Tour of California - Stage 4: Sierra Road

Well, today is our last day here in California and we are making the most of it by catching the KOM at the high point of Sierra Road, just outside of San Jose, and then we are going to race around to Modesto and try to grab a spot near the finish line for what is shaping up to be an exciting stage. The action on Sierra Road was pretty awesome. Lars Boom of Rabobank led a fast break away over the mountains (picture below) but the peleton came rumbling up the road about 2 minutes later with Garmin and Radio Shack leading the charge (picture above).

All of the best riders in the race we're working hard in the heat getting up Sierra Road. Although it is not the longest climb of the race it is pretty steep and the pace that they we're taking was fast.

I really like this shot of Chechu Rubiera of Radio Shack. He is a great rider who has had a fantastic career as a domestique, riding primarily in support of Lance Armstrong at US Postal, Discovery, Astana and now Radio Shack.

Heinrich Haussler of Cervelo was making good time up the mountain despite being primarily known as a sprinter and one-day classics rider. He's been pretty quiet so far in the Tour of California but for his sake I hope that changes.

And taking up the rear of the race are the team cars. The riders are followed by a long procession of vehicles, some with seemingly no purpose in the race. One look at this Packed Kelly Benefits car though and it is easy to tell what it's doing here, carrying spare bikes for riders who are unfortunate enough to crash or have a mechanical.