Napa’s Euser cycles to exciting finish in Stage 4

By ERIN LAWLEY
Register Sports Writer

Napa native Lucas Euser and six other cyclists led Stage 4 of the Amgen Tour of California for close to 180 kilometers Thursday.

Though it’s an unwritten rule that when the overall race leader pulls over to urinate, the rest of the peloton doesn’t make a break, two riders did so when Levi Leipheimer (Discovery Channel Pro Cycling Team) stopped 30K into the race.

Once Leipheimer jumped back on his bike, Euser (Team Slipstream Powered by Chipotle) and four others caught up to the front two and kept the breakaway going until 5K left in the stage. They reached more than a three-minute gap from the peloton but once they got close to Morrow Bay, the peloton started closing in.

Euser said much of that had to do with the lack of cooperation of the breakaway riders.

“The hardest part came in the last 20K,” Euser said. “The gap was coming down and we wanted to stay out there. We brought it back up and we thought we had it.”

With 12K left, Euser suffered a “mechanical” — in this case, a flat tire.

“That was the most inopportune time to get a flat,” Euser said. “I had a slow leak on the front and when it hit the rim I changed it. It was hell getting back on, but when I got back I told them to keep working, because I knew the roads.

“It was hard when the group started attacking each other. People are stupid when they start doing that. I kept telling them that if we work together we’ll make it. If we don’t we’ll go backwards. We got caught with 5K to go. If we’d worked together a little bit longer, we could have made it. Oh well, for another day. I don’t plan on stopping. Saturday’s another day.”

Euser finished in the main peloton with a time of 5:05.47 and stands in 53rd place overall — 3.36 minutes behind Leipheimer, who will keep his yellow jersey another day. Euser finished second on the first and third King of the Mountain but beat Christophe Laurent (Credit Agricole) in the second. The KOM points were Euser’s first of the tour, which puts him at third with 12 points. Laurent leads the pack with 26 points — 12 of which were earned in Stage 2 while crossing the Napa Valley.

Finishing the day in San Luis Obispo mirrored Euser’s experience on Tuesday, when he rode some of the same roads he grew up on. The Cal Poly graduate was welcomed by friends on the sprint to the finish, though he admitted much of those last few minutes was a blur.

“I was pretty much cross-eyed trying to finish,” Euser said. “A lot of people were up there. They were watching the big screen. It’s cool to know there’s that much support.”

Euser credited his outstanding performance to both the support he had in San Luis Obispo but also that he was unhappy with his performance on Wednesday in Stage 3’s trek from Stockton to San Jose.

 “I didn’t do so hot yesterday,” Euser said. “I felt like I mentally gave up. I wanted to redeem myself. I also knew that today we were going into San Luis Obispo and might as well give it a go.”

Euser added that after the race he felt “pretty worked” but expected to be fine after his routine massage.

Today is a 14.5-mile individual time trial in Solvang and once done, Euser will have more time to recuperate. He admits he’s not the best time trialist and plans on finishing at the slowest time under the time limit.

“I don’t want to push too hard, and have time to recover for Saturday,” Euser said.

He wants to save his energy for Saturday, when he’s back in his domestique saddle helping teammate Danny Pate toward the front and geting Tom Peterson back the KOM jersey. Pate is just 28 seconds behind Leipheimer and Peterson is tied for second with 16 KOM points.

“That’s why I came here — I’m 100 percent for the team,” Euser said. “These guys are riding better than I am. There will be a time I’ll be riding better than them. It’s a trade off.”

Paolo Bettini claimed a tight sprint victory and Leipheimer maintained his overall race lead for the fifth day. Bettini (Quick-Step/Innergetic), competing in the United States for the first time in his career, surged in the final 100 yards to complete the 213.4K stage in 5:05:47.

Gerald Coilek (T-Mobile) was second in the stage and Juan Jose Haedo (CSC) of Argentina, the second stage winner, was third. Both had the same time as the winner.

Leipheimer, who assumed the race lead Sunday with his prologue win in San Francisco, finished 22nd in the main pack and kept his three-second margin over Jens Voight (CSC).

“I feel very confident and I think I’m the strongest rider in the race,” Leipheimer said.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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