Peter Sagan won the sprint at the Laguna Seca speedway today to extend his Amgen Tour of California stage-winning record to 15. Sagan easily came past Nathan Haas and Greg Van Avermaet to win the difficult stage, which featured miles of Pacific coastline, thousands of feet of accumulated climbing, and a punchy finale up a steep road to the speedway, which itself featured some tough rolling terrain before descending through a corkscrew and to the line. All of this played in to the hands of the Slovakian World Champion, who climbed with the overall contenders, managed the curves with his trademark expertise, and threw down a last-20-second sprint to decisively take the victory over Van Avermaet who is making his return to racing after injuries sustained in the classics.
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Overnight leader Julian Alaphilippe had his Etixx-Quick Step squad working hard for him today, including former world champion and classics great Tom Boonen hammering over the rolling terrain to reel in the day's escape. The Frenchman was able to retain his 22 second lead over Peter Stetina of Trek heading into tomorrow's ride to Lake Tahoe.
Result:
GC:
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Morro Bay - Laguna Seca 215 km
Pacific Coast Highway stage, a steady fixture in California. This time finishing at the Laguna Seca race track.
Classic ATOC winner of the day: Peter Sagan
We've had way too much irregular winning. Can we please get back to Peter Sagan winning everything. It's so comforting and familiar.