May 2012
     
 

By Barry Boyce
CR Cycling Historians

 

 

Amgen Tour of California website

[ Photo by Doug Pensinger ]

Also See CR's:

20th Century Timeline

Race Snippets

Top 20 Classics


 

 

 



Prologue – Sunday, February 17, 2008: Palo Alto, 2.1 mi / 3.4 km ITT
Team CSC’s Fabian Cancellara flew through Palo Alto prologue in 3’51” to win the stage.  In the process Cancellara became the first non-American to wear the ToCal race leader's jersey.

Stage 1 – Monday, February 18, 2008: Sausalito - Santa Rosa, 97 mi / 156 km
J J Haedo takes another stage win for Team CSC in Santa Rosa.  Cancellara retained the race lead thanks to his teammate's win. 

Stage 2 – Tuesday, February 19, 2008: Santa Rosa - Sacramento, 116 mi / 187.2km
Tom Boonen made easy work of a wet sprint finish in Sacramento and earned the stage win. Slipstream’s Tyler Farrar, trailing by only two seconds going into stage 2, gained a 3 second time bonus in the 2 intermediate sprints and took a 1 second lead in the overall CG. 

Stage 3 – Wednesday, February 20, 2008: Modesto - San José, 103 mi / 152.2km
Defending champion Levi Leipheimer took control of the Tour of California after breaking away on the climb of Sierra Road with Rabobank’s Robert Gesink.  The duo rode the final 18 miles together with Gesink taking the stage win.  Leipheimer took over the race lead. 

Stage 4 – Thursday, February 21, 2008: Seaside - San Luis Obispo, 135 mi / 217 km
Stage 4 featured horrible, non-California weather conditions with relentless rain, strong winds, and temperatures near freezing.  After nearly 7 hours of racing Canadian Dominique Rollin (Toyota-Untied) jumped away from breakaway partners George Hincapie and Iker Camano Ortuzar and soloed for a 19 second, epic stage win.  Race leader Levi Leipheimer slogged into the finish 2’28” later and retained the lead in the General Classification.

Stage 5 – Friday, February 22, 2008: Solvang - Solvang, 15 mi / 24 km ITT
Levi Leipheimer proves again he owns the Solvang time trial.  Facing a very strong field of time trial rdiers Levi blasted the 15 mile course in 30’47” beating Slipstream’s David Millar by 29 seconds.  Leipheimer extended his overall GC lead with 2 stages to the finish.

Stage 6 – Saturday, February 23, 2008: Santa Barbara - Santa Clarita, 109 mi / 175 km
Young Mark Cavendish (High Road) launched a strong sprint and seemed to win the stage, but a crash 8km from the finish caused problems.  Cavendish on a spare bike held onto the team car for an excessive time while chasing back to the peloton.  The race commissaries deemed the team car help to be illegal and penalized Cavendish 20 seconds.  The stage win went to Saunier Duval Luciano Pagliarini. 

Levi Leipheimer maintained the overall GC lead with one stage to go.

Stage 7 – Sunday, February 24, 2008: Santa Clarita - Pasadena, 93 mi / 150 km
George Hincapie redeemed High Road with a stage win.  After the Cavendish relegation on stage 6 Hincapie sprinted out of a small breakaway group to the stage win. 

Levi Leipheimer rolled across the finish line in the peloton 12 second behind and successfully defended Tour of California victory.

x Final General Classification

1

Levi Leipheimer (USA) Astana

29H24'32"

2

David Millar (GBr) Slipstream Chipotle

+49"

3

Christian Vande Velde (USA) Slipstream Chipotle

+1'08"

4

Fabian Cancellara (Swi) Team CSC 

+1'18"

5

Gustav Larsson (Swe) Team CSC             

+1'19"

6

David Zabriskie (USA) Slipstream Chipotle

+1'36"

7

Christopher Horner (USA) Astana  

+2'07"

8

Jurgen Vandewalle (Bel) Quick Step  

+2'11"

9

Robert Gesink (Ned) Rabobank   

+2'18"

10

Alexandre Moos (Swi) BMC Racing Team 

+2'27"


The Grand History of the Amgen Tour of California
2008


 

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