May 22, 2010 - Los Angeles, CA – In the heart of Los Angeles, Rory Sutherland of the UnitedHealthcare Pro Cycling Team Presented by Maxxis rode with the heart of a lion in the Stage 7 individual time trial, posting the 9th fastest time on the day, but more importantly, holding on to his 5th overall position in the general classification of the Amgen Tour of California.
“If you told me at the start of the day I’d still be in 5th overall with the quality of field here, I would’ve been happy,” Sutherland said. “I definitely didn’t feel good, but then everyone else was tired coming in, too.”
With his wife Cheynna in the follow car, Sutherland powered out onto the course in pursuit of his two-minute man and former teammate, Ryder Hesjedal (Garmin), who came into the stage in 8th overall, six seconds behind the Australian. At the first split through one lap of the 10.5 mile course, Sutherland had posted what would end up the 8th fastest split time, at 21:32.
“I don’t like to hear split times during a TT,” Sutherland said. “So I wasn’t getting splits from Mike (Tamayo), but he said I was doing good. It’s hard when you have a two-minute gap to the guy in front of you because you don’t see anyone the whole time you’re riding. So it’s tough to know how you’re going.”
He continued to power around the course, shaving four seconds off of his first lap time to come in at 43:00.12, little more than one-tenth of a second behind Chris Horner (Radioshack), who came 8th at 43:00.01.
In the end, Sutherland gave up 1:19 to stage winner Tony Martin (HTC-Columbia), but less than a minute to race leader and three-time time trial world champion Michael Rogers (HTC-Columbia), who finished 2nd on the stage. The only rider to best him on the day out of the group that was mostly on the same time as Sutherland coming into the stage was Jens Voigt (Saxo Bank), who finished 5th today, 0:20 ahead of Sutherland. Voigt jumped up to 4th overall, while previous 3rd overall Peter Sagan (Liquigas) dropped to 7th.
“It’s been a hard week,” Sutherland said. “The staff has worked hard this week. My teammates have worked their butts off all week for me and Marc (de Maar). So it’s a bit of a responsibility for me to repay everyone for their work. It’s good to be able to do a good time trial and get a good result for them. They’re all my co-workers and they’re all my friends. It’s big for this team.”
Notes
De Maar came into the time trial in 6th overall and posted a solid time of 44:51, putting him in 12th overall. “My form is definitely coming back,” de Maar said. “I did a lot of training the past few weeks, but maybe I needed to bit more time trial-specific training. But compared to my TT at Gila, I was much better. I gave up a minute and a half less to Levi (Leipheimer, Radioshack) today than I did at Gila.
“The guys worked so hard for us this week,” he added. “This has been a great race for the team. We’ve been active in the breaks and we’ve been in the hunt for stage wins every day.”
Brad White of UnitedHealthcare Presented by Maxxis showed that he’s recovering from a stomach bug that derailed his first half of the Tour of California. White posted a strong time of 44:33, also with his wife Jenny in the follow car, to take 28th on the stage.
Photo: Jonathan Devich
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