Tinkoff-Saxo’s team leader Peter Sagan finished 2nd behind Mark Cavendish on stage 2 of Amgen Tour of California. The result was a repeat of yesterday but only this time Sagan came within a strand of hair from the win after a solid lead-out from his teammates in the fast finale.
 
After having gone head to head with sprint favorite Mark Cavendish (EQS) for the second day in a row, Peter Sagan declares himself satisfied with the result and thanks his Tinkoff-Saxo teammates.
 
"I think we rode better today than yesterday and we had a better lead-out. Yesterday we started earlier in order not to take many risks and we wanted to be behind Cavendish, but there were other riders. It was also a one-kilometer straight-line finish and that played to his advantage, but today we did a very good job and my team placed me very well”, says Peter Sagan and adds:
 
“I wanted to surprise Cavendish in the final stretch and I did but he proved to be faster than me. He crossed the finish line ahead of me but with a very slim margin, less than on yesterday’s stage. I'm not a pure sprinter and Cavendish is faster. Tomorrow’s finish suits me very well and I am sure my team will do, once again, an excellent job”.

Monday’s second stage of Amgen Tour of California featured 193.7km on first lumpy rural roads, which later turned into broad, flat boulevards into the finish in Lodi. Following a touch and go chase after the breakaway quartet of the day, Tinkoff-Saxo with Michael Mørkøv and then Daniele Bennati took to the front to deliver team leader Sagan in a prime position on the final run-in towards the line. The outcome was initially too close to call until the stills revealed the outcome of the photo finish. Tinkoff-Saxo sports director Tristan Hoffman notes that he’s pleased with Sagan’s second place.
 
"Today Peter Sagan was even closer to Mark Cavendish than yesterday, so I really feel his day is coming. If you are on the same line with Cavendish and he needs to jump to get ahead it means you are extremely close. The finale was tight and everything went well. However, with 30 km to go, the breakaway had increased its advantage to 3:30 but the peloton sped up and caught them with less than a kilometer to go”, says Tristan Hoffman, who adds:
 
“The team worked very well, Hernandez and Bodnar did a great job in bringing the breakaway back. Bodnar even started earlier than what we had planned as the breakaway was very strong. Overall, I'm happy with the performance of the squad today”.
 
Hoffman now directs the focus of the team towards tomorrow’s undulating stage 3 with an uphill finish.
 
“Tuesday will be a different story with a lot of climbing. The last kilometer to the finish has a gradient of 6% and that will be a very good chance for Peter to get a good result. It will be very difficult and we need to keep the team together for him. We will also have to tackle four climbs of 4th category as well as one HC. The focus of the team is on tomorrow”, concludes Tristan Hoffman.