Super Sergio up to fifth
Last Updated: 17/05/15 12:14am
Sergio Henao jumped up to fifth place overall at the Tour of California after a storming time trial ride on stage six.
Sergio Henao jumped up to fifth place overall at the Tour of California after a storming time trial ride on stage six.
The Colombian served notice of his intentions with a time of 12 minutes and 57 seconds around the 10.6-kilometre course, good enough for seventh quickest on the day and taking time out of a number of key rivals.
The ride puts Henao in a prime position heading into Saturday's decisive summit finish on Mt. Baldy, 55 seconds behind stage winner and new race leader Peter Sagan (Tinkoff-Saxo).
Taking top honours by 15 seconds, the Slovakian unseated Jos Van Emden after the LottoNL-Jumbo rider had topped the leaderboard for the best part of two hours. Sagan now takes an advantage of 28 seconds into the queen stage.
There were a number of other impressive performances from Team Sky riders, with Pete Kennaugh clocking a time just 13 seconds back on his team-mate to also remain firmly in the GC picture. Christian Knees again put in a competitive and consistent ride, 18th on a much shortened course in Santa Clarita.
The stage had originally been set to take place on a 24.3km circuit up at Big Bear Lake, but with heavy snow forecast the organisers made the advance decision to reschedule the TT.
Good position
"It was a really good time trial from Sergio," said Sports Director Servais Knaven after the stage. "He finished seventh which is a really impressive ride. For GC it's perfect. We're really pleased about that and he's really happy with how he rode.
"It's still very tight. We've got guys like (Julian) Alaphilippe still 10 seconds ahead. Robert Gesink is one second back on Sergio. So the GC guys are still quite bunched together and final climb tomorrow will be decisive. Anything can happen but Sergio's in good form and good shape. He has a great starting point for tomorrow and he's riding with confidence.
"Pete is also still pretty high up on GC too which is good as you never know what can happen. Tomorrow is going to be a really tough finish. The final 6km average more than 8% so it's a really difficult climb. There will be some time gaps I'm sure of it. Everyone is up for it and ready to go!"
