Henderson Wins Sprint, Gold Jersey in Tour of California Stage Three

Greg Henderson of Sky ProCycle outran the big sprinters to win Stage Three of the 2011 Amgen Tour of California.
Henderson Wins Sprint, Gold Jersey in Tour of California Stage Three
Greg Henderson (2R) crosses the finish line ahead of Juan Jose Haedo (L,) Peter Sagan (2L,) and Thor Hushovd (R) to win Stage Three of the 2011 AMGEN Tour of California. (Doug Pensinger/Getty Images)
5/17/2011
Updated:
10/1/2015
<a><img src="https://www.theepochtimes.com/assets/uploads/2015/09/Henderson114291608Web.jpg" alt="Greg Henderson (2R) crosses the finish line ahead of Juan Jose Haedo (L,) Peter Sagan (2L,) and Thor Hushovd (R) to win Stage Three of the 2011 AMGEN Tour of California. (Doug Pensinger/Getty Images)" title="Greg Henderson (2R) crosses the finish line ahead of Juan Jose Haedo (L,) Peter Sagan (2L,) and Thor Hushovd (R) to win Stage Three of the 2011 AMGEN Tour of California. (Doug Pensinger/Getty Images)" width="320" class="size-medium wp-image-1803916"/></a>
Greg Henderson (2R) crosses the finish line ahead of Juan Jose Haedo (L,) Peter Sagan (2L,) and Thor Hushovd (R) to win Stage Three of the 2011 AMGEN Tour of California. (Doug Pensinger/Getty Images)
Greg Henderson, leadout man for Ben Swift of Sky ProCycle, outran the big sprinters to win Stage Three of the 2011 Amgen Tour of California.

Sky took control of the peloton in the final five kilometers, but set such a high pace that Sky’s sprinter got dropped along with most of the other sprint specialists. Henderson rode a great leadout from 500 meters out, saw that he was all alone, and pressed on in a tremendous show of stamina, outrunning World Champion Thor Hushovd and Saxo Bank’s JJ Haedo.

After the race, Henderson told Versus announcer Bob Roll that the plan had been to get Ben Swift a second win.

It was definitely for Swifty, it was just a lot of chaos in the last couple of laps,” Henderson explained. “We were all lined up there with a K [kilometer] to go. Jeremy Hunt did a fantastic job, got me to the final corner which is about 450, 500 meters to go. I just opened up down the left-hand side.

“I must have been a100 meters maybe to go I thought, ‘Man, there’s only about ten pedal strokes left. No one’s come around me yet;' so I just kept my head down. I was absolutely blown to pieces on the line. I was just lucky enough no one came around. “

“It was another great ride by Sky we committed a couple riders early on to the chase of the break away and we rode honorably to defend d the yellow jersey. It’s unfortunate that Swifty got mixed up but of course I’m happy to take the win.”

Henderson ended up with exactly the same overall time as teammate Ben Swift. Race organizers awarded the leaders gold jersey to Henderson.

Easy Road, Hard Wind


Stage Three, 196.2 kilometers (122 miles) from Auburn to Modesto, totally flat after a downhill start. The only obstacle on the course was the weather; cool, drizzly, and very windy. The wind played the part of hills, sapping the energy of the breakaway riders and almost splitting the peloton in the final third of the race.

A seven-rider-break escaped after the first mile, but no one expected it to succeed. The riders, Christian Meier (UnitedHealthcare Pro Cycling,) Jan Barta and Alexander Gottfried (Team Netapp,) Andy Jacques-Maynes (Bissell Cycling,) William Dickeson (Jelly Belly/Kenda,) Phillip Gaimon (Kenda/5-hour Energy Pro Cycling/Geargrinder) opened a gap of six minutes, but couldn’t sustain the pace into the wind.

Jan Barta and Andy Jacques-Maynes took off alone 25 miles out but the peloton wanted a sprint finish, and the they were reeled in with 12 miles to go.

Sky, defending Ben Swift’s gold jersey, took control of the peloton 14 miles from the finish and used a big acceleration into fierce crosswind to split the peloton. The tactic was perfect, but the road didn’t cooperate. Sky didn’t have time to completely drop the various groups of riders before the road turned back into the wind, letting the stragglers work their ways back.

Some very General Classification contenders, including Andy Schleck, got dropped, and had to use up their teammates’ legs to get back to the lead group.

The stage finished with two laps around downtown Modesto, where the streets were packed with cheering people—even the roofs of downtown business were turned into vantage points by cycling fans.

Chaos at the Finish


All the big ProTour sprinters’ teams fought to control the peloton through the final six miles (10 km.) HTC-Highroad and Liquigas led for the first lap, then Canadian team SpiderTech got organized and took over the peloton. It was an impressive display of riding, but perhaps a few miles too soon; SpiderTech set a terrific pace but burned out three miles from the finish.

The pace took its toll in the peloton as several riders hit the deck. Three riders, including Saxo Bank’s Jens Voigt, crashed hard with 7 km to go. Rabobank’s Michael Matthews and Saxo Bank’s Baden Cooke also crashed in separate instances in the final kilometer.

Back up front, Saxo Bank took over from the depleted SpiderTech team at the start of the final lap. Sky let Saxo bank lead for half a minute, then moved up and took over, while Rabobank organized on the outside and HTC tried to line up on the inside.

The pace was so high and the competition so intense, even the most experienced teams found it hard to organize. Ben Swift was third wheel with a kilometer to go, then fell back; he had to dig deep to get back into position.

Greg Henderson took over the lead coming around the final corner and opened a gap on all the other riders, including Swift. Now the big sprinters started; Thor Hushovd launched on Henderson’s left, while JJ Haedo and Liquigas’s Peter Sagan went down the right. None of them could catch Henderson, who somehow sprinted twice as far as the rest of the field.

Haedo took second, Hushovd third, and Peter Sagan fourth.

Henderson took the leader’s jersey, with teammate Ben Swift second in the GC, followed by JJ Haedo and Peter Sagan. All that will change tomorrow as the race hits the mountains.

Stage Four, 131.6 km from Livermore to San Jose, features an Hors Categorie climb and a Cat One mountaintop finish. This stage will offer the big-name GC contenders their first chance to open some gaps and gain some advantage.

2011 Tour of California Stage 3 Results

1

Greg Henderson (NZl) Sky Procycling

5:14:29

2

Juan José Haedo (Arg) Saxo Bank Sungard

5:14:29

3

Thor Hushovd (Nor) Team Garmin-Cervelo

5:14:29

4

Peter Sagan (Svk) Liquigas-Cannondale

5:14:29

5

Leigh Howard (Aus) HTC-Highroad

5:14:29

6

Kevin Lacombe (Can) Team Spidertech Powered By C10

5:14:29

7

Robert Förster (Ger) UnitedHealthcare Pro Cycling

5:14:29

8

Taylor Phinney (USA) BMC Racing Team

5:14:29

9

Jure Kocjan (Slo) Team Type 1 - Sanofi Aventis

5:14:29

10

Alexander Candelario (USA) Kelly Benefit Strategies

5:14:29

 

General Classification after Stage 3

1

Greg Henderson (Sky)

8:01:31

2

Ben Swift (Sky)

8:01:31

3

Peter Sagan (Liquigas-Cannondale)

+ 0:04

4

Juan José Haedo (Saxo Bank-SunGard)

+ 0:04

5

Thor Hushovd (Garmin-Cervélo)

+ 0:06

6

Matthew Goss (HTC-Highroad)

+ 0:06

7

Kevin Lacombe (Spidertech)

+ 0:10

8

Taylor Phinney (BMC)

+ 0:10

9

Robert Forster (Unitedhealthcare)

+ 0:10

10

Alex Candelario (Kelly Benefit)

+ 0:10