Sagan wins in Santa Cruz

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Peter Sagan (Liquigas-Cannondale) made it two from two to claim his second stage win at the Amgen Tour of California Monday. The Liquigas sprinter extended his lead in GC with the win, while Heinrich Haussler (Garmin-Barracuda) and Leigh Howard (Orica-GreenEdge) picked up second and third.

Sagan was once again head and shoulders above of his competition, and like yesterday's stage 1, when a puncture threatened to derail his chances, he was thrown into jeopardy with a crash on the penultimate climb of the day.

Despite the spill, and a string of mechanical pit stops back at the team car, Sagan was perfectly placed inside the final kilometres. Rounding the final corner it was every sprinter for himself, and as Sagan used his handling skills to slingshot for the line. Howard was simply left for dead, and Haussler was only able to come through for second.

Sagan admitted that he may have surprised even himself with the strength in the finish.

"With two climbs in the end of the stage today, I am really happy to win," he said, celebrating his fifth stage win at the Tour of California. "I was thinking when I was still in the front group on the last climb I would try and win another stage. I knew the last corner was close to the finish so I decided to take the turn from the first position, and I won the stage."

How it unfolded

Just as with the opening stage, the attacking began immediately after the bunch rolled out of the neutral start through the San Francisco's Presidio in the shadow of the Golden Gate Bridge.

Alexandre Geniez (Argos-Shimano) and Tom Zirbel (Optum Pro Cycling-Kelly Benefit Strategies) attacked off the front and built an advantage of two minutes before Geniez decided not to contribute. The pair eventually sat up as the field bore down on them and brought them back into the fold on Highway 101 along the Pacific Ocean.

A group of six riders immediately counter attacked and established the breakaway that would stick together until they turned away from the coast and headed up toward the Bonny Doon climb. Geniez once again made the break, along with Brad White (UnitedHealthcare), Jeremy Vennell (Bissell Pro Cycling), Mike Creed (Optum Pro Cycling-Kelly Benefit Strategies), Lloyd Mondory (AG2R) and Juan Pablo Suarez (Columbia Coldeportes).

"The break rode well," White said. "There wasn't a big chase behind, so we rode fairly easy until they started chasing. When they started chasing we picked up our pace."

The gap opened up to more than nine minutes before the Bonny Doon climb but quickly evaporated as the ascent broke apart the breakaway. Geniez, White and Vennell, who started the day just 10 seconds behind the overall leader, dropped their three breakaway companions and set off on their own. But Geniez seemed unhappy with the trio's pace and attacked the group, getting away and trying his luck alone.

"A few of us tried to get away on Bonny Doon," White said. "But the Argos guy was just stronger. Vennell and I tried to limit our losses and re-catch him, but we weren't able to. We held off as long as we could."

The Argos rider kept the peloton in check until the higher slopes of Bear Creek, the second climb of the day. With Garmin-Barracuda intent on shaking off Sagan the gap quickly came down, and with 35 kilometres to race, Geniez was brought back, and large group of more than half the original peloton screamed off the slopes of Bear Creek behind a line of Liquigas-Cannondale riders hoping to deliver Sagan to the finish in Santa Cruz.

Another crash in the lead group during the closing kilometres took down current US pro champion Matthew Busche and several BMC riders. Busche, who had been riding well up to that point, looked a little battered and bruised – and very disappointed.

"I don't know what happened," Busche said. "I was behind it and ran into it. I'm frustrated and a little sore."

The crash didn't affect the tip of the race as Liquigas continued to pour on the heat for Sagan, and the young Slovak rider rewarded their efforts with yet another Tour of California stage win.

Haussler, who finished second in as many tries, said that the large group at the finish may have been surprising, but it didn't make a difference in the result.

"I don't think the result would have been any different had it been a group of 30 or 40," Haussler said. "Peter Sagan and Leigh Howard were the main sprinters, and they were still there."

Howard moved up one spot from his fourth-place finish on stage 1. Orica-GreenEdge team director Neal Stephens said he was happy with the improvement, and the team would try to find a way to get past Sagan if the opportunity presented itself again.

"We're going to try and look for a way," Stephens said. "He's a very talented bike rider, so are many other bike riders out there as well. We've just got to try and look for a way to improve a little bit. We went one better today. Yesterday (Howard) had a little bad luck. He broke a rim coming into the finish. Today he had a pretty good run. The boys did a great job and so that's the main thing, if we do a good job we can hope to improve."

But they're running out of chances to get past Sagan in a sprint, as the slippery Slovakian phenom figures he might have another day in yellow before the big mountains come and he'll have to surrender his ambitions to work for his team leader.

"I'm very happy with this Tour of California," Sagan said. "It is starting very well for me. I would like to say thank you to my team for the good work they did for me. I am thinking there is maybe one more day for me before we start the harder climbs and we work for Vincenzo Nibali, but we will see."

The Amgen Tour of California continues Tuesday with 185.5 km stage from San Jose to Livermore.

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