Amgen tour sets up final race day in Sacramento

With thousands of fans lining the streets of Santa Rosa, Team KATUSHA’s star sprinter Alexander Kristoff (NOR) catapulted to a stage win, his eighth of the season, by a rim over all-time Amgen Tour of California stage win record holder Peter Sagan (SVK) of Tinkoff, who had spent much of the 109.1-mile day in a breakaway. The Amgen Breakaway from Heart Disease™ Women’s Race Empowered with SRAM also spent the day in Santa Rosa, with cycling’s winningest woman Marianne Vos (NED) cinching the victory for Rabo Liv Women Cycling Team.

“It was a hard stage…I was really struggling on the climbs… at the end, Peter [Sagan] was in front alone, and he had two minutes, and we had to chase hard. And at the end he almost beat me also, so it was an impressive ride by him but I just managed to hold him off, and I’m really happy to win here in California,” said Kristoff who earned a bronze road race medal at the 2012 Olympic Games.

With the men’s main peloton heading together into three downtown Santa Rosa circuits after 8,600 feet of climbing around the veteran Host City, no one gained time over race leader Julian Alaphilippe (FRA) of Etixx – Quick-Step Pro Cycling Team, putting the 23 year-old in good position to defend his Amgen Race Leader Jersey earned on the Gibraltar Road Queen Stage (3), with hopes of becoming the race’s youngest champion when the race concludes tomorrow in Sacramento.

“Today I think for me it was the hardest stage of the week, because I really felt the pressure on my shoulders…I had a lot of enemies today. But I finally stay in yellow for tomorrow, and it’s not finished yet but I’m really, really happy to keep my yellow jersey again today after a really hard stage…It’s not finished, so we will see tomorrow,” said Alaphilippe, who came in second overall in last year’s Amgen Tour of California, just three seconds behind Sagan.

Stage 7 Podium
1. Alexander Kristoff (NOR), Team KATUSHA (RUS)
2. Peter Sagan (SVK), Tinkoff (RUS)
3. Danny Van Poppel (NED), Team Sky (GBR)

Stage 7 Jersey Winners
Amgen Leader Jersey – Julian Alaphilippe (FRA), Etixx – Quick-Step Pro Cycling Team (BEL)
Lexus King of the Mountain (KOM) Jersey – Evan Huffman (USA), Rally Cycling Team (USA)
Visit California Sprint Jersey – Peter Sagan (SVK), Tinkoff (RUS)
SRAM Best Young Rider Jersey – Neilson Powless (USA), Axeon Hagens Berman Cycling Team (USA)
Breakaway from Cancer® Most Courageous Rider Jersey – Peter Sagan (SVK), Tinkoff (RUS); Note, previous winner Toms Skujins (LAT), Cannondale Pro Cycling Team (USA), will wear the blue jersey during Stage 8

The 97 women competing in the Amgen Breakaway from Heart Disease™ Women’s Race Empowered with SRAM also spent the day in Santa Rosa contesting a 64-mile twisting course that concluded with three lightening-fast circuits downtown that were lined with fans.

Stage 3 (of four), saw lots of early attacks that were foiled before a break could get away. Not until the second Queen of the Mountain (QOM) climb of the day on Coleman Valley Road did Wiggle High5’s Mara Abbott (Boulder, Colo.) and Boels-Dolmans Cycling Team’s Evelyn Stevens (Claremont, Calif.) get clear from the peloton. Abbott, the first U.S. cyclist to win the Giro Donne (2010), one of the women’s Grand Tours, quickly took a solo lead, with Stevens, the new women’s hour record holder, falling back into a chase group of seven that also included her teammate and race leader Megan Guarnier (Glens Falls, New York); four-time National Time Trial Champion and two-time Olympic gold medalist Kristin Armstrong (Memphis, Tenn.) of TWENTY16 – Ridebiker; Katie Hall (Oakland, Calif.) of UnitedHealthcare Professional Cycling Team; UCI’s number-one-ranked rider Emma Johansson (SWE) of Wiggle High5 Pro Cycling; Alena Amialiusik (BLR) of Canyon/SRAM Racing and Eri Yonamine (JPN) of Hagens Berman | Supermint Pro Cycling Team. The group caught Abbott with about 20 miles left to ride, and the former National Champion fell back to the main bunch, but not before shoring up the Lexus Queen of the Mountain (QOM) and Breakaway from Cancer® Most Courageous Rider jerseys.

The four-stage, 197.8-mile road race, the first of only two U.S. events on the first-ever UCI Women’s WorldTour, will conclude tomorrow, along with the men’s event, with a 41-mile circuit race (20 laps) around Capitol Park in Sacramento.

Stage 3 Podium
1. Marianne Vos (NED), Rabo-Liv Women Cycling Team (NED)
2. Coryn Rivera (USA), UnitedHealthcare Pro Cycling Team (USA)
3. Emma Johansson (SWE), Wiggle High5 Pro Cycling (GBR)

Stage 3 Jersey Winners
Amgen Leader Jersey – Megan Guarnier (USA), Boels-Dolmans Cycling Team (NED)
Lexus Queen of the Mountain (QOM) Jersey – Mara Abbott (USA), Wiggle High5 Pro Cycling (GBR)
Visit California Sprint Jersey – Megan Guarnier (USA), Boels-Dolmans Cycling Team (NED); Note, Marianne Vos (NED), Rabo-Liv Women Cycling Team (NED) will be wearing the QOM jersey during Stage 4
SRAM Best Young Rider Jersey – Chloe Dygert (USA), TWENTY16 – Ridebiker (USA)
Breakaway from Cancer® Most Courageous Rider Jersey – Mara Abbott (USA), Wiggle High5 Pro Cycling (GBR); Note, previous winner Sarah Storey (GBR), Podium Ambition Pro Cycling p/b Club La Santa (GBR), will be wearing the blue jersey during Stage 4