Bernal seals Tour of California victory

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Fernando Gaviria (Quick-Step Floors) made it three sprint stages for three as he powered to victory in Sacramento on the final stage 7 of the Tour of California, topping Sunweb's Max Walscheid and Caleb Ewan (Mitchelton-Scott).

Egan Bernal (Team Sky) cruised in to claim the overall victory of the Tour of California after being ushered through the sunny streets of Sacramento expertly by his teammates.

The Colombian added to his neo-pro season success that also included second place in the Tour de Romandie, the win in the first edition of the Colombia Oro y Paz, the best young rider's jersey in the Tour Down Under and in Romandie, and two stage wins in California.

"I'm so happy because it's my first overall win in the WorldTour level," Bernal said in the post-race press conference."Today I felt great and the team did a really good all day riding." 

The pan-flat stage was tailor-made for the sprinters, and although a determined breakaway lasted to the end of the penultimate local lap, the fast men chased it down to battle to take the green points jersey off Bernal's shoulders.

When Team Sky finally ceded the front, it was Mitchelton-Scott who drag-raced with Katusha-Alpecin for control. But it was too far out for the German team's lead-out, and Quick-Step pulled away with Gaviria in tow.

The lead-out for Gaviria was a bit premature, and Walscheid came within centimetres of the win with a late surge, but the photo-finish swung in favour of the Colombian.

"This one was really close," Gaviria said in the post-stage press conference. "When I crossed the finish line I thought I was second. But then after the finish they came to me and said, 'You win.' OK. I'm really happy, but it was a really good job from the team all week. We were always all together for the sprint, always good position for me in the sprint, and I'm really happy with the week."

Walscheid, who finished eighth on stage 1 and was caught behind a crash in the stage 5 sprint, said he owed his Saturday result to positioning and effort.

"I had a really good spot in the final laps," he told Cyclingnews in the finishing straight. "It was super hard fighting, but I was willing to do it and it worked out."

How it unfolded

Stage 7 is a flat route that finished with circuits around the Capitol complex in downtown Sacramento. The men raced 143km, with one larger loop out of town, and three short finishing circuits on the outskirts of Capitol Park in the downtown area.

There were two intermediate sprints at the 62km mark in Winters and at the start of the finishing circuits.

The GC was very much sewn up after the queen stage with Bernal, who won stage 2 on Gibraltar Road and stage 6 in South Lake Tahoe, leading the way by 1:25 over van Garderen and 2:14 over third-placed Martinez. And so the stage moved into the hands of the sprinter teams.

The all-star cast of sprinters in the field included world champion Peter Sagan (Bora-Hansgrohe), Mark Cavendish (Dimension Data), Marcel Kittel (Katusha-Alpecin), Alexander Kristoff (UAE Team Emirates), Fernando Gaviria (Quick-Step Floors), and Caleb Ewan (Mitchelton-Scott).

In the previous two sprints; stage 1 in Long Beach and stage 5 in Elk Grove, the podiums were identical with Gaviria taking the wins ahead of Ewan and Sagan, so there was no doubt that the other sprinters would want to try for a stage win.

A breakaway of four shot off the front in the opening kilometres that included Neilson Powless (LottoNL-Jumbo), Adam De Vos (Rally), Mikkel Bjerg (Hagens Berman Axeon), Jonny Clarke (UnitedHealthcare). At the 14km mark, they stretched their lead out of one minute.

Katusha-Alpecin did much of the pace-setting during the stage, holding the breakaway at roughly two minutes. The team, working for Kittel, had some assistance from Bora-Hansgrohe and Mitchelton-Scott, working for their sprinters Sagan and Ewan.

In the breakaway, De Vos picked up full points at the intermediate sprint in Winters ahead of Clarke and Powless, but the gap following the sprint then dropped to under two minutes.

The gap was further reduced to 30 seconds after Oliver Naesen (AG2R La Mondiale) put forth a dig from the peloton. The move didn't get far, but it caused some nervousness in the field and sprinter teams like Bora-Hansgrohe with Sagan, launched forward.

Although Powless put in an attack ahead of the final circuits, he was brought back in the fold, and the four-men stayed together. Organisers announced that Bjerg would collect the most courageous rider award at the end of the stage. De Vos took the intermediate sprint as they entered the circuits, and they held a 20-second lead.

Their time out front came to an end just ahead of the finish line hearing the bell that signalled one lap to go, as Katusha-Alpecin, Quick-Step Floors, and Mitchelton-Scott stormed passed them in the set-up for the final sprint.