Tour of California: Gaviria wins stage 1 in Long Beach

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Fernando Gaviria (Quick-Step Floors) won the opening stage at the Amgen Tour of California in Long Beach on Sunday. The Colombian won the bunch sprint ahead of Caleb Ewan (Mitchelton-Scott) and world champion Peter Sagan (Bora-Hansgrohe).

The 23-year-old claimed the 30th win of his career, which was also his team's 30th win this season. Pre-stage favourite Marcel Kittel (Katusha-Alpecin) placed fourth, and Alexander Kristoff (UAE Team Emirates) was fifth.

Gaviria, who won four stages at last year's Giro d'Italia, moved into position but was bumped several times by Jasper Philipsen, the 20-year-old Hagens Berman Axeon rider from Belgium. Gaviria wasn't pleased and briefly expressed his anger with Philipsen. But the two riders quickly reconciled with a sporting embrace a few moments after the finish.

In the post-race press conference, Gaviria said one bump might have been OK, but when Philipsen repeatedly tried to take Gaviria's spot in the Quick-Step train, the Colombian took exception, saying that while this might be the biggest race of the year for some riders, the top sprinters are here to prepare for the Tour de France and can't afford to go down in a crash.

"I don't know if I'm surprised," Gaviria said when asked if he expected to be on this level of form after a long break. "I've been training at home and training for that, and I think it's good to come back and win."

After missing the Classics season following an injury in the penultimate stage of Tirreno-Adriatico in mid-March, Gaviria had returned to competition at the Tour of Romandie – although the mountainous route didn't offer any sprint opportunities.

"After that I went to Eschborn-Frankfurt and the legs were better, and now I've come back for the win here, and am really happy for this," he said.

The group sprint was set up after the field caught leaders Tanner Putt (UnitedHealthcare) and Andrei Krasilnikau (Holowesko-Citadel) – a two-time Belarus national road champion – with less than two of the 12 flat circuits remaining. The two had ridden in front for nearly three hours and more than 125 kilometres.

"It was a pretty straightforward race today, although it was a pretty hectic finish," said Ewan, after finishing second. "My team was great and got me where I needed to be for the sprint, but Fernando did a great sprint."

With wide roads leading up to the finish, teams began moving towards the front with about 5km left in the 134.5km stage. The scene wasn't too dissimilar to the automotive racing more well-known on the downtown streets during the annual IndyCar race, the Long Beach Grand Prix.

Holowesko/Citadel attempted to set up its sprinter, John Murphy, and manoeuvred five riders to the front. But the squad's effort was too soon and Quick-Step moved to the front. The teams narrowed into a long echelon for a while, but, with the wide roads, several squads began to manoeuvre across the road, and several riders were forced to ride around construction-cone course markers.

As Quick-Step launched Gaviria towards the finish line, Ewan and Sagan fought to follow the Colombian, but it was too little, too late.

Time bonuses at the finish saw Gaviria pick up 10 seconds for the stage win. He leads the overall classification by four seconds ahead of Ewan, who secured a six-second bonus. Putt, who won the two intermediate sprints from the two-rider breakaway for three seconds each, is in third place overall, four seconds behind Gaviria, while Sagan, the 16-time Tour of California stage winner, is fourth, also six seconds back.

Putt's breakaway companion, Krasilnikau, earned a total of four bonus seconds and is now fifth overall, also six seconds back.

How it unfolded

The 134.5km opening stage in Long Beach was tailor-made for the top-notch sprint field in California. The peloton traversed the 11.5km flat course 12 times, with intermediate sprints at the end of laps 4 and 8. Time bonuses of 10, six and four seconds at the finish were also up for grabs, as well as bonuses of three, two and one second at the intermediate sprints.

Pro Continental riders Andrei Krasilnikau (Holowesko-Citadel) and Tanner Putt (UnitedHealthcare) jumped away from the bunch as soon as the short neutral roll-out ended, and the pair soon had a gap of more than two minutes. Katusha-Alpecin, Mitchelton-Scott and Quick-Step Floors all put a riders on the front, and the chase was on.

Putt took the maximum time bonus at the first sprint, with Krasilnikau claiming the two-second bonus. Back in the field, Katusha's Nathan Haas tried to lead out GC rider Ian Boswell for the bonus, but Mark Cavendish (Dimension Data) decided to test his legs and swept up the final spot just ahead of the Katusha duo.

From there the chasers feathered the gap to the leaders, holding it around 1:30 as the duo up front pushed on. As the leaders approached the second intermediate sprint at the end of lap 8, the gap was back out to 1:45.

Putt once again took the maximum points and time bonus, with Krasilinikau sweeping up the runner-up rewards. As the peloton closed in on the intermediate sprint, Quick-Step's Alvaro Hodeg surged to the front to deny Cavendish the remaining bonus second.

The gap was down to 1:11 with three laps remaining as Putt and Krasilinikau continued to collaborate and Quick-Step drove the chase. As the leaders crossed the start/finish with two to go, the gap was down to one minute as the chase began to look more determined. Katusha's Reto Hollenstein continued to pound out kilometre after kilometre for his sprinter Kittel.

The gap dipped below a minute for the first time with just over 36.5km remaining, and the long-expected sprint looked more and more inevitable. When Putt and Krasilnikau saw one lap to go, their gap was down to a mere 10 seconds.

The field swallowed up Putt just after the start/finish, but Krasilnikau hung on a little bit longer. His day off the front was soon over as well, as the peloton reeled him in and then reset for the finale.

Quick-Step Floors led the bunch into the final kilometre, looking to set up their man Gaviria, and it was indeed the Colombian who got it, although not without a strong challenge from Ewan.

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