Peter Sagan of Tinkoff has won the opening stage of 2016 Amgen Tour Of California.
World Champion Peter Sagan, John Degenkolb, Tom Boonen, Sir Bradley Wiggins and Mark Cavendish were amongst a strong field for the opening 170.5km (108 miles) stage of a race in its eleventh running, which started and finished in San Diego.
The break formed quite early with Daniel Patten (Team Wiggins), Daniel Eaton (UnitedHealthcare), Jacob Rathe (Jelly Belly p/b Maxxis), Joonas Henttala (Novo Nordisk), Danny Pate (Rally Cycling), Michael Sheehan (Jelly Belly p/b Maxxis) and Oscar Clark (Holowesko-Citadel) in it.
This break was quickly 2.35 clear with sixteen kilometres gone and then extended to 6.15 by the time, Sheehan took the first intermediate sprint ahead of Eaton and Rathe.
A further ten seconds had been added by the fifty kilometre mark when the road started to go up as the riders headed for the day's KOM at Honey Springs Road.
The gap started to come down and was at 4.45 as it went through the feedzone.
Oscar Clark took the KOM Climb at Honey Springs Road ahead of Rathe and Pate as the gap dropped by another thirty seconds.
It was down to 2.10 with 63kms to go and 1.35 when Michael Sheehan took the points on the second sprint with 34kms left.
The break started to fracture so Jacob Rathe went off on his own with 27kms left. Clark and Patten from Wigan, joined him with the rest dropping back to the peloton who were only forty seconds behind with 14kms left.
Rathe and Clark dropped Patten with 8.2kms left but the peloton was swarming with Katusha, who had done a lot of work in the stage, on the front.
Team Sky with British champion Peter Kennaugh at the fore took over as they headed for Mission Bay. With 3.3kms to go, the catch was made and LottoNL-Jumbo, riding for Dylan Groenwegen, came forward.
Then Tinkoff with Peter Sagan came up as did Mark Cavendish. Dylan Gronewegen went but on the left, up came Peter Sagan and he took the win in 4.20.31 ahead of Wouter Wippert of Cannondale and Dylan Groenwegen.
Stage two starts in South Pasendena and finishes in Santa Clarita after 150.7kms.