Amgen Tour of CA 2012 Stage 7

Stage 7 of the 2012 Amgen Tour of California was destined to be the decisive stage of the race. The first few stages, while hilly, came down to a sprint finish, with Peter Segan dominating each of the sprints and taking an early race lead. The fifth stage, the individual time trail in Bakersfield, went to Dave Zabrizkie, the perennial TT power in the US. At that point "Z" was in yellow. The 6th stage to Big Bear, was again hilly...but no so hilly...that the GC contenders could make up time on Zabriskie...or separate themselves from the other GC favorites. So it came down to Stage 7... with nearly 10,000 feet of climbing in just over 70 miles...and a decisive last few, very steep kilometers to the Mt Baldy ski area. With Zabriskie having over a 2 minute lead on last year's winner Chris Horner, Chris had to do something spectacular to once again take the yellow jersey in the Amgen Tour of California.