By Chris Baldwin

SAN LUIS OBISPO, CA /Feb. 23/ Glen Chadwick rode the longest break of today’s fourth stage of the Tour of California, pairing up with Discovery’s Vladimir Gusev on a southbound escape down Highway One. In bright blue skies and only the lightest of winds they left a small and fading breakaway with 45 kilometers remaining in the race and tried mightily to hold them off until the end.

The 210-kilometers covered by all of the riders today made this the longest day of racing. For almost five hours the attacks and counterattacks came as each team tried to apply pressure on an undulating and twisty course with nothing but the ocean and Asia to the west.

The Navigators Insurance Cycling team is the only Continental Pro squad in America with an international racing calendar and an international lineup of riders. At the Tour of California the Navs have two Russians, two Aussies, a Canadian, a Ukrainian, the Irish national champion and one American.

@##=#<1,L>@##=#It was 10 a.m. when the peloton left Monterey this morning. The dampness of this coastal city is remarkable, and most of the cyclists wore two or even three layers in spite of the cloudless sky. A southwest wind blew into their faces on the two parade laps through John Steinbeck’s fabled Cannery Row, and the turnout of fans was as boisterous and alive as the characters in that famous novel.

After a neutral section the Navigators quickly assimilated into the bunch, rolling with a series of punches doled out by the other teams. With so much road ahead, energy was best conserved for the latter half.

Punch after punch was landed on the body of the race, and an endless number of attacks and counterattacks came in quick succession. It seemed as if the instructions emanating forth from each team car in the caravan was the same: Get in the break. If you aren’t in the break, chase the break, then get in the next break.

And so the riders got into the break and chased the break and then got in the next break. By the 112th kilometer this had become tediously repetitive, though not without its merits. The group was softening up, the theoreticians were unfolding their midgame strategies, the duration of each break was longer and less frenetically attended to by a maturing peloton. Navigator Ben Brooks held his own in a short-lived break between kilometers 90 and 98 through a feed zone until a restless peloton led by Floyd Landis’ Phonak closed it down.

“It was like that all day. That was my second break, and I felt pretty good in it. The plan yesterday was to save the legs for something opportune, but today there were too many GC guys getting into the breaks and that wouldn’t let us stay away. I still feel good, so maybe tomorrow is the another chance for me to get into a breakaway and maybe get five or ten minutes,” said Brooks.

@##=#<2,R>@##=#The break that finally stuck was the one enjoined by Glen Chadwick, who refused to be cowed by the chasers and stayed away for more than 45 kilometers. His traveling companion was young Vladimir Gusev, and the two of them established, maintained, and even improved their gap from 45 seconds at first to almost two and a half minutes at its largest. Trading pulls evenly and with ample strength, they took no pleasure from the deep cerulean blue of the Pacific Ocean. When race radio announced that whales had been sighted off the coast, Chadwick’s only reaction was to flick his elbow and call for Gusev to come through for his pull.

Back in the field Phonak had relinquished the lion’s share of chasing to other teams with stage win ambitions. Chadwick and Gusev, rolling along at 44 kilometers an hour, took advantage of every clean line on the road past Cayucos, their backs now to the ocean, as they turned inland towards San Luis Obispo and the finish.

The clearest objective for the two was a chicane off of Highway One and on to the city streets of this verdant college town. The zigzagging turn was technically difficult and remains almost impossible to describe. Starting on a curving slope up and to the left, the riders would have to crest the camber of a graded road to the right, then flip their weight across the top tubes of their bikes as the lanes changed back to the left at 90 degrees. Then a sharp left again, this time at an oblique 110 degrees, but banking again down and to the right. In sequence it was up right, down left, up left, down right.

For two riders this would be simple, and little to no time would be lost in execution. But for a pack of 120 intent on reeling in a break and then sprinting for the win, this turn would most definitely string out and cause even the most experienced of professionals to cease pedaling for the duration. A group would go that much slower through the turn, giving a break that much more time to get home for the victory.

@##=#<3,L>@##=#Chadwick knew this, and no doubt Gusev was being told something similar on his radio. With the sprinters’ teams now lining up at the front of the pack, a simple game of schoolyard chase was now underway. Who would get to the chicane first and be all-in-free to the finish?

“Me and the Discovery guy went up that hill and tried to get as big a gap as we could and tried to hold them off, but at the very last downhill they caught us at the top. That’s the way cycling works, that’s what the teams are supposed to do, just catch the break before the finish. We just went turn for turn, and I seemed to be going a bit stronger than Gusev on the climbs, but we both did a pretty even job. He’s a strong guy, too. At the end of the day I feel a little bit knackered. Sore neck, sore legs. But it doesn’t matter, tomorrow’s another day,” said a grimy but content Chadwick.

Caught with just five kilometers to go, Chadwick came in with the back of the peloton, losing a little bit of time as the hurly burly of the sprint pushed wide open the lanes of arrival. He came in with his head held high, a warrior with his shield and sword still firmly in hand.