Coming off excellent performances in the Giro del Trentino and the Criterium International, Tiago Machado is a dark horse for this year's Tour of California. Yesterday he briefly found himself on the back foot when he missed a split in the crosswinds but managed to save the day and keep his options open.

 

As expected, the first stage of this year’s Tour of California was decided in a mass sprint. After 193 kilometers, British champion Mark Cavendish (Omega Pharma – Quick Step) prevailed ahead of John Degenkolb (Giant – Shimano) in the photo finish. Moreno Hofland (Belkin) completed the podium.   For NetApp – Endura, Zak Dempster was the team’s best rider finishing in 17th place. The team’s GC contenders managed to finish the stage without any time loss.

 

“We knew that the action for today’s stage will start on the final 50 kilometers because of the expected cross-winds there," Alex Sans Vega, Sports Director of Team NetApp – Endura, said. "Sky and other big teams forced the speed and split the bunch. We had Zak and Andreas in that group which was very good for us.

 

"Unfortunately our leaders, like David and Tiago, were not in the leading group so we had to be careful and do some chasing as well. We also knew that there is headwind on the last 25km, which made it challenging for the 20 riders to stay in front.

 

"In the final, when the bunch was back together, Zak had the opportunity to sprint although he did not have the best position to get Top10 result. 

 

"At the end of the day, we are happy with the outcome of the race. Our leaders didn’t lose any time in the GC which puts us in a good position for tomorrow’s time trial”, 

 

Six riders who broke away from the peloton shortly after the start set the opening of the American race. Due to very windy conditions and a very selective stage profile the key teams always controlled the attackers. They never allowed the gap to grow to more than five minutes. The peloton kept an eye on the wind and the time.

 

With 50km to go, some riders took advantage of the changing wind direction to build up echolons in the peloton. A group of 20 riders, including Zak Dempster and Andreas Schillinger, quickly built a gap of a minute over the remaining field. Only 20km before the finish the field was back together.

 

A late attack brought a solo rider on the circuit course in downtown Sacramento that had to be raced three times. Thousands of spectators saw the attack not to be neutralized by the sprinter teams before the ultimate lap so the stage was decided in a sprint royale.

 

The second stage of the tour is conducted as an individual time trial. The specialists will fight for a good position in the general classification over the 20.1 kilometer long course in Folsom, close to the Californian capital Sacramento.