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Thousand Oaks, Calif. (February 25, 2006) - With
today's sixth stage of the Amgen Tour of California presenting the final
few climbs of the eight-day race, Kodakgallery.com/Sierra Nevada's Dominique
Perras went on the attack just two miles into the race and again on the
steep climb of Balcolm Canyon Road.
Getting away early in a group of seven riders with Sven Krauss (Gerolsteiner),
Scott Davis (T-Mobile), Brice Jones (Jelly Belly), Mike Jones (Health Net
p.b. Maxxis), Karsten Kroon (Team CSC), and Justin England (Toyota-United),
Perras initially was optimistic about the break's chances, with Viatcheslav
Ekimov (Discovery Channel) close to making contact.
 Perras
said afterwards, "We went hard from the start and we were rolling really
well. Ekimov was 10 seconds back but Krauss didn't want to wait so [Ekimov]
never made it. Discovery Channel started chasing, but I think we would have
rolled away if Ekimov was with us."
After Perras took third in the first KOM and second in the next one at Lake
Casitas, the group was caught on the descent towards Ojai.
Having spent several winters training in Ventura County, Perras was motivated
to leave his mark on today's stage and attacked again on the steep slopes
of Balcolm Canyon Road in an attempt to bridge up to solo leader Sebastian
Lang (Gerolsteiner).
"Lang was two minutes up the road and I was hoping that a few guys would
come with me. I knew all the roads today and this was the stage I targeted."
Although Perras gained almost two minutes over the field, he remained about
a minute behind Lang before succumbing to the chase led by T-Mobile and
Toyota-United.
After three finishing circuits at Amgen's corporate campus in Thousand Oaks,
Kodakgallery.com/Sierra Nevada's Jackson Stewart was seventh wheel in the
closing kilometers, but was pushed into the wind by Robbie Hunter (Phonak)
and placed 15th in the field sprint won by Olaf Pollack (T-Mobile).
On a day in which his repeated breakaway attempts were smothered, Ben Jacques-Maynes
finished in the field and remains in 25th overall.
"I was ready to go today but sometimes your luck just runs out. I did what
a I could for Jackson at the end though."
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