The weather for the third stage from San Francisco to Santa Cruz was much better and the crowds were out at the start to see points leader Mark Cavendish retain his green jersey after winning the first sprint of the day and then coming third in the second.
At the first hill, a five man break got clear. They were at one time over four minutes ahead of the peleton but work from the three big American teams - Radio Shack, HTC Colombia and Garmin in their home race, pulled them back and with 39.5km to go, the escapees were swallowed up.
As they approached the 12km climb to Bonny Dune, Radio Shack's Levi Leipheimer who won this race last year, HTC Colombia's Michael Rogers and David Zabriskie from Garmin got clear.
Levi Leipheimer
They stayed out front right until the finish where there was a sprint amongst the three. No-one initially knew whether it was David Zabriskie or Michael Rogers had got over the line first. There was a delay but it was Garmin's Zabriskie who won it in a photo finish from Rogers with Leipheimer third and Peter Sagan, some seventeen seconds back in fourth.
The win was enough to put Zabriskie in the yellow jersey.
In the Giro D'Italia, Zabriskie's Garmin team-mate Tyler Farrar, who was well assisted by Britain's David Millar, won the 10th stage.
David Millar
Pictures copyright of Covsupport News Service. Credit CNS/KM