Tour of California: Cavendish wins opening stage

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Mark Cavendish won the blazing fast opening stage of the 2014 Tour of California by a razor-thin margin over Gent-Wevelgem winner John Degenkolb (Giant-Shimano) in Sacramento. The Omega Pharma-Quickstep rider took the win and first race lead after race officials reviewed the photo finish, winning by mere millimeters.

Moreno Hofland (Belkin) got past Tour of California stage win record-holder Peter Sagan (Cannondale) to take third. Cavendish now leads the general classification over Degenkolb heading into Monday's 20km individual time trial in Folsom.

"I won Milan-San Remo by 10cm and I knew I won," Cavendish said, recalling some of the other close finishes in his career. "I lost a stage of the Giro by three centimeters and I knew I had lost. Today was the first time in my career that I didn't know the result until it was confirmed to me. John was strong in the finale, but my team did the perfect job to keep me in good position. I'm very happy with the win today."

Cavendish and his Omega Pharma teammates were not simply waiting for a bunch sprint on the 198km stage. Just before the day's breakaway of six - Tom Leezer (Belkin), Isaac Bolivar (UnitedHealthcare), Charles Planet (Novo Nordisk), Will Routley (Optum), Matt Cooke (Jamis-Hagens Berman) and Tao Geoghegan Hart (Bissell Development Team) - were caught, Omega Pharma conspired with Team Sky to split the bunch in the crosswinds and try to shatter the field. The move succeeded, and a small lead group of about 22 riders that peeled away caught the breakaway with 54.6km remaining.

With the original breakaway riders and others falling back, the lead group consisted of 18 riders, including Sky's Bradley Wiggins, sprinters Matt Goss (Orica), Hofland and BMC's Greg Van Avermaet. Cannondale, which missed the group, waited patiently before putting in an effort to close down the gap.

Despite the best efforts of Omega Pharma's Tom Boonen, Wiggins and Taylor Phinney (BMC), the winds did not favor the split, and by 22km to go the peloton was back together.

"I figured it would come back, but it was a good group," Phinney said. "It was too bad for us because we didn't have [Peter] Stetina in that group, otherwise Greg and I would have given it full gas. The Omega Pharma guys were pulling hard, and obviously Sky was with Wiggins. If Wiggins hadn't been there we could have gone faster, but we all knew it was a headwind run into the finish, and there are a lot of teams here that want to do a sprint."

Attacks flew over the next 10km, but only one: Jacob Rathe (Jelly Belly-Maxxis), Keil Reijnen (UnitedHealthcare) and Gregory Daniel (Bissell) was non-threatening enough to stick. Reijnen was the last man caught with 4km to go as the peloton flew around the three finishing circuits in downtown Sacramento.

Cannondale took control of the sprint, but Sagan's team left it too late, and it was Degenkolb and Cavendish who rocketed to the line, side by side. Degenkolb had an early advantage, but he couldn't hold off the final charge to the line from Cavendish.

"My team did a great job to do a perfect lead out for me, and I had to do a good sprint in the end," Degenkolb said. "Sometimes it's just one or two centimeters, but you can feel it straight away. It was very close today. I knew that [Cavendish] was right behind me, but I also new that I was going to do a long sprint. I planned it well; I didn't go too early or too late.

In the end, I saw him on the right side coming. Slowly but surely he was there. I knew at the line he won, that I was too slow."

Optum's Routley won the sole mountain sprint to take that jersey for the next two stages, finishing off the team's plan heading into Monday's time trial.

"There was no shortage of wind today," Routely said of the day's major challenge. "We wanted to go for the KOM because we could have the jersey for two stages with no KOM tomorrow."

Cavendish took the lead in the points classification along with the overall race lead. Bissell's Geoghegan Hart now leads the young rider classification thanks to the time bonuses taken out on the road. Novo Nordisk's Planet earned the jersey for most courageous rider.

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