Race leader Fabian Cancellara has abandoned the Tour of California
The Saxo Bank rider climbed off his bike at the feed zone on stage one, suffering from a fever. Cancellara won the prologue by two seconds from American Levi Leipheimer in Sacramento yesterday, but said he had already been feeling off colour for several days.
The Swiss rider took to the start after waking up and feeling sick during the night, but decided to call it a day soon in to the stage in what were terrible conditions in northern California. Heavy rain has fallen pretty much throughout the day with temperatures low to boot.
Levi Leipheimer becomes the virtual race leader on the road but that that is likely to change by the time the sprint bonuses are won on the finish line.
The stage finishes in Leipheimer's home town of Santa Rosa today.
2009 TOUR OF CALIFORNIA: LINKS
STAGE REPORTS
Prologue: Cancellara Express derails the Armstrong show
NEWS & FEATURES
Tour of California blog
Armstrong and Astana train for Tour of California
Mark Cavendish: Rider Profile
Lance Armstrong: Rider Profile
PHOTOS
Cycling Weekly photo gallery
2009 TOUR OF CALIFORNIA PREVIEW
2009 Tour of California race preview
Start list: all the riders
Team list: all the squads
2009 TOUR OF CALIFORNIA STAGES
Saturday, February 14 Prologue details
Sunday, February 15 Stage one details
Monday, February 16 Stage two details
Tuesday, February 17 Stage three details
Wednesday, February 18 Stage four details
Thursday February 19 Stage five details
Friday, February 20 Stage six details
Saturday, February 21 Stage seven details
Sunday, February 22 Stage eight details
EXTERNAL LINKS
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