Cycling: Peter Sagan (Tinkoff) lived up to his role as favorite at the start of the Tour of California last night, winning the opener in San Diego. The Slovakian road world champion relegated Wouter Wippert (Cannondale) and Dylan Groenewegen (LottoNL-Jumbo) to second and third place. John Degenkolb (Giant-Alpecin) finished 81st with the peloton.
Shortly after the start, a seven-man breakaway formed and stayed in the lead for most of the 175 kilometers to be covered. In the field, it was above all the two Russian teams of Katusha and Tinkoff who set the pace and picked up the pace in time for the finish in the coastal metropolis of San Diego. As a result, the gap between the breakaways quickly melted away and so the mass sprint that most experts had predicted beforehand took place at the finish.
Alexander Kristoff was unable to crown the strong performance of his teammates: In a promising position, the Norwegian struggled with the strong headwind and lacked the necessary patience and rip-off: He faced the wind much too early and wanted to force victory, but 100m from the finish the beefy Katusha professional was passed by the oncoming pursuers. In the end it was favorite Peter Sagan who crossed the finish line first, just ahead of Belgian Wouter Wippert. "It was a good day [...] In the end I waited until the last moment," the Tinkoff pro commented on his winning tactics.
Jens Voigt on the first stage and with a preview of tomorrow
From a German point of view, the race went very well for John Degenkolb. In the end, the 27-year-old even tried to make it into the group of top sprinters, but it wasn't quite enough. "In order to finish at the top, everything has to be 100% perfect for me at the moment - it doesn't have that today," he stated soberly. But he can certainly build on this performance, even though he said he "didn't really feel bombastic" on the mountain, Dege showed an appealing performance.
Final Result Tour of California Stage #1
| PLATZ | Driver | Country | Team | Time |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Peter Sagan | SVK | Tinkoff | 04:20:41 |
| 2 | Wouter Wippert | NED | Cannondale | |
| 3 | Dylan Groenewegen | NED | Team LottoNL-Jumbo | |
| 4 | Bryan coquard | From | Direct Energie | |
| 5 | Martijn Verschoor | NED | Team Novo Nordisk | |
| 6 | Niccolo Boniface | ITA | Trek-Segafredo | |
| 7 | Ruben guerreiro | POR | Axeon Hagens Berman | |
| 8 | Tom Boonen | BEL | Etixx - Quick Step | |
| 9 | Jean Pierre Drucker | LUX | BMC | |
| 10 | J | USA | United health |