The tears in Mark Cavendish's eyes at the podium presentation for stage 6 of the Amgen Tour of California on Saturday were not from joy, but frustration.

While the 22-year old High Road rider won the bunch kick in downtown Santa Clarita after the 105.4-mile journey from Santa Barbara, shortly before the ceremony race officials told the Brit he had been relegated to last place. His foul? Hanging onto a team car a few miles from the finish, while his bike was being fixed after a crash.

Cavendish celebrated his win, but would later be relegated.

Photo: Casey B. Gibson

Officials awarded the win to Saunier Duval's Luciano Pagliarini, the second man across the line. Race leader Levi Leipheimer retained his yellow jersey heading into Sunday's final stage.

Cavendish, who quickly hustled off to the High Road team bus, earned a 20-second penalty, a 50 Swiss Franc fine and an afternoon to forget.

As for Pagliarini, after he learned of the ruling he grabbed his Brazil flag for the podium ceremony. It will go in the books as his 11th career victory; his most recent coming at stage 5 of last year's Tour of Missouri.

"I’m very happy, but it's not like a win with your hands up," he said. "I'm not so happy as I would like to be."

Astana rules the day

The break rolls on toward Santa Clarita.

Photo: Graham Watson

The Golden State tour's penultimate stage opened under sunny skies, with Leipheimer’s Astana team charged with defending his jersey against riders from Slipstream-Chipotle and CSC.

With three team riders within two minutes of Leipheimer, Slipstream-Chipotle looked to be in the best position to challenge his lead.

But the argyle team kept its big guns — David Millar, Christian Vande Velde and Dave Zabriskie — below decks, at least until the final kilometers

As the peloton stretched its legs with a roll through the swanky Montecito neighborhood of Santa Barbara, the team sent Danny Pate and U23 rider Steven Cozza on the attack.

The escapees worked well together.

Photo: Graham Watson

Soon Cozza got himself in with Rory Sutherland (Health Net-Maxxis), Alexandre Pichot (Bouyges Telecom), Karsten Kroon (CSC), David Cañada (Saunier Duval-Scott) and Christophe LeMevel (Credit Agricole). The group separated themselves on the second rated climb, 20 miles in.

“Astana’s riding so strong right now we didn’t think they’d let a breakaway with one of us in it stay away,” Vande Velde said after the stage.

With Cañada, at 10.08 down, the biggest threat to Leipheimer's lead, Astana allowed the break a seven-minute leash for nearly 80 miles. The six worked together admirably, crossing Southern California’s Transverse mountain range intact. But with 15 miles remaining, Quick Step-Innergetic, High Road and Rabobank decided to bring them back so the team's sprinters could have a go. By the time the break entered the city and started in on three 1.8 mile finishing circuits, they had just over a minute on the stretched out peloton.

A view from the other side of the race.

Photo: Graham Watson

Sutherland, whose efforts earned him the day's most aggressive jersey, continued to push forward as the margin shrunk.

“I think if you stop believing you can make it, you might as well pull over and stop,” he said after the stage.

Heartbroken breakaway

On the final lap, after nearly 80 miles off the front, the breakaway was caught.

The break hits the finishing circuit.

Photo: Graham Watson

Slipstream-Chipotle then played its only remaining hand, launching David Millar — in second pace overall, 49 seconds behind Leipheimer — in a blazing counterattack, joined by Iker Camano (Saunier Duval-Scott) and Thomas Voeckler (Bouygues Telecom).

“It was an on-the-spot decision,” Millar admitted later.

The British champion put his time trial prowess to work, but the Quick Step-Innergetic squad shut the gap with less than a mile remaining, hoping to position Tom Boonen to lead out Paolo Bettini for the stage win.

Boonen jumped, spurring green jersey Dominique Rollin to fire his rockets as well. Cavendish, who was delivered to the front by a determined High Road squad, timed his kick best, passing Rollin with 100 meters to go and crossing the line with a solid gap.

Heartbroken sprinter

But an adrenaline-fueled incident in the hectic final laps returned to haunt Cavendish.

On the first of the circuits, Cavendish was at the front of the peloton, chasing down the break, when he swerved into Rock Racing's Mario Cipollini. The collision brought down Cavendish, Cipollini and Cipo's teammates Fred Rodriguez and Doug Ollerenshaw.

“I had nowhere to go,” said Rodriguez, who suffered extensive road rash and obliterated his rear wheel. “I basically T-boned Mario and went head-first into the pavement.”

Cavendish mounted a spare rig and chased behind his team car in the race caravan. He pulled alongside his car, holding on while a mechanic worked on his bike.

“I got on my spare bike but it had an 11-23 and it was adjusted for a 12 so I had it adjusted on the way back up,” he said.

Commssaires didn’t like what they saw. Cipollini was charged with a similar penalty.

“These are the rules that we all live by,” said Jim Birrell, head of Medalist Sports, the race’s production team.

Team High Road director Bob Stapleton did not agree.

“If you ask all of the athletes here, I think they’d agree that [Cavendish] won fair and square,” said “His team killed themselves to get him to the line and he showed a lot of heart and ability.”

The tour concludes Sunday with a 93-mile trip from Santa Clarita to Pasadena, where the 8-stage event will conclude with five laps around the Rose Bowl.

- The 2008 edition will undoubtedly be remembered for its high attrition. Saturday saw another 11 riders exit the race.

Jelly Belly’s Bernard Van Ulden crashed on a descent in Santa Barbara, breaking his collarbone. BMC rider Antonio Cruz dropped out sick after the first King of the Mountains climb.

Breakaway rider Kim Kirchen of CSC dropped out after the peloton reeled the breakaway in.

And Astana's Vladimir Gusev broke his right collar bone in a crash about 26km from the finish when he hit one of the so-called Bott's dots, the raised pavement markers that separate lanes. Three hours after the race Gusev underwent surgery to insert a plate and screws to stabilize the fracture. The team said Gusev, a team classics leader, is expected to resume training in ten days and return to competition in 3-4 weeks.