Canadian, Dominique Rollin wins a race that felt like the 6th period of an overtime Stanley Cup Game.

San Luis Obispo, CA - The Toyota-United Pro Cycling Team won a monster victory in California today as Dominique Rollin let the world know “The Horse” will be reckoned with for years to come. If he were a race horse, they would be calling him a mudder! The boys were in their saddles for just under seven hours today with horrendous conditions that brought many of the world’s finest riders to their knees including Toyota-United’s own Ivan Dominguez who abandoned the race today during a cold, windy, blustery, and excruciatingly painful 135 mile ride from Monterey to San Luis Obispo. Combined with a six-mile ceremonial, non-timed parade start in Seaside, the riders pedaled for nearly 7 1/2 hours which is longer than many mountain stages of the Tour de France. “With about 25 miles left, I looked around, and I knew I was one of the strongest guys,” said Rollin, who began the stage in 62nd place overall, trailing by nearly 25 minutes. “With about six miles left, I had a 40-second lead. I couldn’t help it; I had a smile on my face.” Rollin, pulled away from his breakaway companions with 20 kilometers to go and held off some of the best riders in the world. With George Hincapie and another ProTour rider cutting his lead to 10 seconds with just 2 miles to go, Rollin put his head down and stomped on the pedals to bring home the victory for his Toyota-United Team and the biggest win of his young career. Hincapie commented that a domestic rider like Rollin has extra motivation to win in a race like this and that he is impressed to see some of the domestic teams racing. “This is the biggest race in the U.S. and these guys here have every thing in the world to prove,” he said. “I remember when I was young and went into races like this, I did everything I could because it’s the one shot you’ve got to make it to the next level. I think these guys are doing a great job.”
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The BMC Racing team brought its A-game and hoped for big results for the Amgen Tour of California.

The squad announced their presence loudly in the first stage with the Jackson Stewart solo breakaway delivering the first of the King of the Mountains and the Most Aggressive jersey to the team. The story continued in stage 2, where the team protected Jackson’s KOM classification, and also won the Most Aggressive award again through the solo breakaway of Scott Nydam.

In the third stage, Scott Nydam again went on the attack early resulting in successfully defending the KOM jersey and Alex Moos finished ninth in the main chase group behind the two stage leaders.

The team was hit with bad luck during stage 5, as Jackson Stewart unexpectedly abandoned the race due to hypothermia after gobbling up all the KOM points on the day. The KOM jersey reverted to his team mate Nydam and after five stages in the bad, Alexander Moos in very good position in the General Classification at 29 seconds from the leader.

BMC has thus far escaped catching the highly contagious stomach bug which has decimated several other teams in the race. I caught up with some of the BMC riders before the start of the to-be miserable stage 5 to get their thoughts.

Tony Cruz


About the team plan for the rest of the week
Now we have a GC contender with Alex so we have to pay attention to where he’s at all times to make sure he’s always in contention, still try and go for the stage, that would be good for the team, and protect the KOM jersey. It’s big. I think we can do Alex and KOM, we’ll focus on the third if we can.

About attempting another break in the stage
I don’t know, we’ll see, going to let the other teams do some stuff and try and work with them, no more solo stuff.

About his form
Not too bad. Believe me, I was tired (after stage 4), that was a hard stage, to be expected.
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Photo by Ken Conley

SAN LUIS OBISPO, CA – Six-time Canadian National Road Champion Dominique Rollin (CAN) of the Toyota-United Pro Cycling Team made history today as he powered away to an impressive solo victory in Stage 4 of the 2008 Amgen Tour of California. Weather hammered the peloton for nearly seven hours as the stage took riders down the California coast from Seaside to San Luis Obispo on an impressive and challenging course. Defending champion Levi Leipheimer (USA) of Astana was able to retain the overall lead and will wear the Amgen Leader Jersey going into the individual time trial in Solvang tomorrow.

“Last time I raced in such tough weather, I won the stage,” said Rollin, referring to a stormy day in Quebec’s 2005 Tour de Beauce. “The worse it is, the better I am. When the wind came, I said keep it coming.”

Thursday morning brought cold rain to the longest stage of the eight-day Amgen Tour of California. At 135 miles, the picturesque stage along Highway 1 would prove to be a long, difficult trek masked by clouds, drizzle and a steady 30-mph headwind. But in cycling, such problems provide opportunities.

At the start of the race, strong man Henk Vogels (AUS) of the Toyota-United Pro Cycling Team launched an attack, which preempted several counterattacks. However, it would be Rollin who blasted up the road with Jackson Stewart (USA) of Team BMC to take the lead. Others soon joined the breakaway, including George Hincapie (USA) of High Road, Iker Camano (ESP) of Saunier Duval-Scott, Bryce Meade (USA) of the Jelly Belly Cycling Team and Edward King (USA) of BISSELL Pro Cycling. Eventually, the break would grow to include 11 riders, and their gap on the field grew to 4:35.
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After the longest stage in Tour of California history, it came down to a sole breakaway from Toyota United standout Dominique Rollin to take the victory.

We took a look at Dominique Rollin’s Fuji SL1 here
We talked to Dominique Rollin before the season here

Full results available after the click.

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Photos by Stephanie Gutowski

Photo by Ken Conley

San Luis Obispo, CA - High peaks and cold troughs

When the weather forecast called for rain, probably few believed that the weather would play such a painfully decisive roll in today’s stage. But the ride from Seaside to San Luis Obispo which had been touted as 135 miles (217 km) of the prettiest scenery in the United States, turned into a day of wet, cold and windy misery that few racers will forget quickly.

If the fact that stomach flu is flying through the peloton and race caravan is not unsettling enough, the riders today had to spend seven hours doing their best just to survive the day. Jackson Stewart again figured among the racers who animated the early part of the stage. He, along with team mate Danilo Wyss found their way into what turned into the break of the day. Jackson then proceeded to win all top mountain points on each of the three rated climbs. The only snag was that he realized a little late that his body had reached the point where it was no longer able to maintain a healthy temperature.

Jackson, it may seem too obvious a question, but how do you feel now?
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Overall Leaders (General Classification)
First Place - Levi Leipheimer (USA), Astana
Second Place - Fabian Cancellara (SUI), Team CSC
Third Overall - Robert Gesink (NED), Rabobank

Stage 4 Winners
First Place -Dominique Rollin (CAN), Toyota-United
Second Place - George Hincapie (USA), High Road
Third Place - Iker Camano Ortuzar (ESP), Saunier Duval-Scott

By Stephanie Gutowski

Chechu Rubiera has had quite an amazing career beginning in 1995 with Artiach. He had his first major win at the Giro d’Italia as a young Kelme rider in 1997. He turned down a Cofidis offer to ride for US Postal Services and Lance Armstrong in 2001. He rode with Armstrong in US Postal Services and Discovery Channel. Rubiera will now ride his final year with Astana. Rubiera has decided to retire at the end of this season. RoadBikeReview caught up with this incredible climber in Palo Alto.

I last saw you race, here in the States, at the San Francisco Grand Prix….
I love that race!! It’s a pity they do not do that race anymore. For me that race was the nicest race of the season. It was so wonderful. The course was fun, the nice weather, the beautiful city and the atmosphere was great. It was at the end of the season so there was no pressure. We all enjoyed that race.

How did the decision to go to Astana work out? Did you wait for Astana?
I did not wait. The fact is I did not have an offer. I had been in touch with Rock Racing and a few weeks later Johan called me. What I wanted to do was to race one more year and then stop. It’s good to stop when you want to stop.
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Blackgrove saved by the gel.

San Jose, California - The Toyota-United Pro Cycling Team after two strong stages in the Tour of California ran into the beasts known as Mt. Hamilton and Sierra Road today in stage 3. Expectations from the longest climb in the race were extreme. The ride did not disappoint the boys as they made the climb to 4100 feet today. The team was looking for Ben Day and Heath Blackgrove to have special performances today to move themselves up in the overall classification and for our sprinters to survive the leg today and not miss the timecut.

The results were not expressly met by the team as difficulties took their toll. Ben Day said after the race, “His legs felt like lead all day.” Heath Blackgrove had an excellent climb up Mt. Hamilton and was seconds behind the first group with world champion Paulo Bettini, who made it to the first group after the descent. Unfortunately, Heath crashed descending down Mt. Hamilton and as he went off the road the team car didn’t even see Heath go off the cliff. The car came around the turn and he had disappeared from sight. The car continued down 5 minutes attempting to catch the group. Another team informed the Toyota-United car that Heath had indeed crashed. “When we heard the news, we were all freaking out, concerned for Heath’s safety, as we pulled over to locate Heath, he came screaming by with blood on his shorts and hands, but was yelling he was ok.” Heath looked worse than his actual injuries due to the explosion of his gel packs on his hip side. Heath at this point, had lost contact with the first group as Bettini did and had to be content with finishing in 42nd place. To further add to Toyota-United’s day Hilton Clarke abandoned the race at mile 45 due to a hip injury he sustained during stage 2. Hilton’s younger brother Jonny missed the time cut by two minutes due to contracting food poisoning after stage 1 which was exacerbated by two flat tires and a dropped chain on the Sierra Road grade. That was the difference in him not making the time cut this afternoon.

On the brighter side, the remainder of the Toyota-United team finished healthy and without incident and are ready to take on Stage 4 to San Luis Obispo. The ride tomorrow will take the boys down the coast following the ocean the bulk of the ride. The conditions could be rainy the weather man is telling us again, but the team is looking to repeat the Stage four from 2006.

Rock Racing Podium girls

Michael Ball meeting local cycling fans

Super Mario in San Jose

All photos courtesy of VeroImage.com