BMC headed into the Tour of California as the defending champions and in the absence of Tejay van Garderen, it was Peter Stetina who got his first chance to lead the team in a major race. He did well to take sixth but regretted the time loss from the time trial.

Peter Stetina finished sixth overall for the BMC Racing Team Sunday at the Amgen Tour of California while teammate Thor Hushovd was sixth in the bunch sprint won by Mark Cavendish (Omega Pharma-Quick Step). 

Stetina repeatedly attacked the group containing race leader Bradley Wiggins (Team Sky) during the 122.4-kilometer circuit race through Thousand Oaks. But Wiggins responded to every challenge to secure his 30-second overall victory ahead of Rohan Dennis (Garmin-Sharp).

Stetina finished 2:30 off the pace – all of it conceded in the individual time trial on Stage 2.

"I showed that I can be up there with those guys on the climbs," Stetina said. "I was one of the more aggressive guys whenever the race went uphill. But I knew I had to be as well, because the part that I really floundered this week was the time trial.

"Unfortunately, this was a parcours where the race was decided by minutes in the time trial and seconds in the mountains. So we need to keep working on the time trial."

Hushovd, who finished runner-up on Saturday's sprint into Pasadena, said his teammates looked after him all day and provided a good lead-out.

"We ended up early in the front, but I am missing the top-end speed when I am up against guys like Mark Cavendish and Peter Sagan," the Norwegian national road champion said.

Cavendish won ahead of John Degenkolb (Team Giant-Shimano) and Sagan (Cannondale Pro Cycling Team), who took the win on Saturday.

Sport Director Max Sciandri said he liked what he saw of the support it put around Stetina and also the solo breakaway by Taylor Phinney on Stage 5 that added a victory to his third-place finish in the time trial.

"The win with Taylor was fantastic," Sciandri said. "Everybody really put in their efforts and tried where they could. We got a good general result. I'm happy with the team and the staff. It was a harder race than I expected."

Larry Warbasse did not finish the race after crashing with another rider on the descent of the Rock Store climb. He was not seriously hurt, but suffered extensive road rash to his right side, BMC Racing Team Dr. Eric Heiden said.