William Routley (Optum) enjoyed the most beautiful moment of his sporting life when he took a surprise win in yesterday's fourth stage of the Tour of California. Having initially joined the early breakaway to score points for the KOM classification, he started to believe in his chances when the gap only came slowly down 25km from the line.

 

When he joined the early breakaway in yesterday's flat stage of the Tour of California, William Routley had set his sights on points for the KOM classification. As the holder of the mountains jersey, he wanted to make the most of the three small climbs along the route but knew that the stage win was probably beyond his reach.

 

The stage was tailormade for sprinters like Mark Cavendish, Peter Sagan and John Degenkolb and when the six riders took off, nothing suggested that they would stay away. However, they managed to do what so rarely happens: deny the Omega Pharma-Quick Step team the chance to sprint on a flat stage.

 

When he had scored his KOM points and hit the flat roads in the end, Routley started to realize that a surprise could be in store. With 25km to go, the group was still more than 3 minutes ahead and this was when he started to really believe in his chances.

 

In the end, it all came together when he outsprinted his five breakaway companions.

 

"I came here with the goal to win a stage," he said."That's what I've wanted to do every time I've come to the Tour of California. This year I felt like I was prepared and ready, but honestly, I wasn't expecting that today was going to be the day.

 

"I've been in breaks a few times in the past when that happens, and those are great scenarios. You go, 'Holy smokes, this break might actually make it to the line. The sprinters' teams might mistime it.'

 

"At 30km to go we were starting to really move, and the gap was coming down really slow. At 25km to go I was thinking this is definitely going to make it, we really need to dig in.

 

"I felt really good sprinting on the KOMs, so I felt confident I could win the sprint. But not everyone was going for those, so you just never know. And it's different sprinting at the top of a hill versus sprinting at 55 km an hour or whatever we were doing coming in.

 

"I positioned myself in the middle of the group because I know my initial jump is good. Fortunately, it worked out well. Someone opened up the sprint a little early. I was able to jump on his wheel and come around exactly where I wanted."