Amgen Tour of California rolls through Santa Paula
May 17, 2013
Sports
The Amgen Tour of California raced through Santa Paula Wednesday in Stage Four of the race from Santa Clarita to Santa Barbara.
On the second of three consecutive courses favoring the sprinters, Team Garmin-Sharp jockeyed for position throughout the final miles, sending sprinter Tyler Farrar (Seattle, Wash.) to his first place podium finish, also the first stage win by an American rider during the 2013 Amgen Tour of California. Farrar also claimed a third place podium spot following yesterday’s stage.
“It’s been awhile, so, it feels good to get the monkey off my back,” said Farrar, whose last win came in August 2012 at the USA Pro Challenge in Colorado Springs. “It was a great finish. This was a beautiful setting for a race finish, and I’m happy I won today.”
Santa Paula residents lined 10th Street to watch the fast-moving racers zip past with their entourage of support vehicles and police escorts.
Ten miles into the 84-mile course from Santa Clarita to Santa Barbara, six riders pulled away from the peloton, where they remained until the final few miles of the race. The youngest rider in the breakaway, Bontrager Cycling Team’s Nathan Brown (Memphis, Tenn.) rode nearly 70 miles in the lead group and was the last to be caught by the peloton, earning him the Amgen Breakaway from Cancer(r) Most Courageous Rider Jersey today.
A roundabout on the course with about a mile and a half left to ride resulted in a surprise leap ahead of the pack by Ireland’s national road race champion Matt Brammeier, riding for Champion System, with riders from ORICA GreenEDGE and Cannondale Pro Cycling in hot pursuit.
In the final moments, Team Garmin-Sharp’s strategic riding paid off, with Farrar seizing victory by pulling ahead of Optum Pro Cycling presented by Kelly Benefit Strategies’ Ken Hanson (San Diego, Calif.) just before the finish line.
Now in its eighth year, the 2013 Amgen Tour of California is running south to north for the first time, covering nearly 750 miles of California’s most scenic highways, roadways and coastlines over eight days, concluding in Santa Rosa May 19. With one of the most difficult courses in race history, 114 elite cyclists (127 riders began the race, though several have been eliminated or abandoned due to time cuts, injury or illness) will compete through 12 Host Cities and 60,000 feet of climbing, a record for the race, including a first-time summit finish at Mt. Diablo in the Bay Area.
A critical partner since the race’s inception, Amgen returns this year as the race title sponsor.
As part of Amgen’s effort to honor and celebrate cancer survivors and to raise awareness about its Breakaway from Cancer initiative, the Santa Barbara finish featured a Breakaway Mile. Santa Barbara cancer survivor Peggy Rantanen has proven to be a “Champion” as a person and as a patient, and also because she represents the unsung “Champions” of women who have been diagnosed with the silent and devastating disease of ovarian cancer. Peggy has inspired family, friends and those she has met with the same diagnosis by being open with her struggles as she’s dealing with her ongoing treatment, yet finding ways to manage and cope and remain positive through the process.
Rantanen was joined by approximately 150 community members - cancer survivors, patients, caregivers, and advocates and Kelly Oliner, scientific director of Medical Sciences at Amgen, who plays a crucial role in developing innovative medicines to treat cancer and other serious illnesses.
