Cavendish wins California opener

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Mark Cavendish claimed the opening stage of the Amgen Tour of California, being delivered to the line in an armchair ride from HTC-Columbia team-mate Mark Renshaw. Cavendish bested Saxo Bank's Juan Jose Haedo and BMC's Norwegian Alexander Kristoff in downtown Sacramento after 167.8km of racing. 

Garmin-Transition's Robbie Hunter eased up before the line and fell to fourth place on the stage, while Fly V Australia's Jonathan Cantwell claimed fifth.

Cavendish as always gave full credit to his team for delivering him to the win, and the tribute was fitting for this stage as Mark Renshaw not only dropped him at the perfect point, but the rest of the team kept him near the front in what was a hectic final 10km.

"We took control of the race all day," Cavendish said. "There were a couple teams that helped and a couple inexperienced teams that took over, but we're experienced and we knew when we had to take control. We got swamped a couple of times [toward the finish], but all I had to do was follow Renshaw's wheel and cross the line first, really.

"If I'm delivered to the right place then I will cross the line first,” he added. “The most satisfying thing about winning is knowing I can deliver to my team-mates who did the hard work."

The victory was only the third season win for the normally prolific British rider. His last came in the Tour of Romandy where he saluted with a rude gesture and was pulled from the race by his team.

"I was going to celebrate three wins this year [with a special salute], but I couldn't do it, so I just did a normal celebration," he said. "To be honest I don't think about my celebrations too often. I switch off my emotions during the race and it all comes out as I cross the line. It might look staged, but it's always pretty impromptu."

Cavendish explained that his relative lack of results so far this year was not just due to the tooth infection he suffered earlier in the year, but also because his season's plan was tailored to have a later peak for the Tour de France and the International Cycling Union (UCI) World Championships in October.

While he said his form is coming along, the beginning to the stage was a bit more difficult than a typical "sprint stage", featuring only one classified mountains but a number of hills that were not much easier in the first half of the stage.

"The course was hard. We were all saying to each other 'this is supposed to be a sprint stage?' But I can get over the climbs if I want to, and if there's a chance you can smell the finish line, then with the help of the team you can get there.

"The pressure's off for me now, from now on we'll be looking at the GC,” he added. “Mick Rogers is on some of the best form of his life, so hopefully we'll get some more stage wins - not only from me."

Cavendish also donned the overall leader's yellow jersey thanks to the time bonus on the line.

The closing circuits claimed numerous victims due to crashes, including Quick Step's Tom Boonen. The Belgian fell in the final kilometre and was seen favoring his shoulder as he slowly got up off the ground.

Neither Cavendish nor Haedo saw any of the chaos that was unfolding behind them as the wrecks split the peloton into several pieces on the last lap.

"I was immediately behind HTC-Columbia train and was so focused on Cavendish's wheel, I didn't hear or see anything," Haedo said. The Saxo Bank sprinter was a bit disappointed to miss out on the win, but was philosophical. "Naturally the goal was to win today, not only for the stage but to take over the leader's jersey. But to beat Mark Cavendish is not as easy as it looks on TV."

Cavendish attributed the wrecks to the nervous first stage where too many riders were taking risks. "The circuit itself wasn't dangerous, it was the mayhem that was going on that was dangerous.

"There were a lot of people dive-bombing in the corners,” added Cavendish. “I knew they were going to crash because of the number of people taking risks, but I suppose in my former years I did the same thing."

For Kristoff his third place finish was not only a massive feat just to avoid crashing and get into the jersey of best young rider, but also the biggest result of his career to date.

"I've won my national championships, but this is the best result of my career, and I'm very pleased with that,” said the Norwegian. “I think my level is getting better every year. I'm not so good in the climbs, so I don't expect to keep this more than one day."

Big crowds greet first stage

The Amgen Tour of California got off to a brilliant start, as the sunshine and warm weather of May was a welcome replacement for the cold rain of last year's start in February. A huge crowd was on hand to see the peloton off from the historic mining town of Nevada City for a deceivingly difficult stage down to Sacramento.

The 128-rider peloton hardly had time to get off the start line before Quick Step's star sprinter Tom Boonen had a flat. The race crossed the 0km mark still neutral as Boonen made his way back to the bunch, the riders perhaps thanking the Belgian champion for sparing them from having to race up the steep pitch out of downtown.

The break of the day went clear after a roll-out which included white-knuckle descents through the neighboring town of Grass Valley. It wasn't until the unclassified climb of Rattlesnake Road seven miles in that four riders managed to escape the clutches of the peloton on the ascent along the narrow, tree-lined country road.

Maarten Tjallingii (Rabobank), Chad Beyer (BMC), Marc De Maar (United Healthcare) and Paul Mach (Bissell) were the lucky foursome, and while they were chased for a time by William Dicknson (Jelly Belly), Scott Stewart (Team Type 1) and Jay Robert Thomson (Fly V Australia), the chasers never made the junction on the dangerous, steep descent that followed the crest.

The four leaders gained a maximum of 5:50 minutes over the undulating first 30 miles of the stage. The HTC-Columbia team did the largest share of the work to control the gap in order to bring the race down to a sprint for its speedster Mark Cavendish.

The first sprint of the day went to Tjallingii, who also took third place behind Beyer and De Maar in the second intermediate sprint, thereby putting himself into a position for the sprint jersey.

On the first sole KOM of the day, a steep, heavily spectator-lined ascent from the American River, BMC's Mach claimed the maximum points over De Maar and earned the right to don the first mountains jersey.

The four came back together on the descent and continued to work well together through ranch country, passing rolling fields dotted by horses and cows. However, with the largely downhill profile heading to Sacramento, their lead began to drop steadily.

HTC-Columbia led the peloton, aided at times by Jelly Belly, Cervelo, Spidertech and Kelly Benefit Strategies teams, but the chasers let the quartet dangle off the front until the final 10 miles, slowly eating the advantage down into seconds rather than minutes. De Maar was the last aggressor and put in an attack as the four were finally caught before the start of three two-mile long finishing, but as the peloton entered downtown Sacramento it was gruppo compatto.

While the domestic teams had brief times at the front on the closing three circuits, it was all HTC-Columbia as the group went through with 1km to go. But as the last lap commenced, Saxo Bank came over the top with Jens Voigt and Fabian Cancellara powering to try and deliver Haedo to the line.

A crash on the final lap took out Andrew Pinfold (United Healthcare-Maxxis) before HTC-Columbia re-assembled and resumed controlling the pace.

Garmin's Robbie Hunter battled elbow to elbow with Theo Bos (Cervelo), Liquigas moved up Francesco Chicchi as crashes began to splinter the field in the turns on the final circuit. Crash victims included Tom Boonen, who won a stage in Sacramento in 2008, Stuart O'Grady of Saxo Bank, Dominique Rollin of Cervelo Test Team and BMC Racing Team's George Hincapie. The four riders, plus Pinfold, all returned to their bikes and finished the race.

But the sprinters were right where they needed to be, and Mark Renshaw delivered Cavendish across the line for his first stage of the Amgen Tour.

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