Rock shocks ToC as Mancebo escapes to victory

Francesco Mancebo riding for Rock Racing stunned the field in stage one of the Tour of California when he escaped early in the stage and then stayed clear to grab the win in dramatic style in a final sprint for the line.

The Rock team have been rearded as something of a joke by cycling fans, but no-one was laughing after yesterday's stage. The fickle nature of road racing was further underlined when prologue winner and race leader, Fabian Cancellara abandoned at the first feed station with a fever. Yesterday's dramatic race left Mancebo at the head of the general classification with Levi Leipheimer handily placed a minute back, Lance Armstrong is in fifth place.

The Spaniard rode the first 30km of the break on his own before being joined by two other escapees: OUCH Pro Cycling's Tim Johnson and David Kemp (Fly V Australia) at one stage their lead extended to over 12 minutes over the chasing peloton. With 45 miles to go Mancebo dumped the other two one the second category climb of Howell Mountain Road.

The peloton wouldn't or couldn't participate in chasing Mancebo down so it was left to an elite group containing most to the race favourites to try to chase him down. They had him pegged back to three minutes at the start of the final 10 lap circuit but a break from within the group broke things up when the gap was down to less than a minute. Vincenzo Nibali (Liquigas) and Jurgen Van de Walle (Quick Step) jumped across to catch Mancebo but incredibily the Spaniard found the strength to attack again sprinting to take the stage.

Afterwards there was a certain amount of criticism of the organisers over both the standards of communication within the race and the fact that the way the finish times were counted in regard to the general classification was changed on the road. Initially organisers had planned to count GC times on the finish with one lap remaining, (and let the race run out for stage placings) but then they changed that to counting from the first time the riders crossed the finish line – which left less time to chase Mancebo down and increased his time gain on the GC.

One thing the organisers couldn't be blamed for was the weather, as last year the racers endured rain and cold winds throughout the stage and the forecast is for more of the same.

Top 10 Stage 1 ToC
1 Francisco Mancebo (Spa) Rock Racing 4.11.07 (41.383 km/h)
2 Vincenzo Nibali (Ita) Liquigas 0.01
3 Jurgen van de Walle (Bel) Quick Step
4 Levi Leipheimer (USA) Astana 1.07
5 Michael Rogers (Aus) Team Columbia - Highroad
6 Jens Voigt (Ger) Team Saxo Bank
7 Christopher Horner (USA) Astana
8 Steve Morabito (Swi) Astana
9 Oscar Sevilla (Spa) Rock Racing
10 Andy Schleck (Lux) Team Saxo Bank
11 Lance Armstrong (USA) Astana

Top 10 General classification after Stage 1
 1 Francisco Mancebo (Spa) Rock Racing 4.15.46
2 Levi Leipheimer (USA) Astana 1.02
3 David Zabriskie (USA) Garmin - Slipstream 1.03
4 Michael Rogers (Aus) Team Columbia - Highroad
5 Lance Armstrong (USA) Astana 1.05
6 Christopher Horner (USA) Astana 1.09
7 Thomas Lövkvist (Swe) Team Columbia - Highroad 1.13
8 José Luis Rubiera (Spa) Astana
9 Vincenzo Nibali (Ita) Liquigas
10 Robert Gesink (Ned) Rabobank 1.14