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Stage 7
Saturday, February 21
Santa Clarita to Pasadena
88.9 miles
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Today’s stage of the Tour of California saw a lot of action from the BISSELL Team. This day, more than any other during this year’s tour, saw continuous attacks right from the neutral zone. At least one BISSELL rider was involved in each of the early moves. The peloton reacted to all of these moves and it wasn’t until mid-race that a break worked successfully. A group of 10 were able to get away and opened the gap to 3 minutes by the top of Millcreek Summit. Continuous attacking occurred within the break and eventually the break was down to 3 riders: Weening (Rabobank), Roulston (Cervelo), and Nocentini (AG2R).
Just before the peloton entered the Pasadena circuits, there was a crash involving several riders including BISSELL riders, Frank Pipp and Tom Zirbel. Frank got up quickly and was eventually able to get back on the main group. Tom, however, suffered more from the crash. Tom and two other victims, Svein Tuft and Trent Lowe both from Garmin-Slipstream, did resume riding, but they were never able to catch back on to the group. They did finish the stage and took minimal losses.
The crowds around the Rose Bowl saw the three leaders in a photo finish with Rinaldo Nocentini (AG2R) taking the win. Jeremy Vennell, Ben Jacques-Maynes, and Frank Pipp came through with the main peloton, 2’19” behind Nocentini. Tom lost over eight minutes and will certainly be feeling the effects of the crash during tomorrow’s stage. Pete Latham suffered the accumulation of 8 days of strong racing, and he did not finish today’s stage. Ben continues to be BISSELL’s highest placed rider in the GC at 24th.
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