Tour of California 2009 Stage 7: Nocentini Nips Roulston; Leipheimer Leads; Mancebo Crashes Out

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Submitted by roadskater on Sun Feb 22 2009 2:10am
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Stage 7 was good entertainment as much as I got to see. I had been watching Cycling TV and it had some screen freeze problems. By the time I switched over to the official site, with a few problems of my own, the riders were in the final loops. There were 5 loops of about 5 miles, and that made for some great racing, and I'm sure the fans enjoyed it too. There were 10 in a significant break, but there were frequent attacks and bluffs and changes in alliances. It looked like Roulston would win, as the track guy with a monster sprint, but Nocentini had been doing really smart wheel-sucking and had avoided blasting out with power spurts unless absolutely necessary to keep up. If you don't have the sprint, you'd better either leave early or suck wheel as long as you can and hope you're fresher. Roulston may have lead out the sprint a bit early, but I think he must have just been spent by the finish. Pieter Weening has been a factor all week, and he hung in there nicely in the top three. The other seven riders came in a bunch, including Hincapie, F Schleck, and Vandevelde, who made it all exciting but burned the rocket on the pad a bit maybe. USA rider Chris Baldwin was also in the second group. 

Top 20 Stage 7

1.   76   ITA 19770925 NOCENTINI Rinaldo ALM 03.24'43" 00.00'00"
2.   88   NZL 19810110 ROULSTON Hayden CTT 03.24'43" 00.00'00"
3.   57   NED 19810405 WEENING Pieter RAB 03.24'43" 00.00'00"
4.   91   SUI 19740627 ZBERG Markus BMC 03.24'50" 00.00'07"
5.   73   SUI 19780923 ELMIGER Martin ALM 03.24'50" 00.00'07"
6.   168   USA 19751015 BALDWIN Chris RRC 03.24'50" 00.00'07"
7.   21   USA 19730629 HINCAPIE George THR 03.24'50" 00.00'07"
8.   13   LUX 19800415 SCHLECK Frnk SAX 03.24'50" 00.00'07"
9.   31   USA 19760522 VANDEVELDE Christian GRM 03.24'50" 00.00'07"
10.   44   NED 19770616 ENGELS Addy QST 03.24'50" 00.00'07"
11.   83   NOR 19780118 HUSHOVD Thor CTT 03.27'02" 00.02'19"
12.   54   ESP 19740927 HORRILLO MUNOZ Pedro RAB 03.27'02" 00.02'19"
13.   147   USA 19830314 REISTAD Nick JBC 03.27'02" 00.02'19"
14.   143   USA 19860601 REIJNEN Kiel* JBC 03.27'02" 00.02'19"
15.   55   NED 19861126 MOLLEMA Bauke* RAB 03.27'02" 00.02'19"
16.   6   UKR 19800104 POPOVYCH Yaroslav AST 03.27'02" 00.02'19"
17.   87   CAN 19821029 ROLLIN Dominique CTT 03.27'02" 00.02'19"
18.   1   USA 19731024 LEIPHEIMER Levi AST 03.27'02" 00.02'19"
19.   38   USA 19790112 ZABRISKIE David GRM 03.27'02" 00.02'19"
20.   33   USA 19780313 DANIELSON Thomas GRM 03.27'02" 00.02'19"

Well we know Levi thinks there won't be any battles, and if there are, Astana can probably cover them, but it's pretty close going in to the last stage. Jens Voigt made quite the jump up the standings in the time trial, leaping over Armstrong and Horner, among others. They go up Palomar tomorrow, so we'll see if anyone makes an attempt at shifting the standings. No matter what, it's been a fun week of cycling, especially the finish today, and some of the early breaks and late reel-ins.

Top 20 Overall After Stage 7

1.   1   USA 19731024 LEIPHEIMER Levi AST 27.39'02" 00.00'00"
2.   38   USA 19790112 ZABRISKIE David GRM 27.39'38" 00.00'36"
3.   28   AUS 19791220 ROGERS Michael THR 27.39'47" 00.00'45"
4.   16   GER 19710917 VOIGT Jens SAX 27.40'12" 00.01'10"
5.   26   SWE 19840404 LVKVIST Thomas THR 27.40'31" 00.01'29"
6.   2   USA 19710918 ARMSTRONG Lance AST 27.40'48" 00.01'46"
7.   52   NED 19860531 GESINK Robert* RAB 27.40'56" 00.01'54"
8.   3   SLO 19831218 BRAJKOVIC Janez AST 27.41'01" 00.01'59"
9.   4   USA 19711023 HORNER Christopher AST 27.41'15" 00.02'13"
10.   66   ITA 19841114 NIBALI Vincenzo LIQ 27.41'23" 00.02'21"
11.   33   USA 19780313 DANIELSON Thomas GRM 27.41'26" 00.02'24"
12.   7   ESP 19730127 RUBIERA VIGIL Jos Luis AST 27.41'50" 00.02'48"
13.   46   BEL 19860912 SEELDRAEYERS Kevin* QST 27.41'59" 00.02'57"
14.   161   ESP 19760929 SEVILLA Oscar RRC 27.42'39" 00.03'37"
15.   13   LUX 19800415 SCHLECK Frnk SAX 27.43'11" 00.04'09"
16.   47   BEL 19770209 VAN DE WALLE Jurgen QST 27.43'17" 00.04'15"
17.   21   USA 19730629 HINCAPIE George THR 27.43'25" 00.04'23"
18.   31   USA 19760522 VANDEVELDE Christian GRM 27.44'03" 00.05'01"
19.   55   NED 19861126 MOLLEMA Bauke* RAB 27.44'46" 00.05'44"
20.   56   GER 19751103 NIERMANN Grischa RAB 27.45'10" 00.06'08"

One disappointing note from the day was the crash of Francisco Mancebo, the current King of the Mountains leader, which put him in the hospital and out of the event. Looks like Jason McCartney is the new King of the Mountains, but I'm sure it's not the way he'd like to achieve it.

http://www.pressdemocrat.com/article/20090221/SPORTS/902210967?Title=Mancebo-among-TOC-crash-victims 

Locations

Santa Clarita, California
United States
34° 25' 59.6928" N, 118° 31' 53.0292" W
See map: Google Maps, Yahoo! Maps, MapQuest
Pasadena, California
United States
34° 8' 45.2112" N, 118° 7' 56.4636" W
See map: Google Maps, Yahoo! Maps, MapQuest
‹ Surprise! Lance Armstrong Drops Drug-Testing Program as Too Hard, Too Expensive Tour of California 2009 Stage 6: Leipheimer Wins Time Trial Over Zabriske, Larsson, Rogers, Voigt, Hincape, Zirbel, McCartney ›

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