Peter Sagan repaid his Cannondale team for a tough chase on Saturday to win stage 7 of the Amgen Tour of California.
The 142km stage from Santa Clarita to Pasadena was marked by a break containing Ben King (Garmin-Sharp); Chad Haga (Giant-Shimano); Eloy Teruel (Jamis-Sutter Home); Greg Van Avermaet (BMC Racing); Lars Boom (Belkin); Luis Davila (Jelly Belly); and Isaac Bolivar (UnitedHealthcare).
As the escapees’ gap came down to two minutes, Bolivar attacked the break, and King, Haga and Van Avermaet stuck with him. Boom rejoined on a descent preceding the main drop to Pasadena.
Behind, Cannondale had four men on the front for Sagan. Race leader Bradley Wiggins (Sky) was enjoying a free ride.
On the final descent to Pasadena the numbers began to tell, and with 34km to go the leaders had but a half-minute’s advantage .
Hitting the finishing circuit in Pasadena the break was down to King and Van Avermaet, who had about 20 seconds over the Cannondale-led peloton.
Going into the second of three laps the escapees’ advantage had been slashed in half as Sky contributed horsepower to the chase. Sagan and John Degenkolb (Giant-Shimano) were both in the bunch, as were Taylor Phinney and Thor Hushovd (BMC).
Heading into bell lap Javier Mendes (NetApp-Endura) bridged to the leaders and went straight to the front to push the pace, but that effort came to naught. Then the finale grew slightly chaotic, with opportunists trying to outfox the sprinters — one Jamis-Sutter Home rider who thought the race was done punched it and launched a victory celebration one lap too early. Then Janier Acevedo (Garmin) had a go, a climber trying to sucker the fast-twitch men.
But Cannondale had worked too hard for Sagan to be denied. He slipped into fifth wheel before the penultimate corner, and as Hushovd began his sprint too soon, it was Sagan taking his first win of this year’s Amgen tour ahead of Hushovd and Danny Van Poppel (Trek Factory Racing). — and making it look absurdly easy.
Wiggins retained the overall lead with one stage remaining. Rohan Dennis (Garmin) remains second at 30 seconds down with Lawson Craddock (Giant-Shimano) third at 1:48.
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