Zabriskie, who missed this year’s Tour de France because of a broken back, dropped out about halfway through the 152-mile route. McCartney dropped out about 90 minutes later.
Zabriskie was at the rear of the peleton when the cyclists passed through the Great Wall for the first time after about 2 hours, 12 minutes and having completed roughly one-third of the total route.
He dropped farther back soon after, and abandoned the course with five laps remaining, but after helping chase down a breakaway pack to keep U.S. teammates Levi Leipheimer, George Hincapie and Christian Vande Velde somewhat near the front.
“I stayed as long as I could stay,” Zabriskie said. “Of course I wanted to stay longer and help those guys more, but 30 guys got away and we didn’t have anybody there and I tried to react as quick as possible. We were going fairly quick. It’s better to shut a group out like that fairly quick.”
After Zabriskie departed, McCartney also got involved in a chase and eventually fatigued in the arduous conditions, with 81-degree heat and 90 percent humidity.
But like Zabriskie, McCartney helped keep the rest of the peleton close.
“We didn’t have anybody in that front group and I talked to George and Levi and if we didn’t start riding right away, they would have been gone by 10 minutes,” McCartney said. “So we needed to keep it down, keep it close, keep them in contact, which we did.”
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