Tour of California 2017 – Stage 3 [LAST 10 KM]

May 16, 2017

Tour of California 2017 – Stage 3 – Pismo Beach – Morro Bay : 192,5 km

The 2017 Amgen Tour of California is a road cycling stage race that is scheduled to take place between 14 and 20 May. It is the 12th edition of the Tour of California and the 22nd event of the 2017 UCI World Tour; the first time that the race has been staged as part of the World Tour.

Peter Sagan made it a double day for his Bora-Hansgrohe team, adding his 16th Tour of California stage victory to the continued race lead of his teammate Rafal Majka.

Sagan played off a 400m-to-go attack by Cannondale-Drapac’s Taylor Phinney, using the American as the rubber band for his slingshot and then blasting past Katusha’s Rick Zabel to take the win in Morro Bay. Simone Consonni (UAE Team Emirates) pipped Alexander Kristoff (Katusha) for third on the stage.

Asked in the post-race press conference how the final metres played out, the world champion, who often rides by instinct, had a smile answer.

“I don’t remember,” Sagan said. “I was afar way behind, and from the second last turn right I was really far behind, and after I start to recover a little bit of position in the front. After I did the last turn it was just a big mess in the front, and then I just started sprinting and kept going in the front. I don’t remember what happened.”

After a day long breakaway swept up the intermediate sprint bonuses, Majka keeps his two-second lead over LottoNl-Jumbo’s George Bennett, with Ian Boswell (Team Sky) still in third.

How it unfolded

At 192.5km stage 3 from Pismo Beach to Morro Bay was the longest of the 2017 race, and many riders likely recognised the majority of the stage from 2015 when it started a few kilometres down the coast in Avila Beach.

Pismo Beach and Morro Bay are less than 40km apart as the crow flies, so the stage actually headed inland far south of Pismo Beach, then turned back toward the coast after tackling the only climb of the day, the third-category Tepusquet Road that came at 84km.

In the finale, riders made a right turn off a beach road in Morro Bay with about 500 metres to go and immediately faced a short, steep ramp of about 50 metres. From there the road leveled out slightly but continued uphill all the way to the finish.

The long day in the saddle didn’t seem to discourage the escape attempts, as five riders took off from the bunch after just a few minutes of racing. In the breakaway were Rally Cycling’s Danny Pate, UAE Team Emirates’ Federico Zurlo Novo Nordisk’s David Lozano and a Jelly Belly-Belly Maxxis duo of Sean Bennett and Ben Wolfe, who was the most courageous jersey from the breakaway in stage 1.

The leaders benefited from a strong tailwind blowing them down the Pacific coast, and the gap was quickly over five minutes less than 20km into the race. The quintet rolled through the first of two intermediate sprints, with Zurlo taking the three-second time bonus ahead of Bennett and Lozano.

Quick-Step moved to the front to assist Bora-Hansgrohe with the chase, and the gap started coming down as the leaders made their way toward the KOM on Tepusquet Road. Lozano took top honours on the climb, and the leaders ripped down the descent.

From a maximum of 5:45, the gap was whittled down to just 2:10 with 55km to go as the leaders turned back toward Morro Bay. The gap was soon below two minutes, and the adventure off the front appeared to be doomed, although the escapees maintained their gap at just over a minute as they approached the second intermediate sprint with 28.5km to go.

Zurlo took the points and the top time bonus there, but the field continued to close in behind. The gap dipped below a minute for the first time with 20km to go, and with Juraj Sagan taking monster pulls to set up brother Peter, it was down to just 40 seconds a kilometre later.

Wolfe sensed the catch as the team cars were moved out of the gap and launched an attack against his breakaway companions, mirroring the move he made near the end of stage 1. Wolfe maintained a gap of 44 seconds with 12km to go as the other four escapees faded back into the field. Wolfe lingered long enough out front to earn his second jersey for most courageous rider in three stages, but he was also soon back in the fold.

With the breakaway in check, the sprinters’ teams began positioning for the technical final kilometres, where Bora dropped Sagan off at the front of the peloton, and the world champion took over from there.

Results :
1 Peter Sagan (Svk) Bora-Hansgrohe 4:53:26
2 Rick Zabel (Ger) Katusha-Alpecin
3 Simone Consonni (Ita) UAE Team Emirates
4 Alexander Kristoff (Nor) Katusha-Alpecin
5 Jean-Pierre Drucker (Lux) BMC Racing Team
6 Reinardt Janse Van Rensburg (RSA) Dimension Data
7 Taylor Phinney (USA) Cannondale-Drapac
8 Ramon Sinkeldam (Ned) Team Sunweb
9 Travis Mccabe (USA) UnitedHealthcare Professional Cycling Team
10 Mike Teunissen (Ned) Team Sunweb
11 Riccardo Minali (Ita) Astana Pro Team
12 Marcel Kittel (Ger) Quick-Step Floors
13 Robert Gesink (Ned) Team LottoNl-Jumbo
14 Matti Breschel (Den) Astana Pro Team
15 John Degenkolb (Ger) Trek-Segafredo
16 George Bennett (NZl) Team LottoNl-Jumbo 0:00:03
17 Brent Bookwalter (USA) BMC Racing Team
18 Matteo Trentin (Ita) Quick-Step Floors
19 Kiel Reijnen (USA) Trek-Segafredo
20 Wouter Wippert (Ned) Cannondale-Drapac
21 Samuel Sanchez (Spa) BMC Racing Team
22 Tom Bohli (Swi) BMC Racing Team
23 Geoffrey Soupe (Fra) Cofidis, Solutions Credits
24 Rafal Majka (Pol) Bora-Hansgrohe
25 Laurens De Vreese (Bel) Astana Pro Team
26 Martijn Verschoor (Ned) Team Novo Nordisk
27 Luis Angel Mate (Spa) Cofidis, Solutions Credits
28 Sam Oomen (Ned) Team Sunweb
29 Rúben Guerreiro (Por) Trek-Segafredo
30 Jhonatan Restrepo (Col) Katusha-Alpecin
31 Andrew Talansky (USA) Cannondale-Drapac
32 Joshua Berry (USA) Jelly Belly p/b Maxxis
33 Vegard Stake Laengen (Nor) UAE Team Emirates
34 Elia Viviani (Ita) Team Sky
35 Zdenek Stybar (Cze) Quick-Step Floors
36 Floris Gerts (Ned) BMC Racing Team
37 Colin Joyce (USA) Rally Cycling
38 Nicolas Edet (Fra) Cofidis, Solutions Credits
39 Tao Geoghegan Hart (GBr) Team Sky
40 Ulises Alfredo Castillo Soto (Mex) Jelly Belly p/b Maxxis
41 Haimar Zubeldia (Spa) Trek-Segafredo
42 Sepp Kuss (USA) Rally Cycling
43 Lachlan Morton (Aus) Dimension Data
44 Artyom Zakharov (Kaz) Astana Pro Team
45 Ben King (USA) Dimension Data
46 Enric Mas (Spa) Quick-Step Floors
47 Maximilian Schachmann (Ger) Quick-Step Floors
48 Daan Olivier (Ned) Team LottoNl-Jumbo
49 Adam De Vos (Can) Rally Cycling
50 Scott Thwaites (GBr) Dimension Data
51 Matteo Dal Cin (Can) Rally Cycling
52 Antwan Tolhoek (Ned) Team LottoNl-Jumbo
53 Guillaume Bonnafond (Fra) Cofidis, Solutions Credits
54 Martin Elmiger (Swi) BMC Racing Team
55 Owain Doull (GBr) Team Sky
56 Michael Schär (Swi) BMC Racing Team
57 Andrea Peron (Ita) Team Novo Nordisk
58 Janier Acevedo (Col) UnitedHealthcare Professional Cycling Team
59 Tiago Machado (Por) Katusha-Alpecin
60 Yousif Mirza Alhammadi (UAE) UAE Team Emirates
61 Arman Kamyshev (Kaz) Astana Pro Team
62 Miles Scotson (Aus) BMC Racing Team
63 Ian Boswell (USA) Team Sky
64 Pawel Poljanski (Pol) Bora-Hansgrohe
65 Lennard Hofstede (Ned) Team Sunweb
66 Serghei Tvetcov (Rom) Jelly Belly p/b Maxxis
67 Jacob Rathe (USA) Jelly Belly p/b Maxxis
68 Stéphane Rossetto (Fra) Cofidis, Solutions Credits
69 David Lopez (Spa) Team Sky
70 Javier Megias (Spa) Team Novo Nordisk
71 Nathan Brown (USA) Cannondale-Drapac
72 David Lozano (Spa) Team Novo Nordisk
73 Brendan Canty (Aus) Cannondale-Drapac
74 Jay McCarthy (Aus) Bora-Hansgrohe
75 Mathias Leturnier (Fra) Cofidis, Solutions Credits
76 Greg Henderson (NZl) UnitedHealthcare Professional Cycling Team
77 Koen De Kort (Ned) Trek-Segafredo
78 Joonas Henttala (Fin) Team Novo Nordisk
79 Floris De Tier (Bel) Team LottoNl-Jumbo
80 Alberto Bettiol (Ita) Cannondale-Drapac
81 Charles Planet (Fra) Team Novo Nordisk
82 Romain Gioux (Fra) Team Novo Nordisk
83 Nick Dougall (RSA) Dimension Data
84 Roy Curvers (Ned) Team Sunweb
85 Alexey Vermeulen (USA) Team LottoNl-Jumbo
86 Tanner Putt (USA) UnitedHealthcare Professional Cycling Team
87 Daniel Eaton (USA) UnitedHealthcare Professional Cycling Team
88 Filippo Ganna (Ita) UAE Team Emirates
89 Gavin Mannion (USA) UnitedHealthcare Professional Cycling Team
90 Michal Kolár (Svk) Bora-Hansgrohe
91 Christopher Williams (Aus) Team Novo Nordisk
92 Truls Korsaeth (Nor) Astana Pro Team 0:00:26
93 Erik Baska (Svk) Bora-Hansgrohe
94 Jonas Van Genechten (Bel) Cofidis, Solutions Credits 0:00:28
95 Marko Kump (Slo) UAE Team Emirates 0:00:31
96 Gregory Daniel (USA) Trek-Segafredo
97 Sean Bennett (USA) Jelly Belly p/b Maxxis
98 Daniil Fominykh (Kaz) Astana Pro Team
99 Jordan Cheyne (Can) Jelly Belly p/b Maxxis
100 Michael Morkov (Den) Katusha-Alpecin
101 Mads Würtz Schmidt (Den) Katusha-Alpecin
102 Yoann Bagot (Fra) Cofidis, Solutions Credits
103 Bert-Jan Lindeman (Ned) Team LottoNl-Jumbo 0:00:36
104 Andrea Guardini (Ita) UAE Team Emirates
105 Kristijan Durasek (Cro) UAE Team Emirates
106 Johannes Fröhlinger (Ger) Team Sunweb
107 Fabio Sabatini (Ita) Quick-Step Floors 0:00:39
108 Maciej Bodnar (Pol) Bora-Hansgrohe
109 Koen Bouwman (Ned) Team LottoNl-Jumbo 0:00:45
110 Markel Irizar (Spa) Trek-Segafredo 0:00:52
111 Bernhard Eisel (Aut) Dimension Data 0:00:54
112 Lawson Craddock (USA) Cannondale-Drapac 0:01:00
113 Danny van Poppel (Ned) Team Sky 0:01:02
114 Nils Politt (Ger) Katusha-Alpecin 0:01:11
115 Tyler Farrar (USA) Dimension Data
116 Jack Bauer (NZl) Quick-Step Floors 0:01:15
117 Jonathan Dibben (GBr) Team Sky 0:01:19
118 Rob Britton (Can) Rally Cycling 0:01:41
119 Jonathan Clarke (Aus) UnitedHealthcare Professional Cycling Team
120 Daniel Jaramillo (Col) UnitedHealthcare Professional Cycling Team
121 Ruslan Tleubayev (Kaz) Astana Pro Team 0:01:50
122 Peter Kennaugh (GBr) Team Sky 0:01:54
123 Juraj Sagan (Svk) Bora-Hansgrohe 0:02:07
124 Danny Pate (USA) Rally Cycling 0:02:13
125 Martin Velits (Svk) Quick-Step Floors
126 Evan Huffman (USA) Rally Cycling
127 Federico Zurlo (Ita) UAE Team Emirates
128 Marco Mathis (Ger) Katusha-Alpecin 0:02:23
129 Ben Wolfe (USA) Jelly Belly p/b Maxxis 0:02:41
130 Mark Renshaw (Aus) Dimension Data 0:03:06
DNF Chris Hamilton (Aus) Team Sunweb

General Classification after Stage 3 :
1 Rafal Majka (Pol) Bora-Hansgrohe 12:22:43
2 George Bennett (NZl) Team LottoNl-Jumbo 0:00:02
3 Ian Boswell (USA) Team Sky 0:00:14
4 Lachlan Morton (Aus) Dimension Data 0:00:16
5 Robert Gesink (Ned) Team LottoNl-Jumbo 0:00:45
6 Brent Bookwalter (USA) BMC Racing Team 0:00:48
7 Sam Oomen (Ned) Team Sunweb
8 Andrew Talansky (USA) Cannondale-Drapac
9 Vegard Stake Laengen (Nor) UAE Team Emirates
10 Maximilian Schachmann (Ger) Quick-Step Floors
11 Enric Mas (Spa) Quick-Step Floors
12 Tao Geoghegan Hart (GBr) Team Sky
13 Haimar Zubeldia (Spa) Trek-Segafredo 0:00:53
14 Luis Angel Mate (Spa) Cofidis, Solutions Credits 0:00:55
15 Nicolas Edet (Fra) Cofidis, Solutions Credits
16 Serghei Tvetcov (Rom) Jelly Belly p/b Maxxis 0:00:58
17 Janier Acevedo (Col) UnitedHealthcare Professional Cycling Team 0:01:02
18 David Lopez (Spa) Team Sky 0:01:11
19 Samuel Sanchez (Spa) BMC Racing Team 0:01:25
20 Jhonatan Restrepo (Col) Katusha-Alpecin
21 Michael Schär (Swi) BMC Racing Team 0:03:11
22 Adam De Vos (Can) Rally Cycling 0:03:48
23 Scott Thwaites (GBr) Dimension Data 0:04:42
24 Greg Henderson (NZl) UnitedHealthcare Professional Cycling Team 0:04:43
25 Ben King (USA) Dimension Data 0:04:45
26 Pawel Poljanski (Pol) Bora-Hansgrohe 0:04:47
27 Tiago Machado (Por) Katusha-Alpecin
28 Jay McCarthy (Aus) Bora-Hansgrohe
29 Stéphane Rossetto (Fra) Cofidis, Solutions Credits
30 Javier Megias (Spa) Team Novo Nordisk
31 Nathan Brown (USA) Cannondale-Drapac 0:05:31
32 Matteo Trentin (Ita) Quick-Step Floors 0:05:53
33 Peter Kennaugh (GBr) Team Sky 0:07:02
34 Brendan Canty (Aus) Cannondale-Drapac 0:08:00
35 Peter Sagan (Svk) Bora-Hansgrohe 0:10:43
36 Sepp Kuss (USA) Rally Cycling 0:11:06
37 Matti Breschel (Den) Astana Pro Team 0:12:42
38 Rob Britton (Can) Rally Cycling 0:12:44
39 Daan Olivier (Ned) Team LottoNl-Jumbo 0:12:45
40 Matteo Dal Cin (Can) Rally Cycling
41 Alberto Bettiol (Ita) Cannondale-Drapac
42 Floris De Tier (Bel) Team LottoNl-Jumbo
43 Daniel Eaton (USA) UnitedHealthcare Professional Cycling Team
44 Yoann Bagot (Fra) Cofidis, Solutions Credits 0:13:13
45 Evan Huffman (USA) Rally Cycling 0:13:16
46 Nils Politt (Ger) Katusha-Alpecin 0:14:17
47 Daniel Jaramillo (Col) UnitedHealthcare Professional Cycling Team 0:14:41
48 Jack Bauer (NZl) Quick-Step Floors 0:14:43
49 Geoffrey Soupe (Fra) Cofidis, Solutions Credits 0:15:21
50 Miles Scotson (Aus) BMC Racing Team
51 Rúben Guerreiro (Por) Trek-Segafredo 0:16:04
52 Artyom Zakharov (Kaz) Astana Pro Team 0:16:25
53 Guillaume Bonnafond (Fra) Cofidis, Solutions Credits 0:16:38
54 Rick Zabel (Ger) Katusha-Alpecin 0:17:43
55 Reinardt Janse Van Rensburg (RSA) Dimension Data 0:17:49
56 Alexander Kristoff (Nor) Katusha-Alpecin
57 Travis Mccabe (USA) UnitedHealthcare Professional Cycling Team
58 Simone Consonni (Ita) UAE Team Emirates
59 Floris Gerts (Ned) BMC Racing Team 0:17:51
60 Colin Joyce (USA) Rally Cycling 0:17:52
61 Zdenek Stybar (Cze) Quick-Step Floors 0:17:53
62 David Lozano (Spa) Team Novo Nordisk 0:17:54
63 Tanner Putt (USA) UnitedHealthcare Professional Cycling Team 0:17:55
64 Kiel Reijnen (USA) Trek-Segafredo 0:17:56
65 Laurens De Vreese (Bel) Astana Pro Team
66 Tom Bohli (Swi) BMC Racing Team
67 Joshua Berry (USA) Jelly Belly p/b Maxxis
68 Andrea Peron (Ita) Team Novo Nordisk
69 Antwan Tolhoek (Ned) Team LottoNl-Jumbo
70 Arman Kamyshev (Kaz) Astana Pro Team
71 Gavin Mannion (USA) UnitedHealthcare Professional Cycling Team
72 Lennard Hofstede (Ned) Team Sunweb
73 Alexey Vermeulen (USA) Team LottoNl-Jumbo
74 Nick Dougall (RSA) Dimension Data
75 Roy Curvers (Ned) Team Sunweb
76 Mathias Leturnier (Fra) Cofidis, Solutions Credits 0:18:16
77 Truls Korsaeth (Nor) Astana Pro Team 0:18:19
78 Sean Bennett (USA) Jelly Belly p/b Maxxis 0:18:20
79 Michael Morkov (Den) Katusha-Alpecin 0:18:24
80 Kristijan Durasek (Cro) UAE Team Emirates 0:18:29
81 Koen Bouwman (Ned) Team LottoNl-Jumbo 0:18:38
82 Markel Irizar (Spa) Trek-Segafredo 0:18:45
83 Owain Doull (GBr) Team Sky 0:18:47
84 Mike Teunissen (Ned) Team Sunweb 0:18:54
85 Daniil Fominykh (Kaz) Astana Pro Team 0:19:19
86 Jonathan Clarke (Aus) UnitedHealthcare Professional Cycling Team 0:19:29
87 Danny Pate (USA) Rally Cycling 0:20:06
88 Charles Planet (Fra) Team Novo Nordisk 0:20:15
89 Jonathan Dibben (GBr) Team Sky 0:20:22
90 Marcel Kittel (Ger) Quick-Step Floors 0:20:40
91 Elia Viviani (Ita) Team Sky 0:20:49
92 Jean-Pierre Drucker (Lux) BMC Racing Team 0:20:50
93 John Degenkolb (Ger) Trek-Segafredo
94 Ramon Sinkeldam (Ned) Team Sunweb
95 Wouter Wippert (Ned) Cannondale-Drapac 0:20:53
96 Taylor Phinney (USA) Cannondale-Drapac 0:20:54
97 Danny van Poppel (Ned) Team Sky 0:20:56
98 Ulises Alfredo Castillo Soto (Mex) Jelly Belly p/b Maxxis 0:20:57
99 Martijn Verschoor (Ned) Team Novo Nordisk
100 Martin Elmiger (Swi) BMC Racing Team
101 Koen De Kort (Ned) Trek-Segafredo
102 Yousif Mirza Alhammadi (UAE) UAE Team Emirates
103 Michal Kolár (Svk) Bora-Hansgrohe
104 Joonas Henttala (Fin) Team Novo Nordisk
105 Jacob Rathe (USA) Jelly Belly p/b Maxxis
106 Jonas Van Genechten (Bel) Cofidis, Solutions Credits 0:21:18
107 Filippo Ganna (Ita) UAE Team Emirates 0:21:19
108 Riccardo Minali (Ita) Astana Pro Team 0:21:20
109 Erik Baska (Svk) Bora-Hansgrohe
110 Marko Kump (Slo) UAE Team Emirates 0:21:21
111 Gregory Daniel (USA) Trek-Segafredo 0:21:25
112 Jordan Cheyne (Can) Jelly Belly p/b Maxxis
113 Bert-Jan Lindeman (Ned) Team LottoNl-Jumbo 0:21:30
114 Johannes Fröhlinger (Ger) Team Sunweb
115 Fabio Sabatini (Ita) Quick-Step Floors 0:21:33
116 Christopher Williams (Aus) Team Novo Nordisk 0:21:52
117 Lawson Craddock (USA) Cannondale-Drapac 0:21:54
118 Maciej Bodnar (Pol) Bora-Hansgrohe 0:21:55
119 Andrea Guardini (Ita) UAE Team Emirates 0:22:38
120 Mads Würtz Schmidt (Den) Katusha-Alpecin 0:22:40
121 Federico Zurlo (Ita) UAE Team Emirates 0:23:01
122 Tyler Farrar (USA) Dimension Data 0:23:03
123 Marco Mathis (Ger) Katusha-Alpecin 0:23:17
124 Romain Gioux (Fra) Team Novo Nordisk 0:23:23
125 Juraj Sagan (Svk) Bora-Hansgrohe 0:23:32
126 Bernhard Eisel (Aut) Dimension Data 0:23:49
127 Ruslan Tleubayev (Kaz) Astana Pro Team 0:23:52
128 Ben Wolfe (USA) Jelly Belly p/b Maxxis 0:24:04
129 Martin Velits (Svk) Quick-Step Floors 0:24:22
130 Mark Renshaw (Aus) Dimension Data 0:25:19