Will Routley won stage four of the Amgen Tour of California in Cambria yesterday.
Will Routley won stage four of the Amgen Tour of California from the breakaway. Photo: Casey B. Gibson
Routley (Optum-Kelly Benefit Strategies) out-sprinted five breakaway companions to take victory in the 103-mile stage from Monterey.
Gregory Daniel (Bissell Development) was second and Kevin De Mesmaeker (Novo Nordisk) was third.
“Things were a little better than planned,” said Routley. “The goal was to go in the break for the KOM points again. It was a little harder to get in the break than in the last few days – I had a couple teammates launch me across to it.
“I’ve been feeling really good sprinting at the top of the climbs. That was my whole focus just to lock that down. But I came here with the goal to win a stage, that’s what I’ve wanted to do every time I’ve come to the Tour of California, and this time I felt like I was prepared and ready. I wasn’t expecting that today was going to be the day.”
Bradley Wiggins (Sky) maintained his overall lead with four days of racing remaining. Officials scored a split between Moreno Hofland (Belkin), in 20th, and Ted King (Cannondale), in 21st, which dropped second-overall Rohan Dennis (Garmin-Sharp) four seconds on GC, to 28 seconds behind the 2012 Tour de France champion.
Six riders jumped loose of the peloton in the stage’s early going: Routley, Daniel, De Mesmaeker, Chris Jones and Jonathan Clarke (UnitedHealthcare), and Matt Cooke (Jamis-Hagens Berman).
“The nearest guy in the breakaway was 15 minutes (down on GC), so we had a pretty easy day,” said Wiggins. “We assisted in the chase out of respect for the jersey more than anything. With that tailwind in the run-in, it was always going to be difficult to bring back three minutes at 25 kilometers to go. The speeds were quite high during the run-in.” – VeloNews
