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Redondo Beach (February 26, 2006) - In today's final
stage of the Amgen Tour of Calfornia, the Kodakgallery.com/Sierra Nevada
Pro Cycling Team wrapped up the race's first edition with another day of
aggressive riding, as Scott Zwizanski was part of a four-rider break that
led the 76-mile circuit race in Redondo Beach nearly from start to finish.
Just three miles into the day, Zwizanski bridged up to Glen Chadwick (Navigators
Insurance), who was hanging just in front of the pack.
The pair was soon joined by Aaron Olson (Saunier Duval-Prodir) and Davide
Frattini (Colavita-Sutter Home), and the quartet held a lead of 20 seconds
at the 3.5-mile mark.
But then a crash in the main field sapped the pack's momentum, and the breakaway's
lead grew quickly - all the way out to 7'50" at the 18.5-mile mark.
"When we had over seven minutes and the gap was still going up, I though
we might actually make it," Zwizanski recalled.
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Scott at speed |
But soon afterwards, Chris Horner rallied the Davitamon-Lotto
team to ride on behalf of their sprinter, Fred Rodriguez. The gap came down
quickly at first, stabilized at around 4 minutes, and then shrank quickly
again once the sprinters' teams began the chase in earnest, ultimately yielding
a second straight field sprint win by Olaf Pollack (T-Mobile).
With the gap down to 45 seconds at the the beginning of the final 7.6 mile
lap, Racing Manager Jonas Carney instructed Zwizanski to try for the Adobe
Most Aggressive Rider jersey, which Kodakgallery.com/Sierra Nevada's Jackson
Stewart won on the first road stage into Santa Rosa.
"I went about a mile before the final climb and I was by myself until the
hill, but they caught me at the top and that was it. I'll rest up a couple
days and I'll be rocking and rolling for next weekend."
Despite Zwizanski's gutsy effort, Chadwick received the Most Aggressive
jersey for instigating the break.
Overall, Ben Jacques-Maynes finished 24th in the general classification,
followed by Dominique Perras in 48th, Scott Zwizanski in 71st, and Jackson
Stewart in 93rd.
Of the Amgen Tour of California's six road stages, Kodakgallery.com/Sierra
Nevada's Stewart and Jacques-Maynes made the critical breakaways in the
first two, Stewart finished 8th in the third, Perras was extremely active
in the next two, and Zwizanski made the break in the finale.
Operations Manager Kurt Stockton summed up the team's performance, "Against
this level of competition, we had to pick our battles, but I'm happy with
how Kodakgallery.com/Sierra Nevada rode aggressively every day."
General Manager Robin Zellner added, "We all want to win, but we met our
goals and put our team on the map. This will launch us forward for the rest
of the season."
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