The penultimate stage of the Tour of California led the peloton from Santa Clarita to Pasadena close to Los Angeles. Peter Sagan (Cannondale) sprinted to the stage win after 143km. Thor Hushovd (BMC) and Danny van Poppel (Trek) completed the podium.

NetApp – Endura showcased again a great team performance that was awarded with a great fourth rank of Zak Dempster. The Australian scored already the team’s sixth Top10 result in this year’s edition of the Tour of California. The GC remained unchanged after today’s stage with Tiago Machado still ranked on the fourth place.

“On the last climb Cannondale increase the speed so some sprinters got dropped but we went very well. Coming to the finish circuit, we were one of the teams keeping the tempo high and Jose was even able to attack. We wanted to set Zak in a good position for the sprint and the entire team did an amazing job again. Zak was able to sprint to 4th place which is a really good result, also given the WorldTour sprinters who are in the race”, says Alex Sans Vega, Sports Director of Team NetApp – Endura. 

A breakaway group of seven riders attacked from the field after 25km. But the favourites for the stage win today kept the attack under their control by never allowing the gap to grow beyond the three-minutes-mark. On the second climb, 56km before the finish, the leading group came under pressure already and only four leaders remained.

When crossing the finish line for the first time, with 15km to go, only two leaders were left. They took a gap of 25 seconds over the chasing bunch on the finish lap. The riders had to complete the circuit in Pasadena in the style of a criterium race three times. With six kilometers to go, Jose Mendes attacked from the chasers and bridged to the leading duo.

This move brought many further attacks and resulted in constantly changing race situations. On the final kilometer only the sprinter teams took over so that the stage was decided in a mass sprint. The final stage of the Tour of California will be hold in Thousand Oaks on Sunday morning. The stage covers 122 kilometers and it includes three climbs before the riders go on a finish lap for three times.