“I wanted to be in he breakaway”, Sep Vanmarcke said after the very rainy stage. “But I got some mechanical problems that had to be remedied. When I returned in the peloton, the breakaway was just escaping. Mike Teunissen tried to bridge up to the leaders, but the peloton would not let him free. The final kilometres were hectic because of the pouring rain. I led-out Tom at the front of the peloton and was done for the day.”
Van Asbroeck wasn’t strong enough to finish Vanmarcke’s lead-out. “He wasn’t good enough”, sports director, Erik Dekker said. “That has to be better.”

Time trial
The AMGEN Tour of California’s only time trial was to be on Friday at Big Bear Lake, but organisers moved it to lower elevations because of the cold weather.
“We have to take an important step for the general classification with Robert in that time trial,” Dekker added. “And maybe we’ll have a surprise. Since the time trial won’t be ridden on altitude anymore, but at sea level. It’s going to be complete flat and that suits us.”