Race provided a platform to top stars like Sagan, Boonen, Cavendish
Skujins the underdog
Toms Skujins (Cannondale-Drapac) crashed hard while descending on stage 2 (Image credit: TDW Sport)
If you look down the list of most-prolific Tour of California winners, the usual big names - Sagan, Mark Cavendish (10 stage wins), Levi Leipheimer (six stages, three overall wins) - sit at the top. The first relative unknown is Toms Skujins, the agressive Latvian who won his first Tour of California stage as a rider for the Continental squad Hincapie in 2015 with an audacious solo effort into San Jose.
Skujins was part of the day's breakaway and dropped his companions on the ascent of Mt. Hamilton, then blasted down the dangerously technical descent. Helped along by some tactical decisions by the GC contenders, Skujins finished with 1:06 in hand and, later on, a WorldTour contract with the Cannondale team.
He won again in 2016 at South Lake Tahoe - again from a breakaway and again on a mountainous stage. The next year, Skujins was going for a hat trick, making the breakaway on a stage with the same Mt. Hamilton climb and descent that propelled him into the WorldTour. He made a select front group over the crest of Mt. Hamilton, but on a high-speed section of the lower part of the descent, Skujins crashed hard in a bend.
Video of the aftermath is still difficult to watch, with Skujins fighting his way up from the ground and trying to remount his bicycle, only to fall again and again, stumbling around and nearly into the other riders. He said later that he has no memory of the event and what preceded it because he suffered a concussion in the crash.
When Skujins not only recovered from his brain injury and made the winning move into Laguna Seca in 2018 then out-foxed his rivals to win the Tour of California's stage 3, it was no surprise the now-Trek-Segafredo rider took a little more time than usual to do a victory dance.
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Laura Weislo has been with Cyclingnews since 2006 after making a switch from a career in science. As Managing Editor, she coordinates coverage for North American events and global news. As former elite-level road racer who dabbled in cyclo-cross and track, Laura has a passion for all three disciplines. When not working she likes to go camping and explore lesser traveled roads, paths and gravel tracks. Laura specialises in covering doping, anti-doping, UCI governance and performing data analysis.
