Tour of California Stage 4

Sunshine and spectacular scenery in the Sierra Mountains marked the hilly 4th stage of the ToC. Mark Cavendish (Columbia-Highroad) did well to stay in the main bunch over all the big climbs and gave himself a chance to take the sprint finish ahead of Quick Step's fast finishing Tom Boonen.

All the main protaganists finished in the bunch, so again no changes to the GC, but what was of interest to me was the performance of Rock Racing's Tyler Hamilton. I wasn't too complimentary of Tyler a couple of days ago, but the US Road Champion was in the break for most of the day, and managed to take maximum points in 3 of the 5 climbs.

Stage 5 is pretty flat, so expect another sprint finish. Stage 6 is the ITT, which may see some changes at the top of the leaderboard, but the main action will be the final 2 stages over the weekend, where some serious climbing might see a major shuffle.

Thanks for reading.