Sagan takes second win of the week on stage 4 at Tour of California
Having announced that he was targeting stage wins at this year’s race, Peter Sagan added a second win of the week to his tally on the Laguna Seca race circuit with another superb performance. The victory marks Sagan’s 15th career stage win at the Amgen Tour of California, and more opportunities await. The win also cemented his lead in the green jersey points classification.
Tinkoff’s intentions were clear throughout the stage with a strong presence on the front chasing down the day’s breakaway before Peter Sagan emerged at the head of the race on the day’s final difficulty, the Mazda Raceway Summit, climbing 1.1km at an average of 10.3% and gradients of up to 18%. He helped to make sure nothing got clear before taking another convincing sprint win from the small group left at the front of the race.
Sport Director Patxi Vila was proud of the work that the Tinkoff team put in, and full of praise for all the riders. “It’s a really nice win after the effort the guys put in. The team was fantastic – we didn’t get any help in chasing and it was a long, long stage but they were 300% committed to the task.
“Even though we knew the final would be hard for Peter, when you have a leader like him then everybody pulls together and gives that extra bit to make it work.”
Today’s fifth stage will take the riders up to over 2,600m altitude on a very tough stage that climbs for what will feel like the majority of the day. The 212km parcours takes in two second category climbs before a final third category ascent to the finish line in South Lake Tahoe.
Tour of California 2016 – stage 4 results (Morro Bay – Monterey County):
| 1 | Peter Sagan (Tinkoff) |
5:16:33 |
| 2 | Greg Van Avermaet (BMC) |
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| 3 | Nathan Haas (Dimension Data) |
,, |
| 4 | Brent Bookwalter (BMC) |
,, |
| 5 | Tao Geoghegan-Hart (Axeon Hagens Berman) |
,, |
| 6 | Neilson Powless (Axeon Hagens Berman) |
,, |
| 7 | Rohan Dennis (BMC) |
,, |
| 8 | Jurgen Van den Broeck (Katusha) |
,, |
| 9 | Rob Britton (Rally Cycling) |
,, |
| 10 | Julian Alaphilippe (Etixx – Quick-Step) |
,, |
General classification after stage 4:
| 1 | Julian Alaphilippe (Etixx – Quick-Step) |
18:06:17 |
| 2 | Peter Stetina (Trek-Segafredo) |
+22” |
| 3 | George Bennett (LottoNl-Jumbo) |
+37” |
| 4 | Brent Bookwalter (BMC) |
+40” |
| 5 | Neilson Powless (Axeon Hagens Berman) |
+43” |
| 6 | Laurens ten Dam (Giant-Alpecin) |
+49” |
| 7 | Rohan Dennis (BMC) |
+01’01” |
| 8 | Samuel Sanchez (BMC) |
,, |
| 9 | Rob Britton (Rally Cycling) |
+01’12” |
| 10 | Haimar Zubeldia (Trek-Segafredo) |
+01’15” |
