HINCAPIE TAKES SECOND IN STAGE 4

HIGH ROAD’S GEORGE HINCAPIE TAKES SECOND IN STAGE 4 OF TOUR OF CALIFORNIA; PELOTON SUFFERS THROUGH STEADY RAIN

February 21, 2008 (San Luis Obispo, CA) – The Amgen Tour of California rolled from the coastal community of Seaside to the city of San Luis Obispo today fighting a steady cold rain and an extraordinary rate of attrition of competitors succumbing to illness.

Still, the day saw extraordinary efforts by several riders, including Team High Road’s George Hincapie, who broke away with 7 other’s early in the 135 mile stage, and held on to take second at the finish line in downtown San Luis Obispo.

Finishing first and winning the stage was Dominique Rollin of Toyota United, who broke away from the Hincapie pack with 15K to go and struck out on his own. George and Saunier Duval rider Iker Camano followed Rollin but could never get closer than 12 seconds to him. Rollin finished the stage at 6 hours, 56 minutes, and 8 seconds.

The peloton was nearly a full 2 and a half minutes back after clearly making the decision not to sacrifice any more riders to the wet chill and the virulent intestinal illness that is causing riders to drop out of the race at an alarming rate.

Holding onto the yellow jersey as overall leader was defending champion Levi Leipheimer of Astana, who at one point near the end could be seen apparently gesturing to his teammates to turn off the gas and let the breakaway go. Hincapie was the highest placed rider in the break, and by virtue of his second place win gained 2:10 on Leipheimer, and trails his former Discovery Channel teammate by 5:17 going into Friday’s Individual Time Trial in Solvang.

At the end of the day Hincapie was cheered loudly by the San Luis Obispo crowd when climbing the podium to second position. Hincapie’s High Road team is based in San Luis Obispo and it was obvious the hometown crowd loved having the “local boy” on the podium. Later, Team High Road owner Bob Stapleton could be seen hugging Hincapie, obviously pleased that George had ridden so well in Stapleton’s home base.

Coming in 4th on the stage was another Team High Road rider – Gerald Ciolek. And High Road’s Mark Cavendish finished alongside Ciolek, placing 5th. Earlier in the day at the start of the stage online live updates were reporting that Cavendish did not start, and that he had fallen victim to the same virus that caused 12 more riders—including Ivan Dominguez, Tom Danielson, and sprint leader Henrich Haussler—to drop out during the stage. But the mix-up must have been due to the fact that all the riders jerseys were covered by rain gear at the race start….and it was hard to tell who was in and who was out.

The weather for Friday’s Individual Time Trial in Solvang could be again quite wet…but the 15 mile course the riders will travel contre le montre is far less than the 135 soggy miles they slogged through on Thursday.