Tour of California 2017 – Stage 4 [FULL STAGE]

May 17, 2017

Tour of California 2017 – Stage 4 – Santa Barbara – Santa Clarita : 159,5 km

The 2017 Amgen Tour of California is a road cycling stage race that is scheduled to take place between 14 and 20 May. It is the 12th edition of the Tour of California and the 22nd event of the 2017 UCI World Tour; the first time that the race has been staged as part of the World Tour.

David vs. Goliath. In the first three days of the Tour of California, Goliath had his day. On stage 4, the most unlikely ‘David’ in the race stole not only the stage win but second place as well.

Rally Cycling shouldn’t have been in the race under WorldTour rules, but were given special dispensation to compete after an agreement with the UCI, and thanks to a tailwind, some complacency on the part of the peloton, and solid teamwork, Evan Huffman took out the stage win from the breakaway while teammate Rob Britton bested Sunweb’s neo-pro Lennard Hofstede for second.

It wasn’t Huffman’s first win against WorldTour teams – he took out a stage of the Tour of Alberta last year and ended the race third overall. But it was his first official WorldTour victory, something he was unable to achieve in his two years with Astana.

It wasn’t even his first real chance for a victory in the Tour of California – his last attempt came in the same finish in last year’s stage 2 to Santa Clarita, where his breakaway with Ben King stuck, but he couldn’t match the Cannondale man.

“I can’t believe that we did it,” Huffman said. “It’s surreal, amazing. I was thinking about last year’s stage during the last 10km, and how much it would suck to not win again. I gave it everything I had in the last 100 metres.”

The peloton, meanwhile, finished an unlucky 13 seconds later, with Peter Sagan (Bora-Hansgrohe) leading the way in to add to his lead in the points classification, while teammate Rafal Majka came through with all of his rivals to keep the race lead heading into the Mount Baldy stage.

“Today was a very hard day but I had a great team to support me and my teammate Peter [Sagan]. We had all our teammates there, all at the front. I’m suffering a little today but maybe tomorrow will be better for me,” said Majka.

“I will have a lot of support from the team and I hope to have a great day. It’s the first time that I will do this climb so we will see how it goes and how my legs are. If I have good legs then I will try to attack but if I’m tired I might follow. I hope I have good legs.

George Bennett (LottoNl-Jumbo) remains second at two seconds, with the five-rider breakaway taking out all the time bonuses, while Ian Boswell (Team Sky) stays third at 14 seconds.

The sprinters will have to cool their heels until Saturday as the climbers come to the fore on stage 5 to Mt. Baldy, and then the aerodynamic gear comes out for the time trial in Big Bear Lake on Friday.

How it unfolded

The lumpy route from the coast at Santa Barbara, skirting the Santa Ynez and Topatopa mountain ranges should have been a day for the mountains classification leader Daniel Jaramillo, but the UnitedHealthcare rider instead relied upon his teammate Gavin Mannion to fly the blue flag on the climbs.

Mannion was part of the day’s escape together with Rob Britton and Evan Huffman (Rally Cycling), Lennard Hofstede (Team Sunweb), Mathias Le Turnier (Cofidis) and Martin Elmiger (BMC), but the latter was distanced in the early climbs, leaving five to fight the day out front.

Mannion claimed the maximum mountain points on the first climb at Casitas Pass but came second to Huffman on the next two category 3 climbs. But he was back out front for the category 2 Baucomb Canyon Road ascent, moving into third in the rankings.

Although they held a whopping nine minutes on the peloton at the midpoint of the stage, the pressure from the peloton ratcheted up after the last climb, and Jaramillo ran into a bit of trouble and was tailed off in a grupetto before the roads flattened out.

The yellow jersey of Rafal Majka never came under threat as Trek-Segafredo and Katusha worked together to bring them back to a more manageable distance as they snaked around the twisting, scenic noodle of tarmac that is Grimes Canyon Road.

Once they reached the fertile valley floor, passing through massive farms, the situation for the breakaway became much more tenuous as Quick-Step Floors and Sky sent men to the front of the field to help out.

But with 24km to go, they still had three and a half minutes to pull back, and only four riders doing the work, perhaps reluctant to do all of the work for Bora-Hansgrohe only to have Sagan steal the show.

Katusha added Mads Wurtz Schmidt to the mix, Sky put David Lopez to work for Viviani, and the fresh legs whittled another minute out of the quintet’s advantage, but still, they persisted, aided by a brisk tailwind. Jack Bauer came to the front for Quick-Step to force the gap down further, and then with teammate Max Schachmann and Nils Politt (Katusha) pitching in, the leaders were finally brought back under two minutes, but there were still 13km to go and a long, gradual, wind-swept open highway to the line.

With 9km to go, Sagan began tightening his shoes, expecting the catch to come and preparing for his sprint, but the five riders ahead continued to work together, undeterred.

Zdenek Stybar came forward in a last ditch effort to wipe out the gap, but with 6km there was still more than a minute to undo. Had the WorldTour teams underestimated the unknowns up front?

3.5km, still more than a minute. The peloton was single file, and Sky came to the front with a full on team time trial. 2.7km to go, it was 35 seconds.

2km to go, and the leaders were in Santa Clarita, turning onto the finishing drag, and no amount of effort from Sky would turn this into a bunch sprint. But their pace was opening gaps up and down the peloton, and riders scrambled to stay in contact.

Up ahead the leaders saw 20 seconds as they headed into the finishing straight, and the WorldTour teams had underestimated them gravely – Turnier tried the first dig, but Huffman had the most power left and blasted away. His teammate Britton made it a 1-2 for the Continental team by out-sprinting Hofstede.

Results :
1 Evan Huffman (USA) Rally Cycling 3:41:52
2 Rob Britton (Can) Rally Cycling
3 Lennard Hofstede (Ned) Team Sunweb
4 Mathias Leturnier (Fra) Cofidis, Solutions Credits
5 Gavin Mannion (USA) UnitedHealthcare Professional Cycling Team
6 Peter Sagan (Svk) Bora-Hansgrohe 0:00:13
7 John Degenkolb (Ger) Trek-Segafredo
8 Marcel Kittel (Ger) Quick-Step Floors
9 Alexander Kristoff (Nor) Katusha-Alpecin
10 Simone Consonni (Ita) UAE Team Emirates
11 Ramon Sinkeldam (Ned) Team Sunweb
12 Reinardt Janse Van Rensburg (RSA) Dimension Data
13 Jonas Van Genechten (Bel) Cofidis, Solutions Credits
14 Geoffrey Soupe (Fra) Cofidis, Solutions Credits
15 Elia Viviani (Ita) Team Sky
16 Greg Henderson (NZl) UnitedHealthcare Professional Cycling Team
17 Jacob Rathe (USA) Jelly Belly p/b Maxxis
18 Serghei Tvetcov (Rom) Jelly Belly p/b Maxxis
19 Rafal Majka (Pol) Bora-Hansgrohe
20 Ruslan Tleubayev (Kaz) Astana Pro Team
21 Brent Bookwalter (USA) BMC Racing Team
22 Adam De Vos (Can) Rally Cycling
23 Jhonatan Restrepo (Col) Katusha-Alpecin
24 Sam Oomen (Ned) Team Sunweb
25 Robert Gesink (Ned) Team LottoNl-Jumbo
26 Michael Schär (Swi) BMC Racing Team
27 Vegard Stake Laengen (Nor) UAE Team Emirates
28 Janier Acevedo (Col) UnitedHealthcare Professional Cycling Team
29 Andrew Talansky (USA) Cannondale-Drapac
30 Luis Angel Mate (Spa) Cofidis, Solutions Credits
31 Charles Planet (Fra) Team Novo Nordisk
32 George Bennett (NZl) Team LottoNl-Jumbo
33 Floris De Tier (Bel) Team LottoNl-Jumbo
34 Matteo Dal Cin (Can) Rally Cycling
35 Haimar Zubeldia (Spa) Trek-Segafredo
36 Nicolas Edet (Fra) Cofidis, Solutions Credits
37 Lachlan Morton (Aus) Dimension Data
38 Rick Zabel (Ger) Katusha-Alpecin
39 Enric Mas (Spa) Quick-Step Floors
40 Tao Geoghegan Hart (GBr) Team Sky
41 Ian Boswell (USA) Team Sky
42 Samuel Sanchez (Spa) BMC Racing Team
43 Maximilian Schachmann (Ger) Quick-Step Floors
44 Tiago Machado (Por) Katusha-Alpecin
45 Ben King (USA) Dimension Data
46 Jonathan Dibben (GBr) Team Sky
47 Maciej Bodnar (Pol) Bora-Hansgrohe 0:00:22
48 Matteo Trentin (Ita) Quick-Step Floors 0:00:24
49 Pawel Poljanski (Pol) Bora-Hansgrohe 0:00:30
50 Scott Thwaites (GBr) Dimension Data
51 Jay McCarthy (Aus) Bora-Hansgrohe 0:00:35
52 Nick Dougall (RSA) Dimension Data 0:00:44
53 Yousif Mirza Alhammadi (UAE) UAE Team Emirates 0:01:43
54 Joonas Henttala (Fin) Team Novo Nordisk
55 Javier Megias (Spa) Team Novo Nordisk
56 Stéphane Rossetto (Fra) Cofidis, Solutions Credits
57 David Lopez (Spa) Team Sky
58 Tom Bohli (Swi) BMC Racing Team
59 Daan Olivier (Ned) Team LottoNl-Jumbo
60 Nathan Brown (USA) Cannondale-Drapac
61 Kiel Reijnen (USA) Trek-Segafredo
62 Sepp Kuss (USA) Rally Cycling
63 Tanner Putt (USA) UnitedHealthcare Professional Cycling Team
64 Michal Kolár (Svk) Bora-Hansgrohe
65 Sean Bennett (USA) Jelly Belly p/b Maxxis
66 Laurens De Vreese (Bel) Astana Pro Team 0:01:49
67 Roy Curvers (Ned) Team Sunweb 0:01:55
68 Joshua Berry (USA) Jelly Belly p/b Maxxis
69 Alexey Vermeulen (USA) Team LottoNl-Jumbo
70 Owain Doull (GBr) Team Sky
71 Fabio Sabatini (Ita) Quick-Step Floors
72 Martin Elmiger (Swi) BMC Racing Team 0:02:34
73 Kristijan Durasek (Cro) UAE Team Emirates 0:02:48
74 Marko Kump (Slo) UAE Team Emirates
75 Nils Politt (Ger) Katusha-Alpecin 0:03:00
76 Michael Morkov (Den) Katusha-Alpecin
77 Wouter Wippert (Ned) Cannondale-Drapac
78 Taylor Phinney (USA) Cannondale-Drapac
79 Guillaume Bonnafond (Fra) Cofidis, Solutions Credits 0:03:08
80 Yoann Bagot (Fra) Cofidis, Solutions Credits 0:03:13
81 Jordan Cheyne (Can) Jelly Belly p/b Maxxis 0:03:21
82 Koen De Kort (Ned) Trek-Segafredo 0:03:27
83 Markel Irizar (Spa) Trek-Segafredo 0:03:29
84 Jean-Pierre Drucker (Lux) BMC Racing Team
85 Matti Breschel (Den) Astana Pro Team
86 Antwan Tolhoek (Ned) Team LottoNl-Jumbo
87 Juraj Sagan (Svk) Bora-Hansgrohe
88 Peter Kennaugh (GBr) Team Sky
89 Bert-Jan Lindeman (Ned) Team LottoNl-Jumbo 0:03:32
90 Danny Pate (USA) Rally Cycling 0:03:49
91 Johannes Fröhlinger (Ger) Team Sunweb 0:04:04
92 Bernhard Eisel (Aut) Dimension Data 0:05:18
93 Travis Mccabe (USA) UnitedHealthcare Professional Cycling Team
94 Zdenek Stybar (Cze) Quick-Step Floors 0:05:22
95 Jack Bauer (NZl) Quick-Step Floors
96 Brendan Canty (Aus) Cannondale-Drapac 0:05:56
97 Artyom Zakharov (Kaz) Astana Pro Team 0:06:22
98 Koen Bouwman (Ned) Team LottoNl-Jumbo
99 Alberto Bettiol (Ita) Cannondale-Drapac
100 Filippo Ganna (Ita) UAE Team Emirates
101 Mads Würtz Schmidt (Den) Katusha-Alpecin 0:07:51
102 Lawson Craddock (USA) Cannondale-Drapac 0:10:12
103 Rúben Guerreiro (Por) Trek-Segafredo 0:10:58
104 Christopher Williams (Aus) Team Novo Nordisk 0:11:53
105 Ulises Alfredo Castillo Soto (Mex) Jelly Belly p/b Maxxis
106 Romain Gioux (Fra) Team Novo Nordisk
107 Andrea Peron (Ita) Team Novo Nordisk
108 Ben Wolfe (USA) Jelly Belly p/b Maxxis
109 Floris Gerts (Ned) BMC Racing Team
110 Daniel Eaton (USA) UnitedHealthcare Professional Cycling Team
111 Marco Mathis (Ger) Katusha-Alpecin
112 Arman Kamyshev (Kaz) Astana Pro Team
113 Mike Teunissen (Ned) Team Sunweb
114 Andrea Guardini (Ita) UAE Team Emirates
115 Martijn Verschoor (Ned) Team Novo Nordisk
116 David Lozano (Spa) Team Novo Nordisk
117 Erik Baska (Svk) Bora-Hansgrohe
118 Tyler Farrar (USA) Dimension Data
119 Gregory Daniel (USA) Trek-Segafredo
120 Mark Renshaw (Aus) Dimension Data
121 Martin Velits (Svk) Quick-Step Floors
122 Federico Zurlo (Ita) UAE Team Emirates
123 Daniel Jaramillo (Col) UnitedHealthcare Professional Cycling Team
124 Daniil Fominykh (Kaz) Astana Pro Team
125 Miles Scotson (Aus) BMC Racing Team
126 Colin Joyce (USA) Rally Cycling
127 Jonathan Clarke (Aus) UnitedHealthcare Professional Cycling Team
128 Riccardo Minali (Ita) Astana Pro Team
129 Truls Korsaeth (Nor) Astana Pro Team
130 Danny van Poppel (Ned) Team Sky

General Classification after Stage 4 :
1 Rafal Majka (Pol) Bora-Hansgrohe 16:04:48
2 George Bennett (NZl) Team LottoNl-Jumbo 0:00:02
3 Ian Boswell (USA) Team Sky 0:00:14
4 Lachlan Morton (Aus) Dimension Data 0:00:16
5 Robert Gesink (Ned) Team LottoNl-Jumbo 0:00:45
6 Brent Bookwalter (USA) BMC Racing Team 0:00:48
7 Sam Oomen (Ned) Team Sunweb
8 Andrew Talansky (USA) Cannondale-Drapac
9 Vegard Stake Laengen (Nor) UAE Team Emirates
10 Maximilian Schachmann (Ger) Quick-Step Floors
11 Enric Mas (Spa) Quick-Step Floors
12 Tao Geoghegan Hart (GBr) Team Sky
13 Haimar Zubeldia (Spa) Trek-Segafredo 0:00:53
14 Luis Angel Mate (Spa) Cofidis, Solutions Credits 0:00:55
15 Nicolas Edet (Fra) Cofidis, Solutions Credits
16 Serghei Tvetcov (Rom) Jelly Belly p/b Maxxis 0:00:58
17 Janier Acevedo (Col) UnitedHealthcare Professional Cycling Team 0:01:02
18 Samuel Sanchez (Spa) BMC Racing Team 0:01:25
19 Jhonatan Restrepo (Col) Katusha-Alpecin
20 David Lopez (Spa) Team Sky 0:02:41
21 Michael Schär (Swi) BMC Racing Team 0:03:11
22 Adam De Vos (Can) Rally Cycling 0:03:48
23 Greg Henderson (NZl) UnitedHealthcare Professional Cycling Team 0:04:43
24 Ben King (USA) Dimension Data 0:04:45
25 Tiago Machado (Por) Katusha-Alpecin 0:04:47
26 Scott Thwaites (GBr) Dimension Data 0:04:59
27 Pawel Poljanski (Pol) Bora-Hansgrohe 0:05:04
28 Jay McCarthy (Aus) Bora-Hansgrohe 0:05:09
29 Matteo Trentin (Ita) Quick-Step Floors 0:06:04
30 Stéphane Rossetto (Fra) Cofidis, Solutions Credits 0:06:17
31 Javier Megias (Spa) Team Novo Nordisk
32 Nathan Brown (USA) Cannondale-Drapac 0:07:01
33 Peter Kennaugh (GBr) Team Sky 0:10:18
34 Peter Sagan (Svk) Bora-Hansgrohe 0:10:43
35 Rob Britton (Can) Rally Cycling 0:12:23
36 Sepp Kuss (USA) Rally Cycling 0:12:36
37 Matteo Dal Cin (Can) Rally Cycling 0:12:45
38 Floris De Tier (Bel) Team LottoNl-Jumbo
39 Evan Huffman (USA) Rally Cycling 0:12:51
40 Brendan Canty (Aus) Cannondale-Drapac 0:13:43
41 Daan Olivier (Ned) Team LottoNl-Jumbo 0:14:15
42 Geoffrey Soupe (Fra) Cofidis, Solutions Credits 0:15:21
43 Matti Breschel (Den) Astana Pro Team 0:15:58
44 Yoann Bagot (Fra) Cofidis, Solutions Credits 0:16:13
45 Nils Politt (Ger) Katusha-Alpecin 0:17:04
46 Lennard Hofstede (Ned) Team Sunweb 0:17:35
47 Rick Zabel (Ger) Katusha-Alpecin 0:17:43
48 Gavin Mannion (USA) UnitedHealthcare Professional Cycling Team
49 Reinardt Janse Van Rensburg (RSA) Dimension Data 0:17:49
50 Alexander Kristoff (Nor) Katusha-Alpecin
51 Simone Consonni (Ita) UAE Team Emirates
52 Mathias Leturnier (Fra) Cofidis, Solutions Credits 0:17:59
53 Nick Dougall (RSA) Dimension Data 0:18:27
54 Alberto Bettiol (Ita) Cannondale-Drapac 0:18:54
55 Tanner Putt (USA) UnitedHealthcare Professional Cycling Team 0:19:25
56 Kiel Reijnen (USA) Trek-Segafredo 0:19:26
57 Tom Bohli (Swi) BMC Racing Team
58 Laurens De Vreese (Bel) Astana Pro Team 0:19:32
59 Guillaume Bonnafond (Fra) Cofidis, Solutions Credits 0:19:33
60 Joshua Berry (USA) Jelly Belly p/b Maxxis 0:19:38
61 Alexey Vermeulen (USA) Team LottoNl-Jumbo
62 Roy Curvers (Ned) Team Sunweb
63 Sean Bennett (USA) Jelly Belly p/b Maxxis 0:19:50
64 Jack Bauer (NZl) Quick-Step Floors 0:19:52
65 Charles Planet (Fra) Team Novo Nordisk 0:20:15
66 Jonathan Dibben (GBr) Team Sky 0:20:22
67 Owain Doull (GBr) Team Sky 0:20:29
68 Marcel Kittel (Ger) Quick-Step Floors 0:20:40
69 Elia Viviani (Ita) Team Sky 0:20:49
70 John Degenkolb (Ger) Trek-Segafredo 0:20:50
71 Ramon Sinkeldam (Ned) Team Sunweb
72 Jacob Rathe (USA) Jelly Belly p/b Maxxis 0:20:57
73 Kristijan Durasek (Cro) UAE Team Emirates 0:21:04
74 Michael Morkov (Den) Katusha-Alpecin 0:21:11
75 Antwan Tolhoek (Ned) Team LottoNl-Jumbo 0:21:12
76 Jonas Van Genechten (Bel) Cofidis, Solutions Credits 0:21:18
77 Markel Irizar (Spa) Trek-Segafredo 0:22:01
78 Maciej Bodnar (Pol) Bora-Hansgrohe 0:22:04
79 Yousif Mirza Alhammadi (UAE) UAE Team Emirates 0:22:27
80 Joonas Henttala (Fin) Team Novo Nordisk
81 Michal Kolár (Svk) Bora-Hansgrohe
82 Artyom Zakharov (Kaz) Astana Pro Team 0:22:34
83 Travis Mccabe (USA) UnitedHealthcare Professional Cycling Team 0:22:54
84 Zdenek Stybar (Cze) Quick-Step Floors 0:23:02
85 Fabio Sabatini (Ita) Quick-Step Floors 0:23:15
86 Martin Elmiger (Swi) BMC Racing Team 0:23:18
87 Wouter Wippert (Ned) Cannondale-Drapac 0:23:40
88 Taylor Phinney (USA) Cannondale-Drapac 0:23:41
89 Danny Pate (USA) Rally Cycling 0:23:42
90 Ruslan Tleubayev (Kaz) Astana Pro Team 0:23:52
91 Marko Kump (Slo) UAE Team Emirates 0:23:56
92 Jean-Pierre Drucker (Lux) BMC Racing Team 0:24:06
93 Koen De Kort (Ned) Trek-Segafredo 0:24:11
94 Daniel Eaton (USA) UnitedHealthcare Professional Cycling Team 0:24:25
95 Jordan Cheyne (Can) Jelly Belly p/b Maxxis 0:24:33
96 Koen Bouwman (Ned) Team LottoNl-Jumbo 0:24:47
97 Bert-Jan Lindeman (Ned) Team LottoNl-Jumbo 0:24:49
98 Johannes Fröhlinger (Ger) Team Sunweb 0:25:21
99 Daniel Jaramillo (Col) UnitedHealthcare Professional Cycling Team 0:26:21
100 Juraj Sagan (Svk) Bora-Hansgrohe 0:26:48
101 Rúben Guerreiro (Por) Trek-Segafredo 0:26:49
102 Miles Scotson (Aus) BMC Racing Team 0:27:01
103 Filippo Ganna (Ita) UAE Team Emirates 0:27:28
104 Bernhard Eisel (Aut) Dimension Data 0:28:54
105 Floris Gerts (Ned) BMC Racing Team 0:29:31
106 Colin Joyce (USA) Rally Cycling 0:29:32
107 David Lozano (Spa) Team Novo Nordisk 0:29:34
108 Andrea Peron (Ita) Team Novo Nordisk 0:29:36
109 Arman Kamyshev (Kaz) Astana Pro Team
110 Truls Korsaeth (Nor) Astana Pro Team 0:29:59
111 Mads Würtz Schmidt (Den) Katusha-Alpecin 0:30:18
112 Mike Teunissen (Ned) Team Sunweb 0:30:34
113 Daniil Fominykh (Kaz) Astana Pro Team 0:30:59
114 Jonathan Clarke (Aus) UnitedHealthcare Professional Cycling Team 0:31:09
115 Lawson Craddock (USA) Cannondale-Drapac 0:31:53
116 Danny van Poppel (Ned) Team Sky 0:32:36
117 Ulises Alfredo Castillo Soto (Mex) Jelly Belly p/b Maxxis 0:32:37
118 Martijn Verschoor (Ned) Team Novo Nordisk
119 Riccardo Minali (Ita) Astana Pro Team 0:33:00
120 Erik Baska (Svk) Bora-Hansgrohe
121 Gregory Daniel (USA) Trek-Segafredo 0:33:05
122 Christopher Williams (Aus) Team Novo Nordisk 0:33:32
123 Andrea Guardini (Ita) UAE Team Emirates 0:34:18
124 Federico Zurlo (Ita) UAE Team Emirates 0:34:41
125 Tyler Farrar (USA) Dimension Data 0:34:43
126 Marco Mathis (Ger) Katusha-Alpecin 0:34:57
127 Romain Gioux (Fra) Team Novo Nordisk 0:35:03
128 Ben Wolfe (USA) Jelly Belly p/b Maxxis 0:35:44
129 Martin Velits (Svk) Quick-Step Floors 0:36:02
130 Mark Renshaw (Aus) Dimension Data 0:36:59