Rohan Dennis (Garmin-Sharp) did everything right in today's queen stage of the Tour of California by making a perfectly timed attack inside the final 500m of the steep Mount Diablo to take a beautiful solo victory. Having seen race leader Bradley Wiggins (Sky) pace the group of favourites for most of the final ascent, he countered a move by Adam Yates (Orica-GreenEDGE) and quickly put 20 seconds into the Sky captain to reduce his overall deficit to 21 seconds.

 

After his demonstration of force in yesterday's time trial, Bradley Wiggins had looked like an almost guaranteed winner of the Tour of California but after today's queen stage, the 2012 Tour de France winner has a good reason to be more concerned. Nearest rival Rohan Dennis issued a clear warning that nothing has been decided yet by taking an impressive win on Mount Diablo in today's queen stage.

 

Probably buoyed by his dominant performance in the time trial, Wiggins played with the muscles all the way up the climb, tapping out a hard tempo that gradually whittled down the group of favourites. Having been isolated rather quickly, the Brit went straight to the front and seemed to be almost at ease while his rivals dropped off one by one.

 

All the time Dennis was hiding near the rear end of the peloton but showed his intentions when he sent teammate Janier Acevedo up the road. Despite having a solid time gap to the Colombian, Wiggins again played with the muscles by significantly upping the pace to shot the move down immediately.

 

Only 11 riders were left in the group by the time they passed the flamme rouge to enter the final kilometre that was the only really steep part of the 16.2km climb. Averaging 17%, however, the final 500m had the potential to do some serious damage that both Wiggins and Adam Yates learnt in the hard way.

 

Just after the 500m to go sign, Yates launched the kind of acceleration that had seen him win the Tour of Turkey overall and he seemed to be riding away with the stage victory. However, his progress stalled completely by the time the road got really steep.

 

Behind, Dennis and Peter Stetina (BMC) had taken off in pursuit and while the latter started to suffer, Dennis had timed everything perfectly. He blew past the fading Yates and quickly opened a gap to all of his rivals.

 

Dennis crossed the line to take his first victory this year in solo fashion while Tiago Machado (NetApp-Endura) and Lawson Craddock (Giant-Shimano) both made great comebacks in the final few hundred metres to take 2nd and 3rd respectively. Yates held on to fourth while Acevedo rolled across the line in fifth.

 

Behind, Wiggins was paying the price for his big workload and he struggled dramatically on the final steep section. By the time, he crossed the line in 9th he had lost a massive 20 seconds of his 41-second advantage.

 

Hence, he now heads into tomorrow's fourth stage of the race with a much smaller 21-second gap to Dennis who solidified his runner-up position. Wiggins will be pleased to know that the next mountain challenge will come on stage 6 while the next few days are easier.

 

First up is the 165.1 km stage 4 that brings the riders along the scenic highway 1 from Monterey to Cambria. The rolling route has three small climbs but is mostly flat and unless the wind plays a role, it should be the final opportunity for the pure sprinters in this year's Californian tour.

 

The queen stage

After yesterday's time trial, the GC riders faced another very important test as the Tour of California continued with its queen stage. The stage brought the riders over 175.2km from San Jose to a finish at the top of Mount Diablo and it was certainly no easy affair. Right from the start, they went up the HC climb Mount Hamilton before taking a technical descent onto partly rolling, partly flat section in the middle of the stage. It all came to a dramatic conclusion on the 16.2km Mount Diablo whose average gradient of 6% was not overly difficult but the climb included a much steeper final section.

 

Again the riders faced sweltering heat when they took off from San Jose as the temperature reached a massive 36.5 degrees. There was one non-starter as Reinardt Janse Van Rensburg (Giant-Shimano) had travelled home to support his girlfriend who had been diagnosed with a kidney failure.

 

Routley on a misson

The riders headed straight onto the lower slopes of Mount Hamilton and already from the off the attacks started to fly. One of the first one was the successful one as 8 riders already had a 25-second gap after 2km of racing.

 

KOM leader Will Routley (Optum) had made it into the break and he was joined by David Lozano (Team Novo Nordisk), Maarten Wynants (Belkin), Jonathan Clarke (UnitedHealthCare), Paul Voss (NetApp-Endura), Robbie Squire (Jamis), Ruben Zepuntke (Bissell) and Luis Davila (Jelle Belly). After 7km of racing, they were 1.15 behind and they started to gradually open a bigger gap as they went up the long climb.

 

Sky take control

Sky assumed its position on the front of the peloton but they were not too concerned by the break. After 23km of racing, they had allowed the advantage to grow to 5.10 and they were still not trying to bring it down.

 

Near the top Clarke attacked in a quest to take maximum points but he was reeled in before the summit and instead it was Routley who extended his lead in the mountains classification by beating Squire in the sprint. Clarke was 3rd ahead of Davila, Lozano, Zepuntke, Wynants and Voss while Luke Rowe and Ian Boswell led the Sky train across the line 6.50 leater.

 

Lozano drops off

The peloton started to reduce the gap on the descent while Lozano was unable to follow his companions in the many technical turns. Meanwhile, it was announced that Sean Mazic (Jelly Belly) and sprinter Andrea Peron (Novo Nordisk) had abandoned the race.

 

The gap came down to 6 minutes but then the peloton again stepped off the gas and when they reached the feed zone, they were again 6.40 behind. That was the signal for Sky to start the chase for real and with 68km to go, they had the gap down to 4.50.

 

Sky set a steady pace

At this point, Lozano had rejoined the leaders while the Sky quartet of Rowe, Boswell, Nathan Earle and Danny Pate combined forces to keep the gap stable at around 5 minutes for a long time. With 48km to go, Routley decided to save energy for later and so he fell back to the peloton.

 

With 40km to go, Sky decided to up the temp and with 30km to go, they had brought the gap down to 3 minutes. By this time, the battle for position had really started, with all teams wanting to get onto the narrower road in a good spot near the front of the peloton.

 

Battle for position

The fierce battle brought along a crash that took down Charles Bradley Huff (Optum), Mathew Hayman (Orica-GreenEDGE) and Serguei Tvetchov (Jelly Belly) just 23km from  the line. They all got back on their bikes but it was impossible to get back to the main group that was speeding along and had the gap down to 2.30 with 18km to go.

 

At this point, Sky had been pushed away from the front position and it was Cannondale that led the peloton onto the narrower road. They were quickly replaced by BMC though, with Greg Van Avermaet and later Michael Schär setting the pace on the lower slopes of the climb.

 

The break splits up

Up ahead, the break splintered when first Clarke, then Zepuntke and finally also Lozano dropped off. Voss moved to the front to up the pace a bit more and this spelled the end for Wynants, leacing just four riders to press on.

 

While Schär continued to set the pace in the main group, Davila made an attack that only Squire could respond to. However, Voss refused to give up and as they hit an easier section of the climb. He rejoined the leaders.

 

Sky take control

With 13km to go, the gap was down to 1.10 and Schär suddenly opened up a small advantage. As the Swiss champion got away, Sky moved to the front, with Josh Edmondson setting a hard pace.

 

For a long time, it was a battle between Edmondson and Joe Dombrowski who set the pace in the peloton, and the front trio while Schär was stuck in no man's land. The gap, however, constantly came down and with 7.5km to go, it was just 25 seconds.

 

Wiggins hits the front

Schär had now been brought back while Squire decided to give it one final go. Voss quickly gave up but Davila continued to chase hard until he got back 6.7km from the line.

 

The Mexican champion made an immediate counter attack and while he soloed clear, Wiggins was now isolated in the group of favourites. The Brit went straight to the front and set a brutal tempo that discouraged all his rivals.

 

Jones makes his move

With 5.5km to go, he caught Davila and so it was down to a battle between the race favourites. The group gradually got smaller and smaller, with Tom Danielson (Garmin-Sharp) dropping off 4.3km from the lines.

 

With 4.2km to go, Carter Jones (Optum) made an attack but Wiggins didn't bother at all. He just continued his steady pace-setting and while Haimar Zubeldia (Trek) and Lucas Euser (UHC) fell off the pace, he brought the Optum rider back 2.2km from the line.

 

11 riders left in the group of favourites

The group of favourites was now down to Wiggins, Stetina, Dennis, Acevedo, Craddock, Machado, Yates, Esteban Chaves (Orica), Jones, Matthew Busche (Trek) and Laurens Ten Dam (Belkin) and it was still Wiggins tapping along on the front. 1.6km from the line, Acevedo made his move but Wiggins easily responded and reeled the Colombian in.

 

Wiggins led the group under the flamme rouge but shortly after passing the 500m to go sign, he came under pressure. Yates launched his brave move and while all riders started sprinting, Wiggins drifted backwards.

 

Stetina and Dennis were the nearest chasers of Yates and while the former faded, the latter continued past the young Brit to take a great solo victory. Wiggins struggled across the line in 9th, 20 seconds later, and saw his overall lead almost halved.