Tour of California: Ben King wins stage 2 in Santa Clarita

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Ben King (Cannondale Pro Cycling) pulled off an upset win Monday at the Tour of California, stealing the stage 2 win in Santa Clarita from the sprinters in a two-up sprint with breakaway companion Evan Huffman (Rally Cycling).

The stage win also moved King into the overall race lead, as Alexander Kristoff (Katusha) won the bunch sprint eight seconds later ahead of stage 1 winner Peter Sagan.

The stage win was for the first for US riders at the Tour of California since Taylor Phinney won in Santa Barabara in 2014, and it comes just months after King broke his fibula during an early season training ride.

"I'm really happy, but my legs were really angry today," King told Cyclingnews in the finishing straight after the stage.

"They told me to go into the break, and normally four guys on a stage like this really doesn't have a chance, but I think a lot of the sprinters' teams had there helpers dropped, and so we knew we had a chance," he said.

King and Huffman were the sole survivors of a four-rider move that got away after the first KOM, and then they pulled off the rare feat of sticking their move to the line on the day when the sprinters' teams looked determined to pull them back.

"The other three guys in the breakaway with me were super strong, especially Evan," King said. "Nobody skipped a turn all day. It was super cohesive, and that’s what ultimately did it."

How it happened

Monday's 148.5km second stage took riders from South Pasadena north to Santa Clarita after four categorised climbs and two intermediate sprints. The route started uphill almost immediately, with the first category 1 KOM on Angels Crest Highway coming just 22.5km into the stage.

The second KOM, the category 2 climb of Upper Big Tujunga Canyon summited just 30km later to make a very difficult opening 60km. The last two KOMs, the second category climbs on Little Tujunga Canyon Road, came later in the day at 111.5km and 118.5km. A generally downhill run to the finish from there tempted the teams that had sprinters who could climb.

The move was short-lived, however, as Direct Energie, hoping to set up a reduced bunch sprint for sprinter Bryan Coqaurd, massed on the front and pulled the leaders back just before the summit. Alaphilippe held on to take the maximum KOM points ahead of Daniel Jaramillo (UnitedHelthcare) and Neilson Powless (Axeon Hagens Berman).

A second, much smaller group formed after the first KOM, with King, William Barta (Axeon Hagens Berman), Sindre Skjoestad Lunke (Giant-Alpecin) and Huffman sneaking away on the descent. They poured on the power as the peloton regrouped for the chase, quickly building a gap of 7:30 about halfway through the race. Huffman took full points at the second KOM, followed by King, Barta and then Lunke.

Direct Energie and Tinkoff picked up the chase again, restarting the game of cat and mouse between the escapees and the bunch. The chasers whittled the lead down to 3:30 with 50km to go, and a bunch sprint looked possible if the sprinters could make it over the final two climbs.

As the breakaway made its way to the third KOM, Lunke fell off the pace as the Huffman, King and Barta continued up to the KOM, where Huffman won again ahead of King and Barta. Huffman repeated his performance on the final KOM, securing the KOM jersey for Tuesday's queen stage.

From there it was a test of wills and horsepower, with the peloton winning that battle as BMC came to the front in the last 30km and Barta puncturing out of the lead group. The Axeon rider dug deep to make it back up to Huffman and King, the effort no doubt robbed some horsepower from their combined effort.

BMC director Jackson Stewart said his team went to the front to bring down the gap rather than try to set up Greg Van Avermaet for a sprint finish. 

"They weren't really bringing it back, and we were nervous of Ben King with too much time," he said. "We just kind of saw that Sagan's team fell apart on the first climb, and a lot of sprinters were dropped the first climb, so we kind of thought that maybe they didn't have the same horsepower to control the gap. 

"We didn't want to give them more than a minute, but then we just got stuck," Stewart said. "Nobody wanted to come up and help, so we just kept riding."

With 20km to go, the gap was down to 1:55 as it started to become clear the peloton, which was being led by a team that was more focused on limiting general classification losses than a stage win, had left the chase too late and the winner would come from the break.

Barta lost contact again in the closing kilometres, leaving King and Huffman to sprint it out for the stage win.

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