Leipheimer rode a great race. His time of 30:50 was only ten seconds off his record for the stage, but that wasn’t enough Friday afternoon.
Zabriskie’s ride was practically perfect and obviously driven. He stayed tucked in his sleek aero position, he pedaled hard, he pushed the limit on every corner, taking chances, nearly hitting guardrails, holding nothing back. Had it not been for a slight headwind on the second half of the route he could have gone even faster.
Zabriskie started the stage 25th in the General Classification. The fact that he couldn’t contest the overall win helped drive him to win the stage. After the race he told Versus that the win was adequate compensation.
“Obviously, I am not here for the GC any more so I really wanted to win today, to come out of the race with something, so yeah, I’m pretty happy.”
His effort lifted the Garmin-Cervelo rider to 15th in the GC; a huge improvement but still not in contention. His teammates Christian Vande Velde and Thomas Danielson lie fourth and fifth. Zabriskie will spend the rest of the 2011 Tour working to help them win.
Saturday’s Stage Seven will be the hardest of the Tour, maybe the hardest in Tour history. The final climb up Mount Baldy will be the longest steepest ascent in the Tour, twice as long and just as steep as Sierra Road, which hurt so many teams in Stage Four.
“Tomorrow is just going to be carnage. I haven’t seen many stages that hard in my time as a professional. Tomorrow is going to be very, very hard. It’s going to be hard to control hard to do anything—the strongest man is going to win.”
Zabriskie totally accepted that his role in Stage Seven would be domestique for teammates Tommy Danielson and Christian Vande Velde. He had neither plan nor hope for a stage win
“I can cheat with the momentum on the [Time Trial] bike, but climbing, you need a constant power output, so it’s a little different. I’m sure I will be there for quite a while to help those guys.”
Next: Horner Keeps the Gold
Horner Keeps the Gold
“It was a matter of protecting the jersey [race leader’s gold jersey,]” he told Versus. “I didn’t want to shoot the corners; I certainly didn’t want to blow up. I knew if I was going to lose 20 seconds to begin with, I had another 15, 20 that I could play with.”
“With that kind of time I didn’t lose any sleep last night. It was matter of just making sure I did the warm-up right, making sure I rolled into the stage good, and absolutely, positively did lay down the bike in one of the corners.
“There were a few tight corners and a little bit of dust, a little bit of gravel, so you don’t want to lose the bike there. Better to give up a few more seconds and certainly, with my teammate Levi, we were just trading jerseys amongst teammates.”
Horner, whose climbing is much stronger than his time trialing, was eager to climb Mount Baldy.
“Tomorrows is going to be fantastic,” he said. “The Amgen Tour of California put in these summit finishes so we could put on a show for the crowd. I fully expect the Los Angeles crowed to be out there in full force.”
Young Threat
HTC-Highroad’s TeJay Van Garderen, in the Tour’s Best Young (under 23) Rider jersey, turned in a fantastic performance, finishing third, 40 seconds back. Van Garderen found the stage more challenging than he expected.
“[The stage] was a brutal one. I didn’t save anything for the downhill because I thought it was just going to be really fast, but there was kind of a headwind down there so I so I kind of died,” he told Versus. “I was surprised when I actually heard that I did so well.
After his attack in Stage Four earned him the stage’s Most Courageous Rider award, his climbing legs and his enthusiasm are undoubtable. The 23-year-old America rider planned to use both on the climb up Mount Baldy.
“I am definitely going to try something,” he said. “I was a little bit too gung-ho on Sierra road and I paid the price at the end, so I think I will be a bit more conservative. But I don’t want to just follow wheels and roll to the line. I want to try to do something.”
He said a stage win was his ultimate goal: “I’d love it. I haven’t won a race yet as a professional. That was the goal coming here, to try to win something, so I’ll try to win tomorrow.”
Next: Stage Seven
Stage Seven: Decisive Climb
Stage Seven will be the deciding stage in the 2011 Tour of California. Here is where RadioShack will try to repeat its domination of Stage Four, while HTC and Saxo Bank try to spoil RadioShack’s efforts.
The stage profile is daunting. It starts with an eight-mile climb followed by another mile of climbing, then a technical descent.
This is followed by a nine-mile climb, then 12 miles of gradual rise to the base of the five miles and fifteen switchbacks of the steepest roads the Tour has ever traversed.
Stage Seven will determine the 2011 Tour winner. Who will attack, who will crack, and who will have the form to finish first? Live coverage begins s at 7 p.m. on Versus.
| General Classification after Stage Six | ||
| 1 | Christopher Horner (USA) Team RadioShack | 17:17:01 |
| 2 | Levi Leipheimer (USA) Team RadioShack | 0:00:38 |
| 3 | Rory Sutherland (Aus) UnitedHealthcare Pro Cycling | 0:01:38 |
| 4 | Christian Vande Velde (USA) Team Garmin-Cervelo | 0:01:39 |
| 5 | Thomas Danielson (USA) Team Garmin-Cervelo | 0:01:44 |
| 6 | Tejay Van Garderen (USA) HTC-Highroad | 0:01:54 |
| 7 | Linus Gerdemann (Ger) Leopard Trek | 0:02:26 |
| 8 | Ryder Hesjedal (Can) Team Garmin-Cervelo | 0:02:27 |
| 9 | Laurens Ten Dam (Ned) Rabobank Cycling Team | 0:02:43 |
| 10 | Andy Schleck (Lux) Leopard Trek | 0:02:54 |
| 11 | Andrew Talansky (USA) Team Garmin-Cervelo | 0:02:56 |
| 12 | Peter Sagan (Svk) Liquigas-Cannondale | 0:02:58 |
| 13 | Steve Morabito (Swi) BMC Racing Team | 0:03:29 |
| 14 | Brent Bookwalter (USA) BMC Racing Team | 0:03:56 |
| 15 | David Zabriskie (USA) Team Garmin-Cervelo | 0:04:04 |
|
| ||
| 2011 Amgen Tour of California Stage Six Results | ||
| 1 | David Zabriskie (USA) Team Garmin-Cervelo | 0:30:36 |
| 2 | Levi Leipheimer (USA) Team RadioShack | 0:00:14 |
| 3 | Tejay Van Garderen (USA) HTC-Highroad | 0:00:40 |
| 4 | Peter Velits (Svk) HTC-Highroad | 0:00:48 |
| 5 | Maarten Tjallingii (Ned) Rabobank Cycling Team | 0:00:49 |
| 6 | Christopher Horner (USA) Team RadioShack | 0:00:51 |
| 7 | Jakob Fuglsang (Den) Leopard Trek | 0:00:53 |
| 8 | Jeremy Vennell (NZl) Bissell Cycling | 0:00:59 |
| 9 | Rory Sutherland (Aus) UnitedHealthcare Pro Cycling |
|
| 10 | Christian Vande Velde (USA) Team Garmin-Cervelo | 0:01:01 |
| 11 | Andrew Talansky (USA) Team Garmin-Cervelo | 0:01:10 |
| 12 | Danny Pate (USA) HTC-Highroad |
|
| 13 | Thomas Danielson (USA) Team Garmin-Cervelo | 0:01:13 |
| 14 | Peter Sagan (Svk) Liquigas-Cannondale | 0:01:15 |
| 15 | Linus Gerdemann (Ger) Leopard Trek | 0:01:27 |
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