It was a happy Peter Sagan, who after winning his third stage in the USA Pro Cycling Challenge, dedicated his victory to his team.

Cannondale Pro Cycling had two cards to play for the day. Number one was helping Damiano Caruso launch into an escape on a climb to see him shoot for a top ten finish. The other was controlling the speed at the peloton and later on to set up Peter Sagan for another sprint victory.

The obligatory day-long escape eventually formed with 158km remaining. Fifteen riders from several teams got in the move. None of the riders were threats to any of the jersey, so the break was given its freedom.

When nobody was in the lead of the peloton, Cannondale took it and began to drive in the breakaway. The gap went under 90 seconds, but fire riders emerged and got away. The speed of the peloton was high and the Cannondale riders were tired. BMC took over and brought back the breakaway.

Sagan was the fastest in the sprint and he won ahead of Luka Mezgec, who finished 2nd and Greg Van Avermaet, who finished 3rd. Sagan, who won his third stage of this year’s race, dedicated his victory to his team.

"I want to dedicate this victory to my team-mate, Fabio Sabatini, who crashed the other day and he is still at the hospital. I also want to give a 'thank you' to all my teammates. They did a very good job today. Everyone from my team did their best. It is hard bringing back fifteen riders. For the sprint, I didn't have riders from my team at the front. I was hoping for another team to ride for the finish. We were going so fast, it was hard for anyone to get away."

Tomorrow, the riders will tackle a circuit race in Denver for the seventh and final stage of the race. The flat 14.65km will be covered eight times on the 117.9km stage. It's a course that favours Peter Sagan, and should give him an opportunity to close out the race with a stage win in the Green Jersey for his fourth win of the race.