Tour of California: Skujins wins stage 5

Tom Skujins (Cannondale) claimed stage 5 of the Tour of California to South Lake Tahoe in a three-man sprint against Adam de Vos (Rally Cycling) and Xabier Zandio (Team Sky).

The trio were the survivors of the early break and held on to contest the sprint. Skujins, who won a stage in the race last year, kicked for the line during the uphill sprint and held on, with Vos second and 39-year-old Zandio in third.

In the race for the overall, Julian Alaphilippe (Etixx Quickstep) finished safely in the main field to hold onto his leader’s jersey ahead of the all-important time trial on stage 6. The top 10 remained largely the same, with Peter Stetina (Trek-Segafredo) keeping second place at 22 seconds and George Bennett (LottoNl-Jumbo) third at 37 seconds to the GC contenders, only best young rider Neilson Powless (Axeon Hagens Berman) lost time, dropping to sixth from fifth after giving up 20 seconds in the finale.

In the past-race press conference, Skujins, 24, pointed out that the stage he now last year also started in Lodi. 

"Two wins and two wins from Lodi, coincidence?" he joked with assembled reporters and photographers. "We'll have to start a stage next year from Lodi so I can come back."

Trek-Segafredo's Jasper Stuyven threatened to spoil the lead trio's day with a late race surge that brought him close, but the rider up front poured on enough power to hold off the winner of Kuurne-Brussells-Kuurne.

"We heard that Jasper was coming up, but you know that at altitude after an effort like that even if he comes up he’s going to be cooked, so no one was really worried," an always confident Skujns said. "We just kind of looked at each other for a bit, and I wasn’t sure how far we were so I didn’t really want to start my sprint too early, especially at altitude. But once we came around the corner I was pretty sure I could get this."

Tour of California Stag 5 Highlights

How it unfolded

With pleasant temperatures and sunny skies, the peloton set out with a light tailwind from Lodi with 212km of racing on their plate. Once again, the pace was furious from the start, with the flat first 42km covered in less than an hour. An 18-rider breakaway escaped at kilometre 23, and worked surprisingly well together to build up a solid advantage.

Maxime Bouet (Etixx - Quick-Step) was the best placed rider in the GC at 4:19, and he was joined by teammate Nikolas Maes (Etixx - Quick-Step), ,Adam Blythe (Tinkoff), Xabier Zandio (Team Sky), Jacques Janse Van Rensburg (Dimension Data), Jacopo Guarnieri (Katusha), Danilo Wyss (BMC Racing), Mark Christian and Owain Doull (TEAM WIGGINS), Toms Skujins (Cannondale), Jasper Stuyven (Trek-Segafredo), Angelo Tulik (Direct Energie), Caleb Fairly (Giant-Alpecin), Dylan Groenewegen (LottoNl-Jumbo), Christopher Jones (UnitedHealthcare), Logan Owen (Axeon Hagens Berman), Jacob Rathe (Jelly Belly p/b Maxxis), and Adam de Vos (Rally Cycling).

Bouet added to his advantage by taking the three second time bonus at the first sprint.

The breakaway's maximum lead went over five minutes before the other WorldTour teams agreed that they couldn't let Etixx stack the GC with riders this way, as Bouet began to threaten the top three. With Holowesko-Citadel and Novo Nordisk the only teams missing the breakaway, Trek, LottoNl-Jumbo and BMC grudgingly threw some weight into the pursuit.

As the road began to tilt upward toward Carson Pass - 2615m in altitude and 164.5km into the stage, the pace dropped steadily, the previous day's long effort, the altitude and the long climb weighing down on the leaders.

It wasn't until the Kirkwood summit that any action came from the breakaway: De Vos attacked with Skujins, taking out the mountain points and temporarily splitting the lead group.

It all came back together, after de Vos repeated his performance on the next KOM at Carson Pass, but behind them the breakaway had split. Eight riders were left when it came together - but most of the chasers caught back on a few kilometers later.

Skujins went again with 32km to go, and seemed content to go solo to the finish, but seemed a tad relieved when de Vos came across with Zandio. The trio worked perfectly together well into the final kilometer before fighting for the stage win.

Behind, Stuyven, Guarnieri and Mark Christian attempted to bridge the gap, but it was too little, too late. The peloton turned on the gas in the final 10km, with Taylor Phinney (BMC) taking massive pulls. They finally swept past all but Stuyven in the approach to the line.

De Vos jumped first, but Skujins took out his second Tour of California career win. Zandio was a distant third, while Stuyven came in 28 seconds down for fourth, just 15 seconds ahead of the charging peloton.

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