Vacansoleil's Lieuwe Westra won the Amgen Tour Of California opening stage.
A 165km stage which started and finished in Escondido started without RadioShack's Ben King who had hurt his hands so badly in a training crash that he could not steer his bike.
https://twitter.com/AmgenTourofCali/status/333670236056342528/photo/1
In temperatures of 100F,Zak Dempster (NetApp), Marsh Cooper (Optum), James Stemper (5 Hour Energy) and Carter Jones (Bissell) broke away after 12 kilometres.
They were nearly five minutes clear when Jones took the first Visit California sprint and the five points at Ramona ahead of Stemper and Cooper and took their lead out to 10.50 after 67.5kms.
Dempster nipped round Jones to take the first King Of The Mountains points at Mesa Grande as the gap came down to 8.45.
Approaching Mt Palomar, Stemper, Jones, & Cooper dropped Dempster as Thor Hushovd dropped back towards the rear of the peloton.
Carter Jones took the 10 points on Mr Palomar as the gap steadied at 7.35.
It dropped to 4.45 as Jones took the points on the category 3 climb at Cole Grade.
Marsh Cooper was swept up with thirty kilometres remaining by a group including Cannondale's Peter Sagan and Radioshack's Andy Schleck, leaving just James Semper and Carter Jones up front.
With 17.2kms to go, Andy Schleck tried to attack but Sagan went with him before Koenig of Net App Endura had a go on the front as at the back of the peloton, Luis Romero crashed.
The speed of the peloton meant that with ten kilometres of the stage remaining, the gap to Semper and Jones was only 35 seconds.
On the flat roads, the two lone escapers were now insight for the peloton and with 5.2kms, Semper and Jones shook hands and Lieuwe Westra of Vacansoleil took a 50m lead.
Riders were darting all over the road and after Sagan had a mechanical, Westa was joined by Mancebo.
They were a few hundred yards ahead as they went under the flam rouge and onto the final straight, it was between Westra and Mancebo and it was Lieuwe Westra who won in a time of 4.31.33 beating Mancebo and Peter Sagan.
With the four seconds bonus, Westra leads by four seconds from Mancebo and twelve seconds from Sagan and Gianni Meersman.