Two words really sum this stage up “Damn Hard!!”

Stage 4 of Redlands was the biggest stage of 192km in total with 2,200 meters of climbing. Personally I had been eyeing this stage to try and get into the breakaway along with our guest rider Bailey. As he was trying to get more KOM points to keep his lead for the jersey. Lets say this was 100x times harder than what we thought it was going to be. After the Time Trial the GC was really only down to ~30ish guys. Now everyone else seem to have the same idea about being in the breakaway. For 45mins to an hour I tried getting in moves but never got any room to get away.

Jet Fuel/ Norco was having some bad luck right from the first lap up the climb though. Yuri got caught behind a big split in the field. Then when he was chasing with his group in the caravan one of the riders got smoked by a team car going around the corner. Yuri was unable make it back to the main group, and wasn’t able to make the time cut!!

Finally the break of the day got away two hours (90km) into the race. CRAZY I know!! Full gas for two hours!!! Once the break of 11 guys got away it built up and gap of almost 5:30 minutes. Again with the bad luck on the second lap with Rob getting a flat in a corner and ended up crashing into a curb full speed.

Third Lap: Kevin got caught in a crash in the feed zone and was unable to continue.

Fourth lap: Anton broke a spoke going up the false flat and just so it happened at that time the 2nd Neutral support car for the main field was not in the caravan. He ended up riding broken wheel to feed zone for new wheel and having to chase the rest of the race to make the time cut!

Final Lap: With 40km to go and gap of still 4+ minutes it looked like the winner was going to come from the breakaway. But in bike racing nothing is ever over until it’s over!! Hincapie came to the front and closed this gap within 30km. With 15km to go I dropped knowing that I had spent a lot of energy early on in the race. The eventual winner ended up being Travis McCabe from Team SmartStop, with the win he took over the Yellow jersey. Ryan finished 11th with the field and kept his high position on GC.

Next up is a technical crit which will surly be fast and furious!!