Fly V Australia’s Jonathan Cantwell claimed a second top 5 performance at the Amgen Tour of California.
Stage 4 covered 195 kilometers over largely rolling terrain with a tough first up climb of the Category 1 climb of Sierra Road reached after 10 kilometers. The stage featured an early break that stayed way for the majority of the stage, however Fly V Australia’s plan for the day revolved around an expected sprint finish.
With 30 kilometers to race, and with strong cross winds blowing, a touch of wheels in the bunch caused a massive crash that took out Bernie Sulzberger, Jonathan Cantwell and Jay Thompson. As the crash occurred, a number of the favorites had just hit the front, riding an echelon that forced a major split of 20 riders. The yellow jersey of David Zabriskie was the last rider to make it across to the front bunch.
Strong riding from Fly V Australia firstly saw Sulzberger, Cantwell and Thompson rejoin the main bunch, and then with the efforts of Ben Day and Charles Dionne, and assisted by a change in wind direction, the front of the race came back together, setting the scene for a sprint finale over two and a half laps of a 4 kilometer finishing circuit.
The Fly V Australia team worked hard to setup fast man Jonathan Cantwell for the sprint finish. However a crash inside the last lap took out Bernie Sulzberger and slowed the Fly V Australia take off. Despite this, the team was able to reset, lock and load, and coming into the final corner, the Fly V Australia ‘train’ over took the HTC Columbia lead out of Mark Cavendish as Aaron Kemps delivered fastman Jonathan Cantwell to the finishing straight with 350 meters to go. However as the sprint started, and Cantwell turned on the turbo boost, he realized he had broken his shoe in the crash, hampering his final effort. Despite this, Johnny C still managed a good sprint and came to the line in fifth place. However, after the efforts of the day, both he and the team were left disappointed and wondering what could have been?
Stage 4 results
1 Francesco Chicchi (Ita) Liquigas-Doimo 4:55:02
2 Juan Jose Haedo (Arg) Team Saxo Bank
3 Mark Cavendish (GBr) Team HTC-Columbia
4 Theo Bos (Ned) Cervelo Test Team
5 Jonathan Cantwell (Aus) Fly V Australia
6 Alexander Kristoff (Nor) BMC Racing Team
7 Ken Hanson (USA) Team Type 1
8 Andreas Stauff (Ger) Quick Step
9 Alex Candelario (USA) Kelly Benefit Strategies
10 Guillaume Boivin (Can) SpiderTech Powered by Planet Energy
