Rally Cycling's Evan Huffman won his second stage of the Tour of California, beating home Dave Lopez (Sky) and Nicolas Edet (Cofidis) from the breakaway. George Bennett finished safely in the bunch to secure the overall win ahead of Rafa Majka and Andrew Talansky.
Huffman, riding for the Continental Rally squad, again outfoxed his breakaway companions in the Pasadena finale with the sprint teams letting the breakaway stay away. Peter Sagan won the field sprint for sixth place at 22 seconds.
The 12th edition of the Amgen Tour of California will see the US race jump to the WorldTour level for the first time in 2017. The seven-day race, down from eight days in previous years, will take place May 14-20 in the Golden State.
Tour of California Race Route
Race owners AEG announced the Tour of California 2017 host cities, with Sacramento named as the site of the opening stage on May 14. Modesto will host the start of stage 2, which finishes in San Jose. Stage 3 leaves from Pismo Beach and finishes up the Pacific Coast in Morro Bay. Santa Barbara will host the start of stage 4, which finishes in Santa Clarita. Stage 5, dubbed the Queen stage, leaves from Ontario and finishes on Mt. Baldy. The race travels to Big Bear Lake for the stage 6 individual time trial, and it concludes on May 20 with a stage from Mountain High to Pasadena.
Tour of California contenders
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Two-time World Champion and 2015 Tour of California winner Peter Sagan, who also holds the record for most California stage wins at 15, has confirmed he will be at the 2017 race with his new team Bora-Hansgroe. The rest of the teams and riders for the 2017 race are not yet known.
UCI rules governing WorldTour events could prevent US Continental teams from competing, but it's not yet clear if the sport's governing body will make an exception for first-year WorldTour races like the Tour of California that would allow division III teams into the 2017 race.
