Sagan wins Tour of California stage to Pasadena

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It took seven stages, but Peter Sagan has finally added to his Tour of California tally, finishing off fine work from his Cannondale team to win the sprint in Pasadena over BMC's Thor Hushovd. Danny van Poppel (Trek) was third.

The general classification remained the same at the top 10, with Wiggins safely in the yellow jersey heading into the final stage. Rohan Dennis (Garmin-Sharp) had no chance to gain time on the Sky rider, while Lawson Craddock (Giant-Shimano) maintained his podium position in third.

Saturday's stage win marked Sagan's 11th at the Tour California and his 60th professional win.

"I am very happy for the victory because I am a finish man, and today we did very, very good work," Sagan said. "It's a very important victory for me and the team, because I am always near the front from the first stage; fourth place, second place is not good, no?"

The 146.5km stage from Santa Clarita to Pasadena began with the usual non-threatening breakaway but ended in a dizzying series of turns on the 5km city circuit.

Greg Van Avermaet (BMC), Ben King (Garmin-Sharp), Lars Boom (Belkin), Chad Haga (Giant-Shimano), Isaac Bolivar (UnitedHealthcare), Luis Lemus (Jelly Belly) and Eloy Teruel (Jamis-Hagens Berman) were the lucky riders to tackle the two classified climbs off the front. But Cannondale helped keep the gap to a minimum - theleaders only gained 2:35 before the long downhill run to Pasadena helped the peloton whittle down the gap to just 20 seconds by the entry to the circuit.

"I was kind of surprised the gap came down so much on the downhill," King said. "We had some big guys and some great descenders in that group. It was a little surprising to hear we were back down to 20 seconds, because I didn't think it was possible to go faster than we were on the downhill.

King and Van Avermaet, who was celebrating his 29th birthday, were the last survivors, and while there were a number of counter-attacks, it was always going to be a sprint.

"We didn't have too many minutes in front," Van Avermaet said of the late effort. "Just before we arrived at the circuit it was already 20 seconds, so we knew it would be hard. But once you're in the break you have to go full gas for it. I had a good guy with Ben King with me, and he was working pretty good. We tried to stay out front as long as possible."

Cannondale caught the leaders but eventually ran out of men for the finale, and Taylor Phinney took over to lead out Hushvod. But Sagan's daring and technical skills were unmatched by the Norwegian champion. The Slovakian dove through the final turns to the front and emerged with a healthy advantage at the line.

Wiggins was relieved to get through the day unscathed, happy that a break without Cannondale in it went so that Sagan's team would do the work. The long, fast descent and high-speed run into town could have been dangerous to his lead.

"It's never really done until you cross the line," he said. "With the speed we were going - you puncture then and you're not going to get back into the race, even with a change. We were wary about that. I'm just glad another day's down and it's down to tomorrow now."

Sunday's final stage is a short-but-difficult 122.4 km circuit race. Riders will do three laps of a 32.9km loop that features two category 4 climbs and one category 3, including three trips up the Rock Store climb. The stage finishes with three loops of a pancake flat 7.4km closing circuit. It could be another day for the sprinters who can climb, and it could mean another day of the sprinters' teams taking over the workload from Team Sky.

"It depends who's there, really, and how the race pans out at the start," Wiggins said. "I haven't really looked at the route yet, so I'll have to get back and have a look at it and try and think of all the scenarios that could happen tomorrow and work out a strategy. But I guess Peter [Sagan] will probably have another go if he's there. It's pretty difficult, and [Mark Cavendish] will probably not make it again."

Sagan raced on a similar circuit in the 2010 race. He finished 11th on that stage, and he said he remembers it as being very tough.

"I know these climbs," he said. "Every climb is hard. If they go slow maybe I can come in to sprint."

No matter how the stage plays out, Wiggins was confident that he could pull off the overall victory in Thousand Oaks.

"I think we'll continue to do the same thing - keep an eye on the Garmin guys," he said. "I'm sure we'll be alright."

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