Reports

Mark Cavendish wins final Tour of California stage

Manxman bags third stage win of season as Julian Alaphilippe seals overall honours

Mark Cavendish (Dimension Data) signed off from the Amgen Tour of California with victory on the final stage, taking his career tally to ten wins in the American race.

Cavendish outsprinted world champion Peter Sagan (Tinkoff) on the pan-flat Sacramento circuit to add to his victories in Qatar and Croatia earlier in the season.

Former team-mate Julian Alaphilippe (Etixx-QuickStep) bagged overall victory, meanwhile, bettering his second place finish of 12 months ago.

Cavendish believes experience paid off on the finishing circuit, expressing his delight at bagging what was proving a hard-to-come-by stage victory for Team Dimension Data.

Mark Cavendish won stage eight of the Amgen Tour of California (pic: ASO)

“It’s been a tough week, Nathan [Haas] was third the other day, but we really wanted to get this stage win,” he admitted.

“It was a windy day, so we had to take on the race. The guys rode out of their skins, Jacques rode the whole day on the front, and then everyone was just really going for it.

“We had to use our whole lead-out to catch the break, so in the end it was a bit a case of free styling. I was on Sagan’s wheel and know this finish really well. I’ve won here before and knew that, if was in the right position I should win here again.”

Cavendish had spent time in the break earlier in the race, but had not featured in the previous sprint finishes won by Sagan on stage one and Alexander Kristoff on stage seven.

All three men will now step up their preparations for the Tour de France, with Sagan expected at the Tour de Suisse and Cavendish the Tour de Slovenie next month.

Sagan picked up two stage wins in all, also emerging victorious on the punchy stage four finale into Monterey County.

Alaphilippe and Cannondale duo Ben King and Toms Skujins also netted stage wins, while Rohan Dennis won the stage six time trial on his way to second overall.

Cavendish was one of 14 Brits on the startline in California but it was a race to forget for fellow Manxman Peter Kennaugh (Team Sky) who crashed heavily on stage three and could now miss the Tour de France.

Cavendish’s former team-mate, Julian Alaphilippe, won the overall title (Pic: ASO)

Tao Geoghegan Hart (Axeon Hagens Berman) was the best-placed Brit overall, finishing 12^th – one better than last year – and second in the youth classification.

The race overall belonged to a delighted Alaphilippe, however – the first stage race win of the Frenchman’s career.

He said: “This victory is really important. It’s my first win of the season, and it’s the first time that I won a General Classification,” he said.

“It’s really something special to win this race, especially here in California, and I’m really proud of my team all week, especially today because it was a really stressful day for a lot of riders in the peloton. Everyone wanted to be in the front….It was a good day and I’m really, really happy.”

Cavendish’s win capped a great weekend for British riders, with Dan McLay (Fortuneo-Vital Concept) outsprinting Nacer Bouhanni to win the Grand Prix de la Somme, Tom Stewart (Madison-Genesis) bagging his first UCI-classified victory at Velothon Wales one week after winning the Lincoln Grand Prix and one-time Rapha Condor-JLT rider Daniel Whitehouse taking overall honours at the UCI 2.2-classified Tour de Flores.