Tour of California: Cavendish wins Sacramento finale

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After a week of falling short, Mark Cavendish and his Dimension Data teammates finally timed it right on the final stage of the Amgen Tour of California, taking out the bunch sprint in Sacramento over Peter Sagan (Tinkoff) and Alexander Kristoff (Katusha).

Julian Alaphilippe (Etixx-Quickstep) sealed the overall victory after a taxing week by 21 seconds over BMC's Rohan Dennis and 43 seconds on Brent Bookwalter.

Sagan sealed the points classification, while Evan Huffman (Rally Cycling) held onto the mountains classification that he led from the second stage. Neilson Powless (Axeon Hagens Berman) held onto the best young rider's classification, finishing ninth overall.

Cavendish had to freelance has way to the head of affairs after his Dimension Data teammates used themselves up to bring back a breakaway that made it onto the finishing circuits.

"The break got a second wind at the end," he said. "They pulled away because they were really, really strong, and we had to use the guys up to bring them back.

"Tinkoff went to the front, and they weren't going that fast, to be honest," he said. "So we had to go up and catch the break. We either use up the lead out to catch the break or we don't catch them. So it was just everyone committing to catch them, and then I had to freestyle. I knew I had to be on Peter's wheel. He had [Adam] Blythe with him so I knew he'd be in the best position. And I just went from there really."

Alaphilippe said the win was important to him because it is his first of the season and the first general classification win of his professional career.

"So it's really something special to win this race, especially here in California," he said of the race he lost by just three seconds last year. "I'm proud of my team all week, and especially today, because it was a really stressful day for the riders in the peloton. Everybody wanted to be in the front without losing time for the GC riders. It was a good day and I'm really, really happy."

How it happened

The 138km final stage that started and finished in Sacramento was contested over almost perfectly flat roads in the agricultural areas that surround the state capitol. The race included no categorized climbs and two intermediate sprints, the first in Clarksburg 91km into the race and the second as the race entered the 3.5km finishing circuits that the riders covered three times.

After a bit of attacking and reshuffling, five riders peeled away and were soon joined by two more to form the seven-rider group that would provide the carrot for the chasing peloton. The day's escapees included Jake Kelly (Team WIGGINS), Alan Marangoni (Cannondale), Chris Jones (UnitedHealthcare), Krists Nielands (Axeon-Hagens Berman), Taylor Sheldon (Jelly Belly-Maxxis), Robin Carpenter (Holowesko-Citadel) and Emerson Oronte (Rally Cycling).

Despite winds that picked up as soon as the riders got out of the urban centre, the day's parcours looked like an opportunity for Cavendish to take his first win of the week, and his Dimension Data team, along with Direct Energie and the Etixx-Quickstep team of race leader Julian Alaphilippe, took control of the peloton.

The gap got up over two minutes several times, but for the most part the peloton kept the leaders on a short leash and their gap small.

As the kilometres ticked off and the race began its return trip to Sacramento, the gap came down to exactly one minute as the leaders contested the intermediate sprint in Clarksburg, where Jones took the maximum points ahead of Marangoni and Nielands.

The peloton was breathing down the leaders necks as they hit Sacramento and started the three closing circuits, but a bunch sprint still wasn't certain as the leaders still carried a 30-second gap.

A crash with two laps remaining of the finishing circuits cut out several riders, including Nielson Powless, the 19-year-old Axeon rider who as the revelation of the race, coming into the final day in fifth place. The delay caused him to lose time in the finale, and he dropped to ninth overall.

"A bunch of riders were on the ground, and I was on the outside and got pushed to the gutter," he said. "It took me a little bit to get out of it, and by that time the teams already had their leadouts going and there was no way we were gong to get back."

Up front, Carpenter and Nielands were the final riders to succumb to the chase, holding off the bunch until only 1km and two turns remained. Carpenter said he and Nielands had more than just the charging peloton to worry about as a TV moto cut them off with two corner to go.

"We still had 10 or 20 bikes lengths but we just had to sit up, because there was this moto that came on the inside and shoved us all the way to the fence, so that was pretty ridiculous," Carpenter said. "We probably wouldn't have made it anyway, but that's pretty poor to see that."

By the time the pair was caught, Cavendish had used up most of his lead-out riders to bring them back, and the Manxman had to freelance his way through the peloton, finding Sagan's wheel and then jumping past the world champion to take his first stage win of the week.

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