San Luis Obispo, CA - At 130 miles with three KoMs, most people might have thought the fourth and longest stage of the Amgen Tour of California wouldn't have ended in a bunch sprint. But it did. Gord Fraser of the Health Net Pro Cycling Team Presented by Maxxis was well positioned for the finish, with the line coming just 200 meters after a difficult hard left turn.

"There was a T-Mobile guy just to my inside and I really didn't think anyone would go any further inside him," Fraser said. "But then J.J. (Haedo, Toyota United) did, and Fred (Rodriguez, Davitamon-Lotto) went inside him, too. I had to check up and just scrubbed too much speed to really contest the sprint from that close in to the finish. It all happened really fast."

Instead, Fraser finished fourth behind stage winner Haedo, but despite not winning the stage, he was content with his ride. "I think I actually gained a bit of confidence today," he said. "My legs felt good today after 130 miles. I do feel pretty good about it."

Scenic, but no time to enjoy it

Though the stage was 130 miles - covering some of the most spectacular scenery in the world along California's rocky coastline from Monterey to San Luis Obispo, it finished in an almost absurdly fast 4:41, a pace approaching 28 mph. They covered the first 50 miles in about 1.5 hours.

"Gerolsteiner lit it up almost from the gun," said Nathan O'Neill, who is sitting 5th overall, but just two seconds ahead of Gerolsteiner's Levi Leipheimer.

"Even the 10-mile neutral start was fast," Mike Sayers said. "Everyone was complaining. But it was an epic stage, a great stage. Our team rode really well today."

"The stage could've been really bad if the weather hadn't cooperated," O'Neill added. "But it went okay. I didn't have to do too much work today other than keeping pace in the bunch."

Hayden Roulston agreed with O'Neill - and everyone else on the team - that it was a difficult day of racing. He bridged up to one of the earlier breaks that ended up staying away for nearly 70 km. "(Chris) Horner (Davitamon-Lotto) bridged up to our group so we really weren't going anywhere," he said. "If he hadn't been up there the bunch might have let us stay away." Roulston, who sits in 22nd overall at 4:31, would've been the highest placed rider in the break had Horner not joined the group.

Once Roulston's group was caught, a number of attacks went off, with one gaining about 1:15. It wasn't until the remnants of that last break were about to be caught that another serious break went away, this time with Vladimir Gusev (Discovery) and Glen Alan Chadwick (Navigators) performing a two-man time trial away from the group.

The duo opened up a lead of 2:25 at one point. But with 30 km to go, Health Net Presented by Maxxis went to the front along with Toyota and T-Mobile to gradually bring the two riders back.

Sayers, Mike Jones and Tim Johnson did much of the work. "My first instinct was to go hard to bring them back," Jones said, "but Tim slowed me down a bit so that we timed the catch for inside 10 km to go. That way, the sprinters' teams could take over the front, the pace would pick up and there would be less of a chance for a break to try and sneak away, which would save us from doing more chasing."

Once the bunch got off of Highway 1 inside of 3 km to go, Roulston and Greg Henderson found Gord to try and set up a lead-out train for the Canadian. But Fraser noted that nobody could really get anything set up. "It was chaos." Instead, the sprinters were mostly left to freelance the finish.