Peter Sagan (Cannondale) doubled his - unusually meagre - win tally in today's final stage of the Tour of California when he beat Daniel Schorn (NetApp-Endura) and Tyler Farrar (Garmin-Sharp) in the bunch kick at the end of the final stage to Santa Rosa. Tejay Van Garderen (BMC) finished safely in the bunch to take home his first ever stage race victory in a dominant fashion.

Since his first professional year in 2010, the Tour of California has been Peter Sagan's race. 2 stage wins in his debut season, 1 in 2011 and no less than 5 years had marked the Slovakian super talent as the man to beat in this year's edition of America's biggest race.

The Cannondale rider appeared to find the going a little tougher than he did in last year's total dominant display and prior to today's final flat stage into Santa Rosa, Sagan had only taken one win. However, he finished off the race in style when he won the anticipated bunch sprint in the streets of Santa Rosa in dominant fashion to take his 10th stage victory in just 4 years of racing in the young American event.

The stage was always expected to be a rather ceremonial affair that would serve as a fitting end to a week of tough racing. Some early attacking saw three riders get clear after less than 10km of racing, and Thomas De Gendt (Vacansoleil), Jason McCartney (Bissell) and Antoine Duchesne (Bontrager) started to open up a gap.

The gap got up to around 4.30 before Sagan ordered his Cannondale troops to the front of the peloton where the stabilized the gap for some time and at the halfway point of the short 130km stage, the advantage was still just above 4 minutes.

That was the signal for more teams to join the chase as both Omega Pharma-Quick Step and Garmin-Sharp put some men on the front, the two teams hoping to set Gianni Meersman and Tyler Farrar up for the win. For most of the remainder of the stage it was Brian Vandborg (Cannondale), Calev Fairly (Garmin-Sharp), Lachlan Morten (Garmin-Sharp), Carlos Verona (Omega Pharma-Quick Step) and Kevin De Weert (Omega Pharma-Quick Step) who did the pace-setting with Johan Vansummeren (Garmin-Sharp) and Edward King (Cannondale) occasionally chipping in.

The gap now started to come down rapidly while the biggest name in the break had to spend some time to fix a gear problem that saw him tackle some of the rolling hills on the route severely overgeared. He got back on but despite his best efforts, the break always appeared to be doomed.

22km from the finish line the gap was less than a minute, and Duchesne decided to go off on his own. De Gendt had now done the day's amount of training and so he decided to sit up while McCartney decided to give chase. 6km later he was back at the front and the duo of continental team riders continued their effort.

A little late it was McCartney who tried to drop his companion but his attack was fruitless, and instead it was all brought back together with 10km to go. At that point Champion System took over at the front, the Chinese system hoping to launch Matt Brammeier in the final sprint.

Cannondale took control of the peloton with no less than 6 riders 2km later and the Italian team appeared to have timed it perfectly as they kept the speed high to keep Sagan in a perfect position. However, they were overtaken by the Garmin-Sharp team with 3,8km to go and Rohan Dennis and Johan Vansummeren managed to string out the peloton in the next couple of kilometres.

Just as they passed the flamme rouge, Cannondale managed to regain control but moments later Michael Matthews' Orica-GreenEdge passed them and for a moment Sagan appeared to be positioned a little too far back. However, his team managed to bring him back to the front just at the right time and when the Slovakian launched his sprint from the perfect position, the outcome was never in doubt. At the line he was far ahead of Daniel Schorn and Tyler Farrar who were his closest challengers in the sprint.

The win saw the Slovakian take home the green points jersey for the fourth consecutive year while Tejay Van Garderen finished safely in the bunch surrounded by his BMC teammates to secure his first overall win in a big stage race. Having had no less than 7 podium finishes in major stage races since his professional debut in 2010, it has certainly been a huge relief for the talented American to finally get that first win that everybody knew he was capable of. Michael Rogers (Saxo-Tinkoff) and Janier Acevedo (Jamis) rounded out the podium.

Having finished the Tour of California in style, Sagan and Van Garderen will now continue their preparations ahead of one of their major season targets, the Tour de France.

Results:

1. Peter Sagan 3.04.07

2. Daniel Schorn

3. Tyler Farrar

4. Gianni Meersman

5. Ken Hanson

6. Thor Hushovd

7. Michael Matthews

8. Jacobe Keogh

9. Sylvain Chavanel

10. Matthew Brammeier

General classification:

1. Tejay Van Garderen 29.43.00

2. Michael Rogers +1.47

3. Janier Acevedo +3.26

4. Mathias Frank +3.32

5. Cameron Meyer +3.33

6. Matthew Busche +3.50

7. Francisco Mancebo +4.52

8. Lawson Craddock +5.24

9. Philip Deignan +5.33

10. Chad Haga +5.52