Lachlan Morton's attack from the select climbing group about halfway up the Gibraltar climb during Tuesday's queen stage at the Tour of California looked promising for the 24-year-old Australian.
His visions of stage glory didn't pan out, however, when Peter Stetina, who had tagged onto Morton's attack, jumped away in the final 2km and left the Jelly Belly-Maxxis rider behind.
Stetina was eventually caught and dropped by stage winner Julian Alaphilippe (Etixx-QuickStep), while Morton struggled up the final kilometres and ended up seventh on the day, 35 seconds behind the winner.
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As he slumped on the side of the road past the finish line, rehydrating and trying to cool down form the day's effort, Morton said Stetina's decision to attack him rather than work with him likely cost each of them a chance for the stage win and the yellow jersey, which is now Alaphilippe's property.
"I attacked with about 5km to go, just to see what would happen," Morton told Cyclingnews. "Pete Stetina came with me but he didn't really want to ride. He sort of sat on and attacked. I got back on him and he didn't want to ride. He attacked again, which probably ended up costing him the stage. If we had worked together it could have been a different story, you know.
"But that's his loss," Morton said, "and my loss as well."
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