage, which ballooned to nearly four minutes but held there as the peloton didn't seem to want let the escapees have too long a leash.

The gap shrunk to just 2:30 at the second KOM, but it went back up to more than three minutes when the leaders contested the final KOM of the day. At that point, the escapees knew they may have rolled the dice successfully.

"In between the two KOMs the gap came down to 2:30, and then we didn't ride any harder and it went up to 3:30," Clarke said. "So we didn't know if Omega and Giant or anyone were arguing back in the peloton, which can happen some of the time. Then when we came off the final KOM and had the tailwind, I thought we better go full gas. Our director said this morning for sure Omega's going to bring it back for a bunch sprint, but you just never know, so you've got to take your opportunities."

The break's six riders worked well together and smartly waited long enough to begin their games with each other. After a few moves by the two UnitedHealthcare riders, De Masmaeker made the first serious final move, but he was countered by Routley, who surged toward the line for the win. Cavendish won the field sprint for seventh ahead of Sagan.

Routley's win pushed him past Cavendish in the points competition, while Clarke netted the jersey for most courageous rider. Routley will wear green for Thursday's stage 5, and as the mountains classification runner-up, Clarke will wear polka dots. Jones will wear the most courageous jersey in the stage.

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