After the race, a barrage of camera flashes captured a Hollywood moment on the awards stage when Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger congratulated Cipollini, who, at 41, is the oldest rider in the race.

"This is just the start. There’s more to come," Rock Racing Team Owner Michael Ball said. "We expect to win a stage before this race is over."

Rock Racing started the race with only five riders after race organizers excluded American Tyler Hamilton, Columbian Santiago Botero and Spaniard Oscar Sevilla. But despite riding with less than a full eight-rider squad, Rock Racing remains 10th (of 17 teams) on the team classification.

 

Slipstream's young gun Tyler Farrar took over the yellow jersey from Fabian Cancellara (CSC). Farrar finished third and second in the two intermediate sprints earning the three total seconds he needed to move ahead of race leader Fabian Cancellara (High Road) by one whole second. After 115+ miles of racing, the 23-year-old even managed a respectable 6th place for the finish in Sacramento. He was proceeded by a who’s who of sprinters that included Tom Boonen, JJ Haedo, and none other than the Lion King himself, Mario Cipollini.

Slipstream's sports director Jonathan Vaughters was clearly happy with his team’s performance. "Today was complicated. There were any number of scenarios that could have played out," he said. "But we came and got the job done."

Teammate and co-owner of the Slipstream squad, David Millar said at the start of todays third stage: "Yesterday it was the whole team that got that jersey. All the details, the planning, and hard work - it all added up for us." Millar continued by saying: "This is just the beginning of what we continue to do this week and in the months and years ahead."

The rain meant that the Team CSC riders did not want to take any chances at the end of the stage and they were up front during the final laps in Sacramento. However CSC sprinter JJ Haedo suffered a flat on the second to last lap, which meant the battle for positions ahead of the sprint, took place without Team CSC.

"We actually had things pretty much under control, but with JJ's flat the plan didn't work out like we wanted it to. Fabian [Cancellara] gave him his wheel and even though they both managed to fight their way back to the others, it was no longer possible to line anyone up the way we'd wanted. Tomorrow's stage is the toughest in the race and the fact that we do not have the jersey could actually turn out to be to our advantage, because we won't have to focus on that from the start."

The Toyota-United Pro Cycling Team opened the windows to stage two with a soggy bottomed race day that began in Santa Rosa. The team was raring to go after a daring finish by Dominique Rollin in Stage 1. Toyota - United's sports director Pettyjohn said, "After our strong finish yesterday, I think we again are in a great position to finish strongly in the Santa Rosa to Sacramento stage.  This stage suits our game plan for a strong finish today." The finish was fast and furious and once again Rollin, made a good showing coming in 7^th place.

Todays third stage will prove difficult with Mt.Hamilton looming large with the 4000 foot climb for the boys in red, white, and blue. Toyota- United's Ben Day is looking to improve his overall position in the general classification for the team with a strong showing tomorrow as the riders make their way to San Jose from Modesto. Henk Vogels (Toyota - United) on tomorrows race said, "Because the riders like to start the season in a place like California where the racing isn’t that hard; this year for some reason they put Mt. Hamilton in and I don’t understand the reason for that, I don’t understand why they did that, no rider really wants to go up climbs that long in early February but that’s the way it goes." It will prove another long ride in the 8 day, and yes we will only be halfway through the California experience after tomorrow’s ride.  Let’s hope for some drier conditions.