photo credits @ Amgen Tour of California
Mark Cavendish and his Dimension Data team didn’t leave this year’s Amgen Tour of California empty handed, as the Manx Missile claimed today’s final stage, beating the likes of Peter Sagan (Tinkoff) and Alexander Kristoff (Katusha), in a bunch sprint in Sacramento.
Meanwhile, Julian Alaphilippe (Etixx-Quickstep) sealed the overall race victory, after finishing safely in the peloton, to beat BMC’s Rohan Dennis by 21 seconds, followed by the American rider, Brent Bookwalter, who rounded out the final podium in third, at 43 seconds back.
Race Highlights
Earlier in the stage, Sagan attempted to animate the race, as the green jersey wearer proceeded to split the peloton and subsequently attack off the front.
However, seemingly upset by the lack of interest on the part of his Tinkoff teammates to join in on his aggressions, the world champion quickly retreated back into the peloton for the remainder of the stage.
Once the teams got onto the finishing circuit in Sacremento, Tinkoff came to the front in numbers this time, needing to bring back the seven-man breakaway, who were still over a minute ahead of the peloton.
Tinkoff’s show of strength saw the peloton strung out along the wide roads, but with two kilometers to go, the breakaway started to attack each other, with Dimension Data relying on Mark Renshaw to help drag them back.
However, that move served to isolate Cavendish for the bunch sprint.
From there, Katusha swarmed to the front in support of Kristoff, with Sagan and Cavendish sitting on the Norwegian rider’s wheel.
However, Sagan managed to pre-empt Kristoff’s sprint and got the edge on him, but Cavendish wasn’t to be beaten, easing past Sagan and over the line.
Top 10 Finishers
1 Mark Cavendish (GBr) Dimension Data 2 Peter Sagan (Svk) Tinkoff Team 3 Alexander Kristoff (Nor) Team Katusha 4 Danny Van Poppel (Ned) Team Sky 5 John Degenkolb (Ger) Team Giant-Alpecin 6 Niccolo Bonifazio (Ita) Trek-Segafredo 7 Jean-Pierre Drucker (Lux) BMC Racing Team 8 Maximiliano Richeze (Arg) Etixx – Quick-Step 9 Dylan Groenewegen (Ned) Team LottoNl-Jumbo 10 Travis McCabe (USA) Holowesko-Citadel
Final general classification
1 Julian Alaphilippe (Fra) Etixx – Quick-Step 31:47:50 2 Rohan Dennis (Aus) BMC Racing Team 0:00:21 3 Brent Bookwalter (USA) BMC Racing Team 0:00:43 4 Andrew Talansky (USA) Cannondale Pro Cycling 0:00:52 5 Lawson Craddock (USA) Cannondale Pro Cycling 0:01:22 6 Samuel Sanchez (Spa) BMC Racing Team 7 George Bennett (NZl) Team LottoNl-Jumbo 0:01:50 8 Jurgen Van Den Broeck (Bel) Team Katusha 0:01:53 9 Neilson Powless (USA) Axeon Hagens Berman 0:01:57 10 Laurens Ten Dam (Ned) Team Giant-Alpecin 0:02:13
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