Tour of California: Talansky wins on Mt Baldy

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Andrew Talansky ended Cannondale Drapac's two-year wait for a WorldTour win with a hard-fought stage win atop Mt. Baldy at the 2017 Tour of California. The American all-rounder edged out race leader Rafal Majka (Bora-Hansgrohe) in a close sprint to the line after a select group of podium contenders broke away on the final climb.

George Bennett (Team LottoNl-Jumbo) retained his hopes of winning the overall title by finishing third overall. However, it's Majka who heads into Friday's time trial with a slender six-second lead over Bennett. Talansky's win moved him into fourth, 44 seconds off the Bora rider's lead.

"When we hit the final climb, I knew I felt good. But when I knew I didn't have a chance to shake Bennett, Majka and Boswell, I decided to go for the stage win," said Talansky. "I've never been at the front of this finish before. I knew there was that last corner and how I needed to take it.

"I'd prefer to be in the yellow jersey right now but we won the stage today and I'll enjoy that. Tomorrow we will focus on the time trial. If you win, you win. If you lose, you lose and life goes on."

Majka increased his lead over Bennett after picking up bonus seconds on the line but expressed that he was aiming to add to his stage 2 victory. 

"I didn't win but I think that second was still a good result. I'd like to thank all my teammates for the excellent work they did today. Tomorrow I'll try to keep the jersey, but it'll be difficult with Talansky," said Majka. "I wanted to gain some time today but it wasn't easy. I didn't know the finish – there were a lot of corners and with 100m to go I tried to sprint, but Talansky passed me on the left hand side. Congratulations to him on his win. I'm still happy with this second place but tomorrow we need to try to keep the jersey. When we look at the race so far, I've been strong and I don't feel too bad. For the time trial tomorrow it's 24km and I'll try to keep the jersey."

How it unfolded

The queen stage kicked off in Ontario and almost immediately began a gradual climb toward the first of two intermediate sprints located in San Antonio Heights.

A breakaway of 24 riders formed early on with Tiago Machado (Katusha-Alpecin) winning the full points ahead of Peter Sagan (Bora-Hansgrohe). But as the race headed up and over Glendora Ridge Rd., a climb 9.2km at 6.8% average grade, attacks caused the large group to split and 13 men formed the main move of the day.

Those riders also included Quick-Step Floors Matteo Trentin and Jack Bauer, UnitedHealthcare's Greg Henderson and Daniel Jaramillo, Rally's breakaway duo Evan Huffman and Rob Britton, who took one-two in stage 4, were in the mix again. Peter Kennaugh (Team Sky), Lennard Hofstede (Team Sunweb), Reinardt Janse Van Rensburg (Dimension Data), Bert-Jan Lindeman (LottoNL-Jumbo), Yoann Bagot (Cofidis) and Artyom Zakharov (Astana) also made the move.

Jaramillo added more points to his mountain classification lead at the top of Glendora Ridge Rd, ahead of Huffman and Machado.

Henderson was the highest placed on GC in that move, in 23rd place at 4:43 behind overall leader Majka. As they raced along the reservoirs of Morris and San Gabriel on the flatter sections of the course, the riders held just over three minutes on the main field.

The route soon kicked up again as they rode onto the base of Glendora Mountain Rd for the start of the second KOM, which is 12.6km at 5.1%.

Britton struck out on his own before Sky's Peter Kennaugh bridged across. Behind in the peloton, LottoNL-Jumbo were working on keeping everything under control for its GC man Bennett. Showing no effects of yesterday’s ride in the breakaway, Britton rode away from Kennaugh on approach to the KOM with the remnants of the original breakaway one minute in arrears.

Katusha-Alpecin's Tiago Machado found himself in no man’s land in the chase of Britton as Quick-Step Floors teammates Matteo Trentin and Jack Bauer paced the chase group up the climb. At the KOM point, Evan Huffman and Daniel Jaramillo tested each other's legs with the later stealing in for more points to all but secure the polka dot jersey. A moment of reprieve followed for Britton, Kennaugh and the chase group with the descent before the brutal ascent of Mt Baldy.

On the lower slopes of Mt. Baldy, what was left of the original breakaway started to splinter while Peter Sagan dropped back to the main field and turned domestique, distributing food and bidons to his teammates. Meanwhile, Britton was looking comfortable at the head of the race as LottoNL-Jumbo continued to drive the pace in the peloton.

As the pace increased in the peloton with the GC teams upping the tempo, Britton's bid for victory came to an end as he was swept up on the lower slopes. Sep Kuss (Rally) was an early attacker once teammate Britton was caught as the skirmish begun. Dimension Data's Lachlan Morton was looking strong and likely to launch as the likes of Robert Gesink (LottoNL-Jumbo) lost contact.

Feeling good, Talanksy took it upon himself to up the speed and forced a selection with Brent Bookwalter, Morton, Bennett, Majka, and Boswell the only riders able to respond. Talansky went again, and the group was slimmed as only Majka and Bennett could maintain contact. Behind, Boswell refused to give in and dug deep to regain contact before Majka jumped clear.

After a delay, Talansksy chased down Majka with Bennett on his wheel and Boswell again fighting to hold onto the leaders. At 1km to go, it was Bennett's turn to attack, but he couldn't establish a gap as it became clear it would come down to a four-up sprint.

In the finale, which included two turns and a rough road surface, Talanksy stole the front position into the final corner and sprinted for his first win at the Tour of California, leaving Majka in second place but with his GC lead intact. Bennett crossed the line for third with Boswell fourth and five seconds down. Bookwalter rounded out the top five before the other GC riders made their way across the line.

With the decisive stage 6 Big Bear Lake time trial to come, Talanksy is a real threat to the overall at 44 seconds to Majka. The race leader is confident of holding onto yellow, but another shakeup of the overall is sure to eventuate on the lakeside course.

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