Tour of California: Peter Sagan wins stage 4

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Peter Sagan (Tinkoff) won his second stage of this year's Tour of California, edging out Greg Van Avermaet (BMC Racing) in a close sprint in Laguna Seca.

The race split several times on the run-in to the line but Sagan marked several moves and despite numerical supremacy from BMC, the world champion came through to win ahead of Van Avermaet and Nathan Haas (Dimension Data). Julian Alaphilippe (Etixx Quickstep) finished in the lead group to keep his leader's yellow jersey.

"I'm very happy," Sagan said after a long day in the saddle. "I have to thank all my teammates because they pulled all day. Today was 220km almost and they were all the day in the front. In the last two climbs it was very hard, and then I was alone because the other riders did their job before. It was very hard to stay with the climbers, and everyone was attacking. When we came into the final kilometers it was in a descent, and Van Avermaet was the big favourite and he was always on my wheel. After the last turn I let one guy go in front of me, and he pulled my sprint. I was very happy to win."

Alaphilippe took out the first intermediate sprint to extend his lead in the overall standings to 22 seconds over Peter Stetina (Trek-Segafredo). George Bennett (LottoNl-Jumbo) remains third at 37 seconds.

The Frenchman has been hedging on whether he can defend the yellow jersey for the rest of the race, and said today was a harder day than Tuesday's stage 3.

"Today it was different. My legs were not so good, and it was warmer. In the last climb I was really suffering, and I wasn't in a very good position for the last kilometer. I lost some time and I had to close the gap at the last turn. I did my best for the sprint, but it wasn't my best day.

"I am taking it day by day. It was a different day today, but beautiful. I enjoyed my time in the stage, we are lucky to ride here. Tomorrow is another chance to take the victory and fight for the yellow jersey."

How it unfolded

With the peloton staring down the barrel of 217 taxing kilometres along the California coast, the riders were unusually excited to race hard and shot out of Morro Bay so quickly that no attack could stay clear. The furious pace was kept up for a solid hour, with Alaphilippe taking out the first intermediate sprint, padding his lead in the GC by three seconds over Peter Stetina.

It wasn't until 60km into the race that Mark Cavendish (Dimension Data), Michael Mørkøv (Katusha), Ryan Anderson (Direct Energie), Timo Roosen (LottoNl-Jumbo), Tanner Putt (UnitedHealthcare), Gregory Daniel (Axeon Hagens Berman), and William Routley (Rally Cycling) were given the go-ahead to ride away. They gained five minutes at one point, but the Etixx and Tinkoff teams kept tabs on them, bringing them back to under three minutes as they left Big Sur before easing up.

Routley snapped up all three category 3 climbs along the highway, doing his part to protect his teammate Evan Huffman's lead in that classification.

The gap then went back out to almost five minutes again as Cavendish and his mates kept rolling through steadily, ignoring the final sprint of the day in Carmel Highlands in a desperate attempt to make the impossible happen - remaining clear of the peloton.

But the category 2 ascent on Laureles Road proved the breakaway's undoing: only Daniel would remain out front by the top, being chased by a steadily shrinking peloton. Attacks from Cannondale's Lawson Craddock and Andrew Talansky, LottoNl-Jumbo's George Bennett, and Daniel Teklehaimanot (Dimension Data) all came to naught, and the Axeon rider's lead was in the single digits as they reached the base of the final categorized climb toward Laguna Seca raceway.

He was caught, but his teammate Ruben Guerreiro countered and stayed clear just long enough to enter the race track in front. But soon the Sagan and Alaphilippe group swept past and began their preparations for the sprint.

Dimension Data's Nathan Haas attempted to foil the fast men, but was caught before the crest of the corkscrew. Only a dozen riders made up the leading group on the descent, with Sagan and Van Avermaet tucked in. Haas found a second wind and led out the sprint but only served to drag Sagan to his 15th career win in this race. Van Avermaet came through in second, with Haas rounding out the podium.

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