NorCal Cycling News – Cycling and Racing in Northern California

 

Today was a hard one with so many NorCal rider’s putting it down.  BJM gave the J-Maniacs a virtual lock on the Award as he made his second break in three days.  Seriously now… if Andy and Ben are not eating nails then they are doing some serious Rocky IV training in the Santa Cruz mountains.  Levi Leipheimer had a huge ride putting himself in contention, but team mate Chris Horner, an honorary NorCal rider (being a former Webcor Rider, and Oregon habitant – which is kind of like NorCal North), took the stage and the Yellow Jersey (which is some kind of ugly btw.)  To top it all off i saw a Spidertech rider break into the top 20 and I was hoping it might be Lucas Euser but no confirmation on that yet.

With all that said and done Andrew Talansky, fresh off the Cal-Giant program, proved to have the biggest ride for the NorCal nation.  Talansky made the selection going up and then down Hamilton, and then made up some time on the lead group while going up Sierra Rd.  Talansky’s put him into the top 10 for the day, giving him a solid GC spot and the white jersey of Best Young Rider.  In his first year as a pro he left the other American ingenues, Phinney and Van Garderen, in his dust.  I don’t see any limits yet – do you?

NorCal Cycling News Awesome Award

Stage 4 Winner – Andrew Talansky

Runner Up – Levi Leipheimer

Honorable Mention – Chris Horner