With Peter Sagan widely predicted to be the favorite for victory on the Seventh Stage of the 2014 Amgen Tour of California, Cannondale Pro Cycling had their work cut out for them. The road from Santa Clarita to Pasadena is 146.5km long, the day is hot, in the high 90's Fahrenheit, and lots of teams have missed out on a win and are increasingly desperate to salvage their California race. Cannondale also had to ride to protect Sagan's points jersey, which isn't a lock by any means.

 

The stage climbs into the Angeles Forest, then takes a tour of the roads there, before descending to Pasadena, where they ride three flat circuits in the city before sprinting for the win.

 

The race started hot-lots of people wanted to get into an early escape-but with so many riders attacking and counter-attacking and big-name riders attempting to get away that the aggression largely canceled out the individual efforts. It took over 30km for a move to establish. Seven guys eked out a two-and-a-half minute gap before Cannondale decided to limit the escape and start to bring it back.

 

Cannondale set up a hard tempo up to the Angeles Crest KoM, an effort that dropped sprint rival Mark Cavendish of Omega-Pharma-Quickstep. And they kept up the effort to make sure he couldn't come back on the long descent to Pasadena. They also kept up the effort to bring back the break before getting to Pasadena.

 

Perhaps motivated by the success of long breakaways this week, the escape wouldn't yield. Cannondale's efforts nearly brought the escape to heel just by the Rose Bowl, but two of the five, BMC's Greg Van Avermaet and Garmin's Ben King wanted more. They reached the five-kilometer Pasadena circuit first, and held off the field until the bell was rung for the final lap, where a rider who hadn't read the race bible mistakenly thought he was sprinting for the victory, threw his arms in the air in celebration, only to hear the bell rung.

 

That mistake aside, the field still didn't lay down arms. There were escapes until BMC went to the front with a little more than one kilometer to go to set up Thor Hushovd. Cannondale was exhausted from their work, but Sagan, an excellent freelance sprinter, picked his way through the field and put himself in third wheel through the last few tight turns. As they came through the last turn, Sagan stood up on his pedals and roared past Thor for the stage win.

 

Victory. A sweet relief for both Sagan and Cannondale. Sagan, the winningest rider in Tour of California history, has been close several times, but nothing compares to winning.

 

"I'm very happy for this victory," he said after the multiple celebrations, presentations, and interviews. "It's very important for me. Thank you to all my teammates who did a lot of work for me. I'm happy for my eleventh victory at theTour of California.

 

"I am very happy for the victory because I am a finish man, and today we did very, very good work. It's a very important victory for me and the team, because I am always near the front from the first stage; fourth place, second place is not good, no?"

 

“Of course, the team rode for the win the other day, and of course, Taylor was a bit too good," Cameron Wurf said. "But today, the same plan. Peter is such a great captain. When he puts his troops to work, 9.9 times out of 10, he finishes it off. It’s pretty easy as a team to motivate yourself and do as he asks, and everyone did, and yeah, voilà!”
 

Tomorrow is the final stage of the race. Stage Eight is a circuit race in Thousand Oaks, home of Amgen, the title sponsor. The 30.6km circuit will be completed four times for 122.4km, and it's hardly a ceremonial race. In 2010, a similar stage was run here, and there was a chance for the race lead to change. This year, with a flatter finish, such a scenario is less likely, and another shot at a Sagan stage win is more likely. Sagan's points jersey is also fairly secure, with a sixteen-point lead on second placed Mark Cavendish. Cav' would have to not only place in one of the two intermediate sprints, but also win without Sagan scoring any points all day. It will be a great day in green for the Green Machine, and more so if Sagan takes a second win en route to his fifth points title as the best sprinter of the race.