Tour of California: Garcia Cortina wins stage 5

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Iván García Cortina (Bahrain-Merida) sprinted to victory on stage 5 of the Tour of California in Ventura on Thursday, triumphing from a small group after the peloton splintered on an unclassified climb close to the finish.

Maximiliano Richeze (Deceuninck-QuickStep) took second place after leading out the sprint, while Sergio Higuita (EF Education First) finished third – his best result since joining the US squad at the start of the month. Higuita's teammate, Tejay van Garderen, retains the race lead.

In a stark contrast to stage 4, the peloton flew along faster than the fastest predicted time schedule, coming within a few kilometres of catching the women's race at one point. Peter Sagan (Bora-Hansgrohe) surprisingly infiltrated the breakaway on what was supposed to be a sprint stage.

The leaders were caught in the final 10km, however, before all hell broke loose on a rise leading to the final intermediate sprint. A fast pace and numerous attacks shed the bulk of the sprinters, leaving a group of under 20 riders to contest the finish. There, into a headwind, García Cortina benefitted from Richeze's lead-out to take his first professional win.

"I'm glad my team had full confidence in me. They pulled for the last 50km, and I was thinking that I could win today," García Cortina said in the post-race press conference.

"The was a pretty strong headwind in the finale. And it was a big focus for me because I always make mistakes in the sprints – like, maybe I start 200 or 300 metres too far out – so today I concentrated on starting as late as possible," he said.

"I saw 200 metres to go, and I thought, 'OK, this is the opportunity to go.' I just took the wheel, and at 100 metres I was going full gas."

How it unfolded

The fifth stage of the Tour of California offered a 219km stage from Pismo Beach to Ventura with five climbs: twice up Foxen Canyon Road (80.5km and 88.5km), San Marcos Pass Road (128.5km) and then twice up Casitas Pass Road (180.5km and 184.5km). The race also opened with an intermediate sprint and then finished with a sprint as the race entered Ventura.

Tejay van Garderen (EF Education First) started the day in the leader's jersey after officials made the controversial decision to keep him in the golden jersey after he'd crashed on stage 4, and then got caught up in a blockade of riders who had just crashed outside the 3km-to-go mark. Van Garderen therefore started Thursday's stage with a lead of six seconds over Gianni Moscon (Team Ineos), with Kasper Asgreen (Deceuninck-QuickStep) a further second back in third.

Asgreen, who would have been in the lead if the officials had followed the UCI's '3km rule' to the letter, won the first intermediate sprint in Orcutt and picked up the three bonus seconds on offer.

The breakaway set off shortly after that, and included Davide Ballerini (Astana Pro Team), Toms Skujins (Trek-Segafredo), Team Jumbo-Visma's Neilson Powless and Lennard Hofstede, Michael Schär (CCC Team), Brandon McNulty (Rally UHC Cycling), UAE Team Emirates' Jasper Philipsen, Tim Declercq (Deceuninck-QuickStep), Leonardo Basso (Team Ineos) and Sagan. Alex Hoehn (USA National Team) and Sunweb's Cees Bol later bridged across.

It was Ballerini who took the first sprint on Foxen Canyon Road ahead of Hoehn, and as they climbed the next KOM over San Marcos Pass, the breakaway's gap to the peloton fell. EF Education First were pulling steadily at the front of the peloton, holding the breakaway at two minutes.

Ballerini led the way over every climb of the day, bolstering what was by then a lead in the mountains classification, adding 22 points. Hoehn tried to defend his jersey, but didn't have it in the legs, and returned to the peloton with around 60km to ride.

Further back, gusty tailwinds pushed the peloton along at some 50kph, making the race some 45 minutes faster than the expected fastest time of arrival in Ventura. The opening stage of the Tour of California Women's Race started 10 minutes early because of the strong winds, and officials tried to avoid the men's field catching the women's field before the finish.

Over the final two classified climbs – twice over Casitas Pass Road – the peloton closed in on the break, bringing the gap from 1:45 down to just over 30 seconds. The break responded by starting to attack each other, with Declercq managing to extract himself from the group on the descent of the second of the two climbs.

The riders he had left behind were caught by the peloton with 8km to go, by which time he was 20 seconds up on the chasing pack. On the unclassified climb to the final intermediate sprint, some 5km out, attacks flew from the peloton, led by Zdenek Štybar (Deceuninck-QuickStep).

Štybar didn't last long out front, however, with Higuita and George Bennett (Jumbo-Visma) flying past and cresting the 'sprint' alone. Further back, the peloton had been blown apart by the attacks, leaving fractured chase groups spread down the road.

The attacking duo were caught 3km from the line, first by a small chase group of around five men, and then by a larger group, which included a few hardy sprinters. A tailwind on the run-in discouraged further attacks, leading to the disorganised sprint to the line.

There, Deceuninck-QuickStep's Argentinian road race champion Richeze went first, leading out teammate Asgreen, who wasn't in prime position to receive it. Instead, it was García Cortina who benefitted, breaking QuickStep's stage-win streak and delivering Bahrain's third win of the season.

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