Amgen Tour of California: Peter Sagan surges to victory on the opening stage
Sagan adds a 14th win at the Tour of Califoria to his palmarès
World champion Peter Sagan (Tinkoff) took an emphatic win on the first stage of the Tour of California bidding his time before opening the throttle to take a narrow win over Wouter Wippert (Cannondale) and Dylan Groenewegen (LottoNL-Jumbo). Sagan takes the race lead and will look to add to his 14 career wins at the Tour of California on Stage 2.
The peloton rolled out of San Diego for the 175-km opening stage that featured a 9.5-km climb up Honey Springs Road. A break of five riders escaped in the opening kilometers composed of Daniel Patten (Team Wiggins), Daniel Eaton (UnitedHealthCare), Jacob Rathe (Jelly Belly), Joonas Henttala (Novo Nordisk) and Danny Pate (Rally) that grew when Michael Sheehan (Jelly Belly) and Oscar Clark (Holowesko-Citadel) joined. Sheehan scooped up full points at the first intermediate sprint while Clark took the first KOM points of the race assuring himself a trip to the podium in San Diego. Sheehan also took the second intermediate sprint after the KOM.
Behind Katusha working for Kristoff, Etixx-Quick with Tom Boonen and Dimension Data with Mark Cavendish back in the peloton after briefly falling off the pace on the climb brought down the gap. By the last 10-km, Katusha had disappeared from the front as Team Sky, Tinkoff and BMC Racing came to the fore to set up their sprinters.
Inside 3-km to go LottoNL took the lead of the peloton and reeled in Clark and Rathe, the last survivors from the days break. With a headwind in the final stretch, Sagan used his bike handling skills to jump from wheel to wheel before opening up with a final burst to speed to take the victory.
The riders travel 148.5-km from South Pasadena to Santa Clarita on Stage 2. The route features 3,400-m of climbing. The GC riders will get a chance to stretch their legs but with 30-km after the final climb peaks-out expect a reduced bunch sprint.
