Ken scooped me on this: Palo Alto is angling to host a stage finish of the 2009 Tour of California. A proposed stage would start “north of San Francisco” (in Marin County, probably?), wind across San Francisco into the coast range then drop out of the Santa Cruz Mountains into downtown Palo Alto. Just for the fun of it I think it would be hilarious if organizers routed the Tour of California through Woodside, California.

Below is the Boonen commercial Ken mentioned. I’m not familiar with the Bettini one. Makes me want to hop on the bike! The Santa Cruz mountains is where I live and where I ride.

Speaking of the Santa Cruz Mountains, here’s a photo of me from last Saturday looking like a total dork in Henry Cowell Redwoods State Park.

Another nasty day of cold rain punished the peloton as they rode from Santa Clarita to Pasadena in Stage 7 today in the 2008 Amgen Tour of California. In the end, a five man breakaway battled it out in the final kilometer, with George Hincapie winning Team High Road’s first stage win in this final stage. Rory Sutherland (Health Net), Jason Mccartney (CSC), Michael Creed (Rock Racing) and Tom Zirbel (Bissell) all followed Hincapie across the finish line, with Cavendish leading the field across about 10 seconds later.

Astana demonstrated incredibly tight teamwork to protect their team captain and helping him win the Yellow Jersey for this year’s tour.

The 2008 Tour is one for the history books, with a virus, rain and cold plaguing the riders and staff for the entire week. I hope you had a chance to watch online via the Tour Tracker or to catch the highlights on Versus TV. You can find links to archived video for all of the stages at Steephill.TV. Click through to The FredCast for podcasts highlighting each stage of the tour and interviews. For Tour of California photography, visit KWC’s Spare Cycles 2008 Tour of California gallery.

Thanks for following the action on Cyclelicious!

What an incredible sprint finish! As the 6th stage of the Amgen Tour of California wound down in Santa Clarita, several cyclists went on the attack. David Millar (Slipstream Chipotle) bridged up from the peloton to the break when Team Astana took notice and attacked to catch the breakaway and prevent #2 Millar from taking the yellow jersey from Levi Leipheimer. After the pack caught up and passed the breakaway it was every man for himself as the cyclists fought for a place at the podium.

In the end, Mark Cavendish pushed his way to the front to get High Road’s first stage win at the 2008 Tour of California. It looks like Luciano Pagliarini (Saunier Duval) has second and JJ Haedo (CSC) has third place. Levi Leipheimer still holds the yellow jersey as he goes into the final stage tomorrow that starts in Santa Clarita.

Update: As BGW notes in his comments, Cavendish was penalized for drafting a team car in the aftermath of a crash that took out four Rock Racing cyclists. The podium first place went to Brazilian sprinter Luciano Pagliarini (Saunier Duval), with JJ Haedo now in 2nd and Paolo Bettini (Quick Step) in third.

More 2008 Tour of California Stage 6 commentary

• Steephill.TV.
• KWC: Canvendish wins, Pagliarini really wins. See also this Stage 7 warning: because of possible snow and flash floods, Stage 7 may be re-routed.
• Sara Best is sad and oh so happy as the fates unfolded.

The Seaside to SLO leg follows the scenic California Central Coast, but the riders in stage 4 of the 2008 Amgen Tour of California enjoyed none of the views as they slogged through dreary, cold rain and constant headwinds, keeping the pace under 20 mph for much of today’s long stage. The racers finally finished after over seven hours on the road, well after the anticipated 4 p.m. finish time.

A break that eventually consisted of Edward King (Bissell), Roman Kilun (Health Net p/b Maxxis), Dominique Rollin (Toyota – United), Danilo Wyss (BMC Racing Team), Bauke Mollema (Rabobank), George Hincapie (High Road) and Iker Camano Ortuzar (Saunier Duval-Scott) moved ahead of the peloton. Rollins attacked beginning about 45 minutes from the end, pulling away from the breakaway as Hincapie and Camano work to reel him in. Rollins, a continental team rider, managed to hold off two seasoned Euro pros and took the stage win today has he went solo across the finish line 18 seconds ahead of Hincapie and Camano.

Team High Road got three of the top five spots as Gerald Ciolek and Mark Cavendish came in fourth and fifth place. I’m certain the cyclists are glad today’s stage is over.

It was painful watching today’s stage — I could almost feel the discomfort as they rode through the miserable rain and their soggy kit clinged to their arms. The stomach bug that took Tyler Farrar out yesterday apparently hit several other riders, mechanics and support staff, making the long ride even longer and more miserable for them. Several cyclists dropped out.

Levi retains the yellow jersey going into Stage 5 on Friday. His team protected his yellow jersey and apparently held back just a little when they didn’t attack the breakaway and finishing over 2 minutes behind the leaders, probably to save their legs for the 15 mile individual time trial in Solvang. Still, Thursday was brutal for all of the cyclists and Friday is supposed to be another windy day so Stage 5 should be interesting to see.

I’ll grab some quotes from the riders and update this post later tonight. I’m sure there will be some good ones so check back here at Cyclelicious for the updates.

Photo Credits: Dominique Rollin Win by Ken Conley; Wet Astana Peloton captured from Amgen Tour of California Adobe Tour Tracker video stream; Rollin Podium my Ken Conley.

Young rider Gesink takes the stage; Leipheimer in Yellow Jersey
Yellow Jersey Farrar falls ill, abandons race

It was an exciting race today, especially the final 20 miles of today’s stage as Levi Leipheimer (Astana) and Robert Gesink (Rabobank) worked in a two man breakaway as a chase group led by Team CSC’s David Zabriskie Fabian Cancellara fought to catch up to keep the yellow jersey away from Leipheimer.

Leipheimer and Gesink worked together all the way down hill from Sierra Road, taking turns pulling to hold off the attacking chase group. As Leipheimer and Gesink rode together into downtown San Jose, Gesink pulled ahead in the end for a stage win, with Leipheimer right on his wheel. Leipheimer came in 30 seconds ahead of the chase group, more than making up his 7 second deficit in the GC rankings so he will don the Yellow Jersey tomorrow in Seaside, California.

The 21 year old Gesink proved himself to be a strong climber today. He turned pro just last year and he was obviously elated to win today’s stage. The average speed of Gesink and Leipheimer over the 102 mile stage was an amazing 23 mph as they crossed several peaks, including the hors catégorie (“beyond classification”) Mount Hamilton.

Tyler Farrar started Stage 3 wearing the Yellow Jersey but had to drop out about halfway through the race. He reportedly suffered from food poisoning last night and reportedly spent much of his night in the restroom. Five other cyclists have also dropped out this week from a stomach bug that’s going around.

Mario Cipollini finished 63rd today, coming in 25 minutes after the winners and just ahead of the cutoff time that would have kept him from competing for the rest of the Tour of California.

There were concerns about the weather, but the skies cleared up as the cyclists approached from Modesto. The top of Mount Hamilton was chilly but dry as the peloton passed by the Mount Hamilton observatory.

Ken Conley caught some photos on Mount Hamilton. When I talked to him last he was racing downtown to the finish line. Visit KWC.org for his Stage 3 photos later today.

Go to Amgen Tour of California 2008 for official results. David B has his computer back up and running so he’ll have his FredCast report on today’s stage up also at a reasonable time. Steven probably already has a list of links out at Steephill.TV already. Bicycle.net has some interesting background information from today’s stage.

Photo: Gesink on Sierra Road in 2007; by Ken Conley.