Tour of California: Sagan wins in Morro Bay

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Peter Sagan made it a double day for his Bora-Hansgrohe team, adding his 16th Tour of California stage victory to the continued race lead of his teammate Rafal Majka.

Sagan played off a 400m-to-go attack by Cannondale-Drapac's Taylor Phinney, using the American as the rubber band for his slingshot and then blasting past Katusha's Rick Zabel to take the win in Morro Bay. Simone Consonni (UAE Team Emirates) pipped Alexander Kristoff (Katusha) for third on the stage.

Asked in the post-race press conference how the final metres played out, the world champion, who often rides by instinct, had a smile answer.

"I don't remember," Sagan said. "I was afar way behind, and from the second last turn right I was really far behind, and after I start to recover a little bit of position in the front. After I did the last turn it was just a big mess in the front, and then I just started sprinting and kept going in the front. I don't remember what happened."

After a day long breakaway swept up the intermediate sprint bonuses, Majka keeps his two-second lead over LottoNl-Jumbo's George Bennett, with Ian Boswell (Team Sky) still in third.

How it unfolded

At 192.5km stage 3 from Pismo Beach to Morro Bay was the longest of the 2017 race, and many riders likely recognised the majority of the stage from 2015 when it started a few kilometres down the coast in Avila Beach.

Pismo Beach and Morro Bay are less than 40km apart as the crow flies, so the stage actually headed inland far south of Pismo Beach, then turned back toward the coast after tackling the only climb of the day, the third-category Tepusquet Road that came at 84km.

In the finale, riders made a right turn off a beach road in Morro Bay with about 500 metres to go and immediately faced a short, steep ramp of about 50 metres. From there the road leveled out slightly but continued uphill all the way to the finish.

The long day in the saddle didn't seem to discourage the escape attempts, as five riders took off from the bunch after just a few minutes of racing. In the breakaway were Rally Cycling's Danny Pate, UAE Team Emirates' Federico Zurlo Novo Nordisk's David Lozano and a Jelly Belly-Belly Maxxis duo of Sean Bennett and Ben Wolfe, who was the most courageous jersey from the breakaway in stage 1.

The leaders benefited from a strong tailwind blowing them down the Pacific coast, and the gap was quickly over five minutes less than 20km into the race. The quintet rolled through the first of two intermediate sprints, with Zurlo taking the three-second time bonus ahead of Bennett and Lozano.

Quick-Step moved to the front to assist Bora-Hansgrohe with the chase, and the gap started coming down as the leaders made their way toward the KOM on Tepusquet Road. Lozano took top honours on the climb, and the leaders ripped down the descent.

From a maximum of 5:45, the gap was whittled down to just 2:10 with 55km to go as the leaders turned back toward Morro Bay. The gap was soon below two minutes, and the adventure off the front appeared to be doomed, although the escapees maintained their gap at just over a minute as they approached the second intermediate sprint with 28.5km to go.

Zurlo took the points and the top time bonus there, but the field continued to close in behind. The gap dipped below a minute for the first time with 20km to go, and with Juraj Sagan taking monster pulls to set up brother Peter, it was down to just 40 seconds a kilometre later.

Wolfe sensed the catch as the team cars were moved out of the gap and launched an attack against his breakaway companions, mirroring the move he made near the end of stage 1. Wolfe maintained a gap of 44 seconds with 12km to go as the other four escapees faded back into the field. Wolfe lingered long enough out front to earn his second jersey for most courageous rider in three stages, but he was also soon back in the fold.

With the breakaway in check, the sprinters' teams began positioning for the technical final kilometres, where Bora dropped Sagan off at the front of the peloton, and the world champion took over from there.

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