Peter Sagan of Tinkoff Saxo has won the tenth Amgen Tour Of California.
The eighth and final stage was a morning stage over 95 kilometres from Los Angeles to the Rose Bowl in Pasadena and had Julian Alaphillipe with a two second lead over Peter Sagan.
Mark Cavendish looking to win his fourth stage of the race, took the sprint ahead of Sagan and the race leader as Jesse Anthony, Hincapie’s Oscar Clarke and BMC’s Manuel Senni. tried to protect a small lead with 32.4kms to go.
On to two laps around the Rose Bowl and Etixx Quick Step attacked but Sagan was there.
All attacks on the final lap were shut down by the sprinters teams and there was Mark Cavendish who came through to win his fourth stage of this race in 2.14.55 with Wouter Wippert of Drapac in second place.
Behind him, Peter Sagan charged ahead of Tyler Farrar to get the bonus seconds and with Alaphilippe in 12th place, that gave him the Amgen Tour of California title by three seconds.
"Today the goal was to try and defend my jersey," Alaphilippe said to his team's press office.
"The guys did it perfectly. Mark sprinted for the intermediate sprint and then I did the best spirit possible both in the intermediate sprint, and at the finish, to try and take away the seconds from Sagan.
"But it was pretty impossible to beat him. I was hoping for it, because you have to always try to go for the best results. But I would say I'm not very disappointed about it. I considered wearing the yellow jersey into the final stage like a bonus.
"The glass is half full, not half empty. My first experience at Amgen Tour of California included my 2nd career victory, a 2nd place in the GC, perfect teamwork, Mark winning four stages, and us on the podium every day. "We won two jerseys, including me in white as best young rider. What more can I expect? If someone told me at the beginning of Tour of California that I'd be able to win a stage and finish 2nd in the overall, I'd have probably told them they are crazy. so I think in the end I have to be happy I lost to a great champion, and this race will be forever in my heart."
FINAL GENERAL CLASSIFICATION
1 Peter Sagan 28:13:12
2 Julian Alaphilippe +3
3 Sergio Henao +37
4 Joe Dombrowski +1.14
5 Robert Gesink +1.15
Source: DSG
