The Brits took it all in the final stage of the Tour of California as Mark Cavendish (Omega Pharma-Quick Step) won the final stage and Bradley Wiggins (Sky) took the overall victory. Cavendish got dropped on the final climb but made a fantastic comeback to narrowly edge out John Degenkolb (Giant-Shimano) in a sprint while Wiggins responded to the attacks on the climbs to seal his triumph.

 

After missing out on a sprint opportunity in stage 4, many doubted that Mark Cavendish would get the chance to take more stage victories in this year's Tour of California but the Manxman defied expectations when he won today's tough final stage of the race. As it had been the case on the first stage, however, he only narrowly held off a strong comeback from John Degenkolb who was clearly the fastest in the sprint.

 

To get there, however, he had to dig very deep as the stage contained three laps of a difficult circuit that included a very hard climb. As Sky dropped the hammer the final time up the ascent, the Manxman lost contact with the group and seemed to be out of the running for the overall victory.

 

However, luck was on his side as Peter Sagan (Cannondale) who had made it into the 25-rider front group, only had one teammate left and this meant that there was no one to take control of the hectic finale. While several attacks were launched from the front group, the Omega Pharma-Quick Step got organized and gradually got closer to the leaders.

 

After four riders had taken off on the short, flat finishing circuit, several team combined forces in a quest to hold off Cavendish but they failed in their mission. With 10km to go, the Omega Pharma-Quick Step group made the junction and as the break was caught, all was now set for a sprint finish.

 

In the sprint, it was the Giant-Shimano team that dominated proceedings but Degenkolb had lost the wheel of his lead-out man Koen De Kort. Instead, Sagan was right behind the Dutchman, with Cavendish in the next position.

 

When De Kort finished his lead-out, Cavendish and Sagan went head to head but while the Slovakian faded back, it ended up as a duel between Cavendish and Degenkolb. The German came very fast from behind but ran out of metres and had to settle for second.

 

Bradley Wiggins used his Sky team to set a fierce tempo on the climbs and they neutralized the attacks from the GC riders. Hence, he safely rolled across the line to take home the overall victory, with Rohan Dennis (Garmin-Sharp) and Lawson Craddock (Giant-Shimano) completing the podium.

 

For the fourth year in a row, Sagan won the points competition while Will Routley (Optum) won the KOM competition. Craddock was the best young rider while Garmin-Sharp was the best team.

 

The European stars will now head home while the best American riders prepare themselves for their national championships that takes place in a few weeks time.

 

A tough circuit

Unlike many other stage races, The Tour of California didn't end with a flat stage for the sprinters as the final circuit race in Thousand Oaks was a very difficult affair. The short 122.4km race was made up of three laps of a big circuit that contained the hard Rock Store climb but was otherwise mainly flat. After the final lap of the big circuit, the riders ended the race by doing three laps of a flat 7.4km circuit in the city centre. The stage was expected to come down to a sprint from a reduced group but many also expected the GC riders to put Bradley Wiggins under pressure.

 

As it has been the case for the entire race, the riders took off under very hot and sunny conditions as they set out in the early morning for their short stage. As expected, the stage was fast from the gun, with many riders being keen to making it into the early break

 

The break takes off

After 8km of racing, the peloton was still together and completely strung out due to the fast pace but no one had managed to build a significant gap. A few kilometres further up the road, the break was formed when Niki Terpstra (OPQS), Jens Voigt (Trek), Mathew Hayman (Orica-GreenEDGE), Alex Candelario (Optum), Chris Hones (UHC), Jack Bobridge (Belkin) and Chad Haga (Giant-Shimano) took off.

 

Carlos Verona (OPQS) set off in pursuit but as they hit the lower slopes of the first climb, he was still 25 seconds behind whole the peloton had already lost 1.45. Behind, Isaac Bolivar (UHC) attacked and he was joined by Amael Moinard (BMC) and George Bennett (Cannondale) in a move that tried to bridge the gap.

 

Verona makes the junction

Verona made the junction on the climb while the peloton was already starting to splinter. Jones had started the day third in the mountains classification and so it was no surprise that he took maximum points at the top, crossing the line ahead of Haga, Bobridge and Terpstra.

 

The break was now 2 minutes ahead while the chasing trio had been caught. Unfortunately, there was a crash on the descent that brought down Matthew Busche (Trek), Tao Geoghegan Hart (Bissell); Lawrence Warbasse (BMC) and Bennett, with Warbasse being forced to abandon.

 

Cannondale take control

At the first passage of the line, the front group was 3.40 ahead. At this point, Brad Huff (Optum) decided to end his race.

 

Cannondale and BMC now took control of the peloton and started to stabilize the gap. As soon as they hit the climb for the second time, however, they were replaced by Sky who were keen to set a fast pace that would discourage all their rivals from attacking.

 

The break splits up

In the front group, Terpstra set a hard pace that sent Candelario out the back door while Voigt was clearly suffering. As they crested the summit, the speed set by Josh Edmondson (Sky) had brought the gap down to 2.50.

 

Jones sprinted ahead of Verona, Terpstra and Hayman to again take maximum points but the cohesion in the group was now gone. On the descent, Terpstra and Bobridge took off and the duo quickly built a gap over their chasers.

 

Sky and Cannondale lead the chase

In the peloton, Sky had again slowed down a bit and so the gap went back up to 3.45. This prompted a reaction from Cannondale who started to swap turns with the Sky riders Luke Rowe, Ian Boswell and Nathan Earle.

 

On the descent, the green-clad team gave it their all, with Sagan even leading them down himself. Up ahead, the front duo were already 30 seconds ahead of their chasers that had briefly split in two, with Hayman and Jones taking before again being caught by their companions.

 

The chasers are caught

At the passage of the line, it was again Sky and Cannondale combining forces on the front and they had reduced the gap to 3.25. The two teams really ramped up the speed as they approached the climb for the final time, with Edward King, Maciej Bodnar (Cannondale), Rowe and Earle swapping turns on the front.

 

Just before they hit the climb, they had brought the gap down to 2.00 and they now caught Voigt, Hayman and Haga. Jones and Verona tried to press on for a little while but they also had to surrender to the two mighty teams.

 

Sky drop the hammer

As they hit the climb, Sky again applied the same tactic, with Ian Boswell and Josh Edmondson dropping the hammer to discourage their rivals from attacking. As a consequence, the peloton splintered to pieces, with Thor Hushovd (BMC) and Mark Cavendish (OPQS) both doing their utmost to stay in contact before finally dropping off.

 

Jose Mendes (NetApp) took off and quickly got a nice gap. The gap to the leading pair was now melting away due to Sky's incredible pace.

 

The GC riders start to attack

1km from the top, the expected attacks from the GC riders came when Janier Acevedo (Garmin) took off. He was joined by Daniel Jaramillo (Jamis) while Peter Stetina (BMC) made a move a little further back.

 

Stetina was joined by the NetApp riders Tiago Machado, David de la Cruz and Paul Voss and when they caught Acevedo and Jaramillo and Mendes waited for them, NetApp had an impressive four riders in a dangerous move. However, Sky realized the danger and strong work by Joe Dombrowski and Edmondon neutralized it just after the top.

 

A lack of control

Moments later, the front pair were also caught but the front group had now been whittled down to just around 25 riders and Sagan seemed to have no domestiques left. This opened the door for new attacks, with Lucas Euser (UnitedHealthCare) and Jens Keukeleire (Orica-GreenEDGE) taking off.

 

To avoid the attacks, Wiggins went to the front, brought the pair back and kept the pace high until they started the descent. When he slowed down again, new attacks were launched with Javier Megias (Novo Nordisk), Jaramillo and Tom Danielson (Garmin) giving it a go.

 

Wiggins neutralized dangerous move

When they were brought back, Jaramillo tried a move before the OPQS pair of Terpstra and Matteo Trentin hit the front. Trentin attacked on the descent and was followed by Rohan Dennis (Garmin) and Sagan.

 

That was too dangerous for Wiggins who bridged across wit Terpstra, effectively neutralizing the move. Hence, things came back together as they finished the descent and hit the flat roads in the city centre.

 

A quartet take off

Euser, Keukeleire and Eloy Teruel (Jamis) exploited the standstill to take off and they quickly got a 15-second gap. Despite having been in the early attack, Bobridge did a fantastic effort to join the move before the peloton started to chase.

 

Kristijan Koren took a big turn for Cannondale and got some help when several teams decided to combine forces. The Slovenian started to swap turns with Danielson, Thomas Damuseau (Giant), Dombrowski and later also Edmondson and Amael Moinard (BMC).

 

Cavendish rejoins the peloton

The gap went up to 25 seconds and despite the hard work by the many teams, they failed to get much closer to the front quartet. At the end of the first small lap in the city, they were still 25 seconds behind.

 

Cavendish wasn't far behind and so the Omega Pharma- Quick Step riders dropped back to assist in the chase and at the line, their group was only around 10 seconds behind the main group. Hushovd was also in that group and in the early part of the penultimate lap, they made the jucntion.

 

The break starts attacking

Having moved to the front of the peloton, Omega Pharma-Quick Step immediately took control, with Terpstra and Verona swapping turns on the front. They got assistance from several teams as BMC, NetApp, Trek and Cannondale also lent a hand.

 

At the penultimate passage of the line, the gap was down to just 10 seconds and the escapees had now started to attack each other. Euser and Keukeleire took off but a hard effort by Bobrdige brought it back together.

 

The break is caught

They resumed the cooperation but against the fast-moving peloton they had no chance. Teruel made a last-minute dig but with 5km to go, the strong Spaniard was brought back and all was set for a bunch sprint.

 

Moments later, the Bissell team did an impressive performance to string out the group with three riders, Gregory Daniel taking a massive turn on the front. Behind, the Giant, BMC, Cannondale and OPQS trains were all looming and with 2km to go, BMC hit the front with Van Avermaet, Schär and Phinney leading Hushovd.

 

Cavendish takes the win

Schär led the peloton under the flamme rouge while Moreno Hofland had positioned himself on Hushovd's wheel. Moments later, they were passed by the Giant train but it was Sagan that had got onto lead-out man Koen De Kort's wheel.

 

Matteo Trentin briefly hit the front before De Kort made his lead-out. Sagan and Cavendish were just behind him and went head to head in a direct battle. The Manxman was clearly the fastest of the duo and crossed the line in first but Degenkolb came fast from behind and almost made it past the OPQS sprinter.