The general classification for the eight-day Amgen Tour of California all came down to one climb.

Today’s queen stage ended on the brutally steep Mt. Baldy, and when the peloton arrived to the final six kilometers it was every man for himself; no more tactics, no more drafting, it was simply the strongest wins.

The 128.7- kilometer penultimate stage seven was short, but what it lacked in overall distance it made up vertically with over 11 thousand feet (3,350 meters) of climbing.

The selection was made honestly as the road pitched drastically upward, and when the top riders emerged over the finish line Riccardo Zoidl was 5th and Haimar Zubeldia finished seconds later for 7th, moving both riders up in the overall standings.

“I am empty now,” Zoidl said, “but I felt very good all day. At the beginning of the climb I could not follow the first acceleration, but then we stayed with Gesink and I was able to recover a little bit and I was able to jump again. After that acceleration I was a little bit a bloc and I needed 2-3kms to recover in order to speed up again.”

Up the road from Zubeldia and Zoidl, Julian Alaphilippe (Etixx-Quick Step) led the race; he soloed to a dramatic win and into the yellow jersey, snatching the overall lead from Peter Sagan (Tinkoff-Saxo) by a mere two seconds. 

Zubeldia now holds onto 6th GC and Zoidl 8th with one day remaining, a flat circuit race in the heart of Los Angeles that is scheduled for tomorrow.

Zubeldia described the final climb: “Tinkoff-Saxo and Sky pulled hard into the climb, especially Sky as they tried to explode everything. We started that last climb full gas. Ricky (Zoidl) and I stayed with Gesink, and after with three (kilometers) to go Ricky jumped, but I stayed back with Gesink. When I saw he was not going so well I went full gas in the last two kilometers. It was a good finish for us.”

“I think the whole team the entire week have worked well,” he added. “We worked as a team, and we will have another chance with Danny [van Poppel] or Jasper [Stuyven] tomorrow.”