Having been winless since the US Pro Challenge in August Tyler Farrar finally got back to his winning ways in yesterday's fourth stage of the Tour of California. After a number of near-misses, he is back to focus purely on his sprinting abilities and he was happy to see his efforts finally pay off.

It has been a couple of frustrating seasons for Tyler Farrar in recent years. After bouncing onto the sprinting scene when he beat Mark Cavendish in the 2009 Tirreno-Adriatico, he was touted as the next big thing in the sprinting business and went on to win a stages in all three grand tours.

However, his progress appears to have been stalled and since his maiden win in the Tour de France on the third stage of the 2011 edition, he has had difficulties fighting with the best. He only got back to his winning ways in the US Pro Challenge last August where he took two stage victories and the start of the 2013 season has once again been winless.

Hence, it was a huge relief for the American to finally step onto the top step of the podium at the end of the fourth stage in the Tour of California yesterday. And unlike his wins in Colorado last year, the triumoh was taken ahead of some big-name sprinters as he left both Peter Sagan (Cannondale), Michael Matthews (Orica-GreenEdge) and Gianni Meersman (Omega Pharma-Quick Step ) in his wake.

“I’m psyched," he told VeloNews after the stage. "This spring wasn’t what I wanted, a string of second and second and third and fourth and second. … You know, in sprinting, wins are what count. I was really motivated coming into this. I’ve been training really hard this spring, and it’s paying off."

According to Farrar himself, his meager results in recent years have been due to a lack of clear focus on what is his main strength: his sprint. Living in Gent in Belgium, he has always been inspired by the cobbled classics and a 5th place in the 2010 Tour of Flanders proves that he is no slouch in the hard races in Northern Europe.

Having realized that he will never be able to win the biggest one-day races, he is now once again focusing on his sprints. While he had to forgo the Giro this year as he team was only targeting a repeat win for Ryder Hesjedal, yesterday's win proves that his dedicated approach to the bunch kicks is staring to pay off.

“I started trying to focus on too many things: focus on the classics 100 percent, focus on sprinting 100 percent," he said. "And get better at climbing. This and that. And I think I was kind of stretching myself a little too thin."

Farrar will get another chance to prove the results of his renewed focus in today's fifth stage which is once again expected to finish in a mass sprint before the GC battle heats up with a time trial and a mountain stage on Friday and Saturday, respectively.