Peter Sagan wins Tour of California opener

Peter Sagan (Tinkoff) added a 14th career Tour of California stage win on Sunday, sprinting to the stage 1 victory in San Diego ahead of Wouter Wippert (Cannondale Pro Cycling) and Dylan Groenewegen (LottoNL-Jumbo).

Sagan freelanced his way through the chaotic finale, coming from several riders back and surging into the lead in the final few metres before the line. The world champion will now start stage 2 in the yellow jersey he wore at the end of last year's race.

"Today was a good day; it was a little bit hard stage," Sagan said in the post-race press conference. "After 50-60 kilometers it was one long climb then descent, it was a little bit windy, but the temperature was good, cloudy but a little bit of sun, but not very hot. I am very happy to win today."

Sagan and his Tinkoff team benefited from a very motivated Katusha squad, which road the front all day long chasing down the early breakaway. Katusha was obviously hoping to set up sprinter Alexandre Kristoff for the opening victory, but the Norwegian sprinter finished a disappointing 16th. The Russian squad did get some help from Dimension Data and several other teams near the end, but Katusha put in most of the work, allowing Tinkoff to go into Monday's second stage with fresh legs to defend Sagan's leader's jersey.

But at the press conference, Sagan seemed to bristle at the idea that he is now in the driver's seat to defend his 2015 overall win.

"Today was a sprint, it's not for GC," he said. "Today was a very long climb, but it was in the middle of the stage, then it’s flat then the tough stages come the next days. For sure this year it will be very hard to be in the front in GC."

How it happened

The 175 km opening stage, which started and finished at Sea World in San Diego, featured two intermediate sprints and the category one climb of Honey Springs Road exactly halfway through the day. From there, the peloton had a generally downhill run to the finish.

A group of seven riders escaped within the first 10km, with Daniel Patten (Team WIGGINS), Daniel Eaton (UnitedHealthcare), Jacob Rathe (Jelly Belly p/b Maxxis), Joonas Henttala (Novo Nordisk), Danny Pate (Rally Cycling), Michael Sheehan (Jelly Belly p/b Maxxis) and Oscar Clark (Holowesko-Citadel) slipping away and building a gap of more than six minutes just 30km into the stage.

Katusha picked up the chase, obviously hoping to set up a bunch sprint for Alexander Kristoff, and Mark Cavendish's Dimension Data team threw a rider into the chase as well.

The Jelly Belly riders in the break relied on their superior number to put two riders in the points at the first intermediate sprint, where Sheehan took maximum points ahead of Eaton and Jelly Belly's Rathe.

The peloton was feeling stingy on the opening day and started slowly bringing the leaders back. With 110km remaining, the gap was down to just above five minutes. It came down steadily as the break climbed to the day's first KOM, where Clark took top honours ahead of Rathe and Pate to secure the first mountains jersey of the race. But the escapees adventure started to look doomed as the gap plummeted to just 2:20 with about 65km to go.

The gap came down to two minutes shortly after, but Katusha feathered the effort so as not to bring the breakaway back too early, and the gap shot back up to 2:50 with 55km to go.

Dimension Data threw several more riders into the chase, and stabilizing the gap to keep the peloton within striking distance of the break.

The situation remained stable until the final intermediate sprint of the day, where Sheehan took the top points again. Back in the chase, the increased cooperation among multiple teams brought the gap down to 1:30 with 33km remaining.

Rathe felt the pressure and jumped away from the group with about 27km to go, opening up a small gap, but he was quickly joined by Clark and Patten. An attack from Clark with 10km to go dropped Patten, leaving Clark and Rathe alone in front, but their efforts were doomed as the peloton pulled them back in the final 5km to set up Sagan's sprint win.

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