great tour!

the amgen tour of california was a marker for radioshack. it had its thrills and spills from the start; and the weather swung from cool and wet to warm and sunny.tactically team radioshack played their cards well. It was a very tight race; levi leipheimer wanted to win for a fourth time, david zabriskie wanted to come first rather than second again and then there was team htc-columbia, a highly successful team with determined riders and good strategic thinkers.

it was from htc that the greatest challenge to levi leipheimer was to come, with mick rogers being the man that the rest of the team were riding for.

before the end of the tour there would be memories of hard racing, spectacular scenery, a great pars cours (for those of us that didn’t have to ride it!) and the wide-spread excitement of the american cycling fans that made the tour feel more like a european event than one being held in the usa.

the spills of the tour were, of course, horrible to watch and disappointing for the riders and spectators a-like. many retired from the race. lance armstrong and others crashed out and yet others completed the event with bandages and grazes to accompany the thigh-splitting pain that must have been prevalent in each and every mountain climb.

in the end the tour was to be contested by the three favourites; leipheimer, zabriskie and rogers. rogers was victorious but team radioshack had riders in the final day’s breakaway (popovych and then horner), the pursuing group (horner) and at the front of the peloton (leipheimer, mccartney and brajkovic) – their tactics were a great display of support and race planning.

and whilst the top three men rode over the line in the same group without gaining any additional time they did gain the respect and enthusiasm of the viewing public and cycling community. It was wonderful tour and repaid the organisers decision to move it from february to may many times over.

congratulations to mick Rogers (htc) and big thanks to zabriskie and leipheimer who, with their teams and the rest of the peloton made the amgen tour of california 2010 a most memorable event. chapeau!

by julian winn, teamradioshack.us staff writer