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Rory Sutherland’s third place on the mountaintop stage-four finish may have surprised many fans, but flying form in California has been the plan for 2011 for the 29-year old since his seventh overall finish last year. His third place behind Chris Horner and Andy Schleck on the very selective stage also serves as a return to the top level of the sport for the pragmatic Australian.

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VIDEO: Race highlights from stage 4 of the Amgen Tour of California

Taylor Phinney checks in with Brian Holcombe on the literal ups and down of the Amgen Tour of California.

From stage 3 of the Tour of California, we have analyzed the power data from UnitedHealthcare’s GC leader, Rory Sutherland.

MODESTO, Calif. (VN) — A clear stratification of teams often exists at races the size of the Tour of California. The WorldTour teams more or less run the show, with the smaller teams forced to fight for scraps. With the overall win all but off the table, the little guys go for stages and TV time.

Race highlights from stage 3 of the Amgen Tour of California

Winning on American soil is nothing new for Greg Henderson, Team Sky’s Amgen Tour of California stage 2 winner in Modesto.

Is it possible for riders to have top form to race the Tour of California and the Tour de France in the same year? We ask the big names of the sport.

Stage3

• 1. Gregory Henderson, Team Sky , in 05:14:29
• 2. Juan Jose Haedo, SaxoBank-Sungard, at s.t.
• 3. Thor Hushovd, Garmin-Cervelo, at s.t.
• 4. Peter Sagan, Liquigas-Doimo, at s.t.
• 5. Leigh Howard, HTC-Highroad, at s.t.

GC

• 1. Gregory Henderson, Team Sky , in 08:01:31
• 2. Ben Swift, Team Sky, at s.t.
• 3. Peter Sagan, Liquigas-Doimo, at 00:00:04
• 4. Juan Jose Haedo, SaxoBank-Sungard, at 00:00:04
• 5. Thor Hushovd, Garmin-Cervelo, at 00:00:06

A five-minute video highlight of stage 2 of the Amgen Tour of California.

Ben Swift (Sky) took the first stage Monday, but weather remained the big story for at the Amgen Tour of California. Monday’s stage covered just 61 miles from Nevada City to Sacramento after winter weather forced changes to the race for the second consecutive day.

BMC's Mike Sayers talks about his emotions upon returning to his hometown of Sacramento in the Amgen Tour of California.

Taylor Phinney California diary, stage two

After a commanding last-lap leadout from Team Sky, 23-year-old Ben Swift launched off the wheel of teammate Greg Henderson to take his fifth stage win of the year. After the finish, the young man from Rotherham, England was quick to track down his teammates for bear hugs.

Ten days after riding the May 7 L’Etape du California — the organized, mass-participation ride covering the stage 7 route of this year’s Amgen Tour of California — I’m still trying to wrap my head around the difficulty of the final 5km climb to the Mount Baldy Ski Area, where the stage finishes.

With the effects of yesterday's snowstorm lingering over the Lake Tahoe area, organizers of the Amgen Tour of California moved the start of stage 2 from Squaw Valley to Nevada City. Also the start will be delayed until 12:15 from 10:15.

Brian Holcombe talks to bundled-up riders at the Amgen Tour of California about their feelings on riding and racing in foul weather.

BMC's Taylor Phinney is checking in with Brian Holcombe of VeloNews every day from before the start of the Amgen Tour of California. Here is the first video.

Outspoken RadioShack rider Chris Horner believes he comes to the Amgen Tour of California with some of the best condition of his near 20-year career, and he predicts that either he or his teammate, Levi Leipheimer, will win this year’s race.

Following up on the popular success of the first bike test issue in April, the VN Bike Lab returns with four endurance bikes tested head to head. For this review, we lab tested bikes for torsional stiffness and vibration damping, and then we took them to Europe to ride and race in the cyclosportifs of the Tour of Flanders and Paris-Roubaix. We then ranked the bikes in eight categories. Subscribe today!

Team Type 1 is flying high following the dramatic overall victory at the Tour of Turkey in what's the team's first win of the season and the most important success in the squad's history.

Colombian UCI Continental team Movistar will not be attending the Amgen Tour of Calfornia, race organizer AEG Sports told VeloNews Monday.

A reader wants to know why Floyd Landis is being sued in Switzerland and what would happen if he lost.

Quarq, makers of the CinQo crank-based power meter, announced today that it has been bought by SRAM.

Collective currently has 14 members (see list below). This small group of leaders within the custom frame building community has reached an agreement with the UCI to reduce the cost of the frame and fork approval process.

Women's stage 4

• 1. Clara Hughes, Pactimo Cycling Team, in 1:07:02
• 2. Lauren Tamayo, Peanut Butter & Co.twenty12, at s.t.
• 3. Patuzz Eleonora, Diadora-Pasta Zara Team, at s.t. U26
• 4. Heather Logan-Sprenger, Colavita/forno D'asolo, at s.t.
• 5. Modesta Vzesniauskaite, Colavita/forno D'asolo, at s.t.

Men's stage 4

• 1. Joseph Lewis, Trek-Livestrong, in 1:34:14 at s.t. U25
• 2. Alejandr Borrajo, Jamis Sutter Home P/b Colavita, in 1:34:14 at s.t.
• 3. Aaron Kemps, V Australia Pro Cycling, in 1:34:14 at s.t. U25
• 4. Dan Summerhill, Chipotle Development Team, in 1:34:14 at s.t. U25
• 5. Anibal Borrajo, Jamis Sutter Home P/b Colavita, in 1:34:14 at s.t.

Women's GC

• 1. Clara Hughes, in 9:47:43 Pactimo Cycling Team
• 2. Mara Abbott, in 9:49:36 at 0:01:53 Diadora-Pasta Zara Team
• 3. Rhae Shaw, in 9:50:51 at 0:03:08 CycleU
• 4. Janel Holcomb, in 9:51:08 at 0:03:25 Colavita/Forno d\'Asolo
• 5. Alison Starnes, in 9:52:00 at 0:04:17 Peanut Butter & Co.TWENTY12

Men's GC

• 1. Francisco Mancebo, in 9:19:44 Realcyclist.com Cycling Team
• 2. Ben Day, in 9:20:59 at 0:01:15 Kenda/5-Hour Energy Pro Cycling p
• 3. Luis Amaran, in 9:21:24 at 0:01:40 Jamis Sutter Home p/b Colavita
• 4. Dale Parker, in 9:21:37 at 0:01:53 Trek-LIVESTRONG
• 5. Lachlan Morton, in 9:21:47 at 0:02:03 Chipotle Development Team

The UCI has called on the Spanish Cycling Federation (RFEC) to open disciplinary proceedings against Vuelta a España runner-up Ezequiel Mosquera.

Costa Rican Andrey Amador will miss next month’s Giro d’Italia after cracking his left collarbone in Thursday’s first stage at the Vuelta a Asturias in northern Spain.

The same afternoon that Philippe Gilbert was winning the Flèche Wallonne atop the notorious Mur de Huy last Wednesday, another French-speaking rider was taking a hilltop stage victory at the Giro del Trentino in the Dolomite mountains of Italy. That would be Thomas Voeckler, the current French national champion, notching (like Gilbert) his sixth win of the year and cementing his leadership of the 2011 UCI Europe Tour.

LIÈGE, Belgium (VN) – The peloton returns to the scene of the Stockeau massacre in a race for the first time Sunday. The descent of the Ardennes climb was the site of the massive crash that led to the neutralization of stage 3 at last year’s Tour de France.

LIÈGE, Belgium (AFP) ─ Defending champion Alexander Vinokourov has ruled out a concerted effort in the peloton to stop race favorite Philippe Gilbert from winning Liège-Bastogne-Liège.

The Nature Valley Bicycle Festival, which features the Nature Valley Grand Prix NRC stage race, is adding a gran fondo run over the same route as the race's fifth stage on June 18.

Stage

• 1. Roman KREUZIGER, (CZE) Astana, at 4:09:03
• 2. Emanuele SELLA, (ITA) Androni Giocattoli-Serramenti PVC Diquigiovanni, at 0
• 3. Yaroslav POPOVYCH, (UKR) Team RadioShack, at 8
• 4. Thomas VOECKLER, (FRA) Europcar, at 24
• 5. Tiago MACHADO, (POR) Team RadioShack, at 24

GC

• 1. Michele SCARPONI, (Italy) Lampre-Farnese Vini, in 13:54:07
• 2. Tiago MACHADO, (Portugal) Team RadioShack, at 7
• 3. Luca ASCANI, (Italy), at 33
• 4. Domenico POZZOVIVO, (Italy) Colnago-CSF, at 35
• 5. Steve MORABITO, (Switzerland) BMC Racing Team, at 38

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WALSHOUTEM, Belgium (VN) – Leopard-Trek has been denied in all but one of the spring classics this year. While their top focus is on Sunday’s Liège-Bastogne-Liège, Andy and Fränk Schleck on Tuesday reaffirmed their plans to be aggressive in the finale at La Flèche Wallonne on Wednesday.

Must Reads: NASCAR star honors fallen cyclists, Gilbert eyes the Tour and Boogey can skate

BOULDER, Colo. — "The Athlete's Guide to Recovery" is the first and only comprehensive exploration of the art and science of athletic rest.

Several team directors walked out of a UCI meeting in Brussels Monday protesting the way the sanctioning body is dealing with disagreement over its race radio ban.

HTC-Highroad's Ina-Yoko Teutenberg continues to rack up the wins in the 2011 season, with victory number five of the year coming on Sunday in a bunch sprint of the Ronde Van Gelderland in Holland.

World champion Emma Pooley won’t be able to repeat her 2010 victory at Flèche Wallonne this year due to a broken collarbone, Garmin-Cervélo reported Sunday.

VILT, Netherlands (VN) – Greg Van Avermaet carried the hopes of BMC Racing into the Amstel Gold Race Sunday.

Mark Zalewski shoots the Cutters' fifth straight victory at the Little 500.

Little 500 men’s race

• 1. Cutters
• 2. Phi Delta Theta
• 3. Sigma Chi
• 4. Delta Tau Delta
• 5. Acacia

Little 500 women’s race

• 1. Teter, 100 laps
• 2. Pi Beta Phi, 100
• 3. Delta Gamma, 100
• 4. Army Women, 100
• 5. Wing It Cycling, 100

• 1. Jimmy CASPER, (FRA) Saur-Sojasun, at 4:32:10
• 2. Romain FEILLU, (FRA) Vacansoleil-DCM, at 0
• 3. Aidis KRUOPIS, (LTU) Landbouwkrediet-Colnago, at 0
• 4. Leigh HOWARD, (AUS) HTC-Highroad, at 0
• 5. Denis FLAHAUT, (FRA) Roubaix Lille Metropole, at 0

The Omega Pharma-Lotto team announced Thursday that it had fired Matthew Lloyd for "recent incidents during the first races disputed in 2011."