On the first 167.8km stage from Nevada City to Sacramento, four riders broke clear. HTC Colombia and a number of the American teams chased them down and with 22km to go, the peleton was as one.
When the race arrived in Sacramento, there was still three laps of the city to go and Mark Cavendish's team did plenty of work to get their man up to the front.
With a lap left, Saxo Bank had the early advantage with Jens Voigt and Belgium Champions Tom Boonen breaking clear before a neat move had Colombia back in front.
The sprinters were getting themselves up to the front with Garmin's Robbie Hunter in a menacing position.
There was a crash behind the leaders in which Boonen was involved but it did not affect the front runners and Mark Cavendish went like a bullet to beat JJ
Haedo of Saxo Bank over the line with Christoff third, Hunter fourth and Cantwell fifth.
"I'm really happy," said Cavendish after the stage to his team's press office. "I thought it was going to be a bunch sprint and the team controlled it perfectly. When you've got eight guys giving 100% and all trusting each other it just works. Only one guy crossed with their hands in the air but it's a team effort.
"The beginning was quite hard when the attack was trying to go but after that the team controlled it all day to keep the gap down. A couple of teams helped us along the way and then we took over. We've got the best team in the world for leading out a sprint and we know not to take over too early or too late.
"I trust Mark Renshaw's wheel, he trusts Bernie Eisel's wheel, Bernie trusts Tony Martin's wheel and it just goes like that. I'm the one who crosses the line first but all the guys in front of me deliver me perfectly.
"California is always a really nice place to race. The people are always enthusiastic and come out to support the race and especially now that the race is in May and the weather is great.
"We are a Californian team and we have American sponsors and it's an important thing for us to do well here. Hopefully we can get a couple more sprints but the pressure's off a bit now and we would really like to go for GC. Mick Rogers is in the form of his life so I can hope that I can also contribute to that goal too."
Stage Two is 176km long and from Davis to Santa Rosa. It is live on Eurosport tonight.
Britain's Ben Swift won the Tour Of Picardie in France today. The Team Sky rider took over the GC after a second place yesterday and made sure that he was in the bunch today to claim his first ever tour win.
Picture copyright of Covsupport News Service. Credit CNS/KM