Dominique Rollins of Toyota United Wins Stage 4 of the Amgen Tour of California

Canadian Dominique Rollin (Toyota United) has just pulled off one of the most impressive wins we have seen in the Amgen Tour of California. In weather conditions that can only be described as epic, and horrible. Rollins rode to his victory as a solo rider who escaped from the seven rider breakaway with 20k to go to the finish of the 4^th stage of the Amgen Tour of California. This 135.3 mile soggy race from Seaside, CA to San Luis Obispo saw a 12 rider breakaway get ahead at mile 17. Two names that remained out of the final seventeen were George Hincapie (High Road) and Iker Camano (Saunier Duval-Scott). Rollin won by 18 seconds which was a huge time gap in such bad weather conditions.

This win gave Rollin the points classification jersey which was worn by Heinrich Haussler (Gerolsteiner) as the race headed out of Seaside. Haussler abandoned the race almost as soon as the race started.

Once Rollin crossed the finish line he was asked by a reporter how he felt? Rollin was so exhausted that he was unable to speak. It was not until the press conference that he was able to answer questions. He stated “the worse the conditions, the better I do”. A few things that he mentioned were of interest, one was that his radio was out all day, and that he knew he had won it as far out as the 40k to go sign.

The Astana team was able to keep the breakaway at a consistent 2:00 to 3:00 minute gap for the entire race. They showed no need to bring it back and allowed Levi Leipheimer to keep a little in the tank for the time trial tomorrow.

Many riders dropped out of the race today, but Jackson Stewart (BMC) was the biggest surprise. He was able to grab the KOM points he needed to increase his lead, but instead of wearing the King of the Mountain jersey tomorrow morning he was forced to withdrawal today with a case of hypothermia.

The stomach bug that is traveling through the peloton the last few days has really done some damage. The list of causalities today will be the story tomorrow morning as we see who will be unable to enter the starting block for the time trial.

Without question this was a huge win for Rollins, as well as being a great showing for the whole Toyota United team.

STAGE RESULTS

OVERALL RESULTS

PHOTO GALLERY

Rollins Drops the break

Astana takes up the chase

Stage 4 Podium

Rollins with the Podium girls