May 20, 2010 Bakersfield, CA – The UnitedHealthcare Pro Cycling Team Presented by Maxxis put Rory Sutherland, Marc de Maar, Chris Baldwin and Matt Crane in the front group after the peloton split apart on the first KoM of the day going up Old Stage Road.
“That was a pretty cheeky move on Radio Shack’s part to hit it on the climb,” Baldwin said. The tactic severed the peloton into several groups, with Baldwin, Sutherland and de Maar in the front group, and Crane in a chase group about a half minute behind that integrated with the front group on the descent.
“Once the front group came together and we had four in it,” said Team Director Mike Tamayo, “our focus was on going for the stage win.”
But the first task was to help bring back a five-rider move that looked to have a chance at staying away to the finish.
“There was a lot of posturing among the big teams today,” Tamayo said. To the point where they seemed content to let the break stay away.
“It didn’t seem like there was much impetus in the chase,” Baldwin said. “I was nervous the break wasn’t going to come back. So we decided to take some initiative to bring the move back.”
Baldwin went to the front, along with a couple riders from Liquigas, who also had an interest in bringing things back together for the finish, and drove the chase.
When the remnants of the break hit the closing circuits on the edge of the Bakersfield College campus, the 1.5 km climb finally did in the escapees. On the final circuit, a lead group of 30 came to the line for the sprint, with Best Young Rider Peter Sagan (Liquigas) taking his second stage win. Sutherland took 10th, with de Maar not far behind in 17th.
“The team rode great again today,” Tamayo said. “The guys sacrificed themselves to put Rory in a position to go for the stage win again today. I couldn’t ask for any more from the guys. We’ve been in contention for a stage win every day. We keep knocking on the door, and we want to keep giving ourselves a chance for the win.”
Notes
Friday presents the race’s queen stage, a 135-mile suffer feast that offers up seven rated climbs and over 10,000 feet of climbing from Palmdale through the San Gabriel Mountains to the ski resort at Big Bear Lake. And that doesn’t even include the climb up to the finish town.
Photo: Jonathan Devich
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