Sacramento (California, USA), .- The Slovakian runner Peter Sagan won this Sunday in the first stage of the Tour of California that played in the urban area and around Sacramento, the capital of the state, where he finished the edition from last year.
The triumph of Sagan, of the Bora-Hansggrohe team) was the first one that he achieved in almost four months and it happened after achieving a record of 3 hours, 14 minutes and 10 seconds after completing a 143-kilometer course.
Sagan was fastest on the finish line after overtaking United States team Travis McCabe by four seconds in the sprint.
While the third was the third was the German Max Walscheid, team Team Sunweb, who entered six seconds behind the winner.
Out of the final sprint were specialist runners who had the option to win as Mark Cavendish (Dimension-Data) and Fabio Jakobsen (Deceuninck-Quick Step), who lost the first 30 seconds in relation to Sagan.
The victory of Sagan is the seventeenth of his career, but only the second so far in the 2019 season after last January 17 he won the third stage of the Tour Down Under.
The three times world champion was satisfied to have returned to the winning way after having been at the doors in the previous tests he played as were Paris-Roubaix and Milan-San Remo.
“Last year I could not win, but I feel very happy that I have achieved one more stage,” said Sagan at the end of the race. “It would be very interesting and nice to be able to set a record here in the Tour of California.”
The victory also allowed the Slovak cyclist to don the T-shirt of the race leader, but it is unlikely that he can repeat his result four years ago when he won the overall after eight stages.
The second stage of the fourteenth edition of the Tour of California, runners will have to climb gradually from sea level to 2,616 m before ending at South Lake Tahoe.
An uphill finish that will tempt the runners of the plain to have their first skirmishes as it happened beginning in Sacramento, where the peloton headed north of the Central Valley.
Almost immediately, four men stepped forward to form a getaway with Laurens de Vreese (Astana), Tyler Stites (United States), Charles Planet (Novo-Nordisk) and Michael Schär (CCC Team).
The quartet was never allowed to extend its advantage to more than a few minutes, and perhaps aware of the inevitable, de Vreese sat down to be reached by the 76-kilometer platoon, from the 143-stage, still to run.
A hungry peloton of a group sprint caught Plant, the last surviving member of the breakaway, with 19 kilometers to reach the finish and the victory was decided in the final sprint, which this time was favorable to Sagan. (EFE)
