Chris Horner won the AMGEM Tour Of California but Matty Goss won the final stage.
The final stage eight was from 132.4km from Santa Clarita to Thousand Oaks and finished with five laps of the Californian town.
Four riders in Jan Barta (Team NetApp), Jose Fernando Antogna (Jamis-Sutter Home), Bradley White (UnitedHealthcare Pro Cycling) and Michael Friedman (Kelly Benefit Strategies-OptumHealth), got up to three minutes clear before Radio Shack and HTC Highroad pulled them back by a minute with 32kms to go.
Barta won the final King Of The Mountain's battle and Antogna took the first intermediate sprint of the day in Moorpark.
On the streets of Thousand Oaks, Martin Mortensen (Leopard Trek) and Maarten Tjallingii (Rabobank Cycling Team) tried to bridge the gap and with 19km to go, they were successful as Brad White dropped off the back of the leaders.
The peleton knowing that today was a day for the sprinters closed down on the escapees. They caught up with Antogna and Friedman but the trio were away until the final lap.
With 5kms to go, the trio shook hands and their day at the front was over.
Saxo Bank took to the front but with two kms to go, Team Sky appeared at the front along with HTC who set up Matt Goss who was first over the line with Peter Sagan in second.
Horner won the General Classification by 36 seconds.
"It's nice to finish off the tour with a win as well as Tejay taking the young riders jersey," said Goss. "The team worked really well and did a perfect leadout at the finish. Leigh [Howard] dropped me off at 180m to go and I had the easy part of just finishing it off. It's good to be able to repay all the hard work that the guys put it with a win."
Van Garderen came to California with big ambitions for his first race as team leader for the general classification.
"I'm happy but I'm not overly thrilled," said Van Garderen of his final GC placing. "I was expecting more of myself. But it's a good platform for improvement and it shows promise for the years the come.
"I'm happy that I was able to get up there and help out Gossy for the stage win. It was good teamwork today."