Hollidaysburg, PA - Such are the vagaries of the bunch sprint. With 300 meters to go and well positioned on teammate Greg Henderson's wheel, Karl Menzies of the Health Net Pro Cycling Team Presented by Maxxis almost had his day - and potentially his race - come to an end when another rider managed to catch his front wheel on the buckle of Menzies' shoe.

"I almost went down," Menzies said. "He almost went down. I had to stop pedaling, and the buckle on my shoe actually broke. Hendy didn't know it happened and he kept going with the lead-out." Amazingly, once Menzies was free again, he still finished strongly enough to take 3rd on the stage, and the four-second time bonus that came with it. J.J. Haedo (Toyota-United) took the win ahead of Sergey Lagutin (Navigators).

The short, fast stage saw an early break go, which allowed Health Net Presented by Maxxis to set tempo on the front of the field, then bring it back to set up the sprint. "The finish was pretty chaotic," Menzies said. "There was a climb about 1.5 km from the finish and then it was downhill to the line. There were a couple tight corners toward the end and a lot of people had a go at the sprint."

The stage results didn't affect the top end of the general classification, however Menzies was able to add four seconds to his lead over his closest rivals. Frank Pipp (TargetTraining) remains in second at 0.09, while Henderson is in 3rd place, 0.20 behind Menzies. Lagutin's six-second bonus moved him from 14th into the top five, indicating how closely bunched the top 20 riders on GC remain after four stages.

Friday's stage will be similar to today's, though slightly longer at about 77 miles. The team will again look to let another non-threatening break go up the road early to settle down the peloton, and work to bring it back for the sprint. "The race will probably come down to Saturday," Menzies said of the Queen stage of the race, which includes three significant climbs over 93 miles, including an ascent up the steep side of Blue Knob, as well as sections of dirt road.

Official Results