While most of the GC riders struggled in yesterday's Tour of California time trial that was won by Bradley Wiggins in superior fashion, Tiago Machado had a very good ride to finish in the top 10. Having recently climbed extremely well in the Giro del Trentino, the Portuguese could turn out to be Wiggins' biggest rival.

 

The second stage of the Tour of California was conducted as an individual time trial in Folsom yesterday. Olympic champion Bradley Wiggins (Sky) raced the course over 20.1 kilometers with the fastest time. Rohan Dennis (Garmin – Sharp) reached the second place with a gap of 44 seconds already. Local hero Taylor Phinney (BMC) completes the podium.   Team NetApp – Endura leader, Tiago Machado, stormed to a great seventh place. With David de la Cruz on rank 14 and Iker Camano on rank 18, even two further climbing specialists were able to reach the Top20. Before the tour’s first mountain top finish, Machado is ranked 6th in the GC now.

  

“The time trial today ended with a very good result for us,” said Alex Sans Vega, Sports Director of Team NetApp – Endura, after the race. "The performance from the team and especially Tiago was really good. We can be more than satisfied with the outcome as it leaves the whole team in a good position. We wanted to have several options open after the time trial and now we have three riders in the Top20.

 

"For tomorrow I don’t expect too large gaps between the favorites, as the mountain is not too hard to climb. If our plan is rolled-out perfectly, we have the chance to see Tiago and David in the Top10 in the GC after Mt. Diablo."

 

Today’s stage can be seen as a preliminary decision for the race’s overall classification as it leads the peloton up to Mount Diablo. After the start in San Jose, close to the headquarters of the team’s first naming sponsor NetApp, 174.5 kilometers must be raced.

 

It only takes 32 kilometers to the first climb of the day, Mount Hamilton which is categorized as a hors category climb. After the descent the riders go north to the final climb of the day. NetApp – Endura returns with good memories to the mountain-top-finish on Mt. Diablo as Leo König took the victory in the queen stage of last year’s race right here.