Pete Kennaugh and Sergio Henao held station at the Tour of California following a soaking wet stage five.

After four days of great weather the rain clouds well and truly burst on the run into Santa Clarita, bringing down the visibility and causing a sketchy finish on wet roads.

Team Sky ensured that both Kennaugh and Henao finished on the right side of a split in the peloton, retaining their time gap on the GC, 47 seconds back. Both men moved up in position slightly, to ninth and 14th respectively ahead of Friday's time trial.

Mark Cavendish (Etixx - Quick-Step) took out his third stage victory of the race in comfortable fashion, out-sprinting  Zico Waeytens (Giant-Alpecin) and Peter Sagan (Tinkoff-Saxo) to solidify his hold on the points jersey.

Toms Skujins (Hincapie Racing) saw his lead trimmed slightly to 18 seconds over Sagan, with the GC situation set to evolve again over the coming stages.

Danny Pate was forced into action late on to help chase down a dangerous breakaway, with a crash at 6km to go also fracturing the peloton. Thankfully Team Sky avoided any issues, with Philip Deignan leading the line at the finish.

The action continues on Saturday with a shortened time trial, moved from the original location at Big Bear Lake due to forecasts of snow. The flat course around Santa Clarita is trimmed significantly to 10.6km.