Mark Cavendish the only multiple stage winner at the Tour of California

Manx Missile secures opening and closing stages of the race

Mark Cavendish (Omega Pharma-Quick Step) started the Tour of California with a narrow victory over John Degenkolb (Giant-Shimano) and ended the race in the same manner. An early celebration almost opened the door for Degenkolb pip the Great British national champion on the line but Cavendish held on to become the only multiple stage winner of the 2014 edition of the race.

Despite suffering a flat during the race and unsure as to whether he was even going to pin on a race number, Cavendish fought his way back to the front of the bunch and finished off his team's good work on the 122km stage around Thousand Oaks.

"To be fair I wasn't anticipating a sprint today," Cavendish said after claiming his eighth win of 2014. "I wasn't going to start today, let alone finish. But then I just thought I'd start. I'd maybe get dropped the first time, maybe do another lap for training, and then that would be it. I had a small breakfast and we started. A few guys suffered the first lap, but the second lap I actually punctured on my own at the bottom of the climb. So I had my wheel changed by neutral service and rode the second climb alone.

"But, I had good power. I was passing a lot of guys. Then over the top I could see the group and I was chasing the group. Then I got back on, on the descent. I thought if I could do that, then I've got a shot of getting over on the last lap as well. So, I just thought I would try and hang in there on the last lap. I got dropped a bit, but I had Mark Renshaw and a few strong guys from other teams with me. The guys who were with me wanted to get back on.

Omega Pharma-Quick Step had placed both Niki Terpstra and Carlos Verona in the break but when they were reeled in, it was all about delivering Cavendish to the stage win.

"Matteo Trentin put me in perfect position for the last kilometer," Cavendish said. "Niki Terpstra also did a great job. I just wanted to follow Peter [Sagan]. Then Giant-Shimano came, so I got in there, squeezed in, and that's about when Peter launched. I knew with 200 meters to go, on that finish, I would be able to to have the speed after a week's racing. So I just went and I was a bit fortunate.

It was only after replays of stage one on a phone that Cavendish knew he had the win and it was almost another photo finish today with Degenkolb once again just coming up short.

"I celebrated early and John nearly beat me," Cavendish said. "But overall I'm super happy with the group and my condition. I'm in good shape and the guys rode really incredible today. They really had some guts and I'm proud to again finish the job of a great team effort."

Démare: I know how to beat Mark Cavendish

FDJ sprinter is aiming to win a stage on his Tour de France debut

After following up his recent overall victory at the Four Days of Dunkirk with another GC success, this time in his “home” Tour of Picardy, FDJ.fr sprinter Arnaud Démare is turning his sights towards his Tour de France debut.

The 22-year-old Frenchman says his goal in July will be a stage win and firmly believes he has the ability to pull this off. He has told L’Equipe that this will a difficult proposition, but added that he believes he knows how to beat Mark Cavendish.

Asked about his chances of beating the British sprinter, Démare said: “It was only the start of the season, but at the Tour of the Algarve I was already aware that there is a way to beat him…”

Démare’s victory in Picardy, where he won two of the three stages as well as the overall, gave him further reason for optimism with regard to the Tour. Marcel Kittel won the title last year, while Kittel’s team-mate John Degenkolb won it the year before. Both of the Germans went on to win multiple grand tour stages in the wake of their Picardy success, Kittel at the Tour and Degenkolb at the Vuelta.

“They took this path and that gives me a huge amount of ambition. I will go to the Tour with the objective of winning a stage even though I will perhaps end up being disappointed because there will be such huge competition,” said Démare. “You can’t win sprints every day, but if there is an opportunity I know that it is feasible.”

He explained his self-belief has been boosted by his growing capacity in the mountains. “They don’t particularly frighten me. I could see at Tirreno that I had progressed when compared to the [2012] Giro. I’m even starting to recuperate when I’m in the gruppetto in the mountains, which is also a good sign,” he said.

The French sprinter’s successes at the weekend put him level with his FDJ.fr team-mate Nacer Bouhanni on seven wins for the season, one behind Cavendish and Alejandro Valverde, who are currently the most prolific winners in the peloton. Reaching this mark on his home roads gave Démare particular pleasure.

“I really enjoyed riding in front of my fans in the sun. It was super,” he said. “I went through the villages where I used to win when I was a youngster. So many memories came back to me.”

Mark Cavendish takes Tour of California opening stage

SACRAMENTO, Calif. — Mark Cavendish has more than 100 victories throughout the world, containing 25 stages in the Tour de France, but he had never a victory as the one he had on Sunday.
Cavendish was far ahead of John Degenkolb in an exciting sprint to win the first stage of the Tour of California in the hithermost finish in the nine-year history of the event.
“It’s the first time in my career I really didn’t know the result until it was confirmed to me,” he said.
Degenkolb pulled ahead of the most decorated stage winner in Tour de France history in the final stretch , before the British “Manx Missile” burnished his legacy again. The two raced shoulder-to-shoulder until Cavendish came up along the right side and threw the rim of his bicycle’s tire just ahead as he crossed the line in a photo finish.
No one celebrated until learning of the final results, which were confirmed by photos, though Degenkolb looked depressed waiting for the final word. After the results were announced, he congratulated Cavendish with a heartbreaking hug.
“I knew that I lost,” Degenkolb said. “Sometimes it’s really just 1 or 2 centimeters, but normally you feel it straight away.”
Cavendish finished the 120-mile stage in 4 hours, 44 minutes, 7 seconds for the Omega Pharma-Quick Step Cycling Team. Belkin Pro Cycling’s Moreno Hofland of the Netherlands was third. Slovak sprinter Peter Sagan, who has won event-record 10 stages, got buried in the pack and finished fifth.
The longest stage of the eight-day, 720-mile tour through California’s eclectic climates came down to a drama-filled finishing stretch— and even then it took another minute to know who had actually won.
As the bell rang for one lap to go around the tree-lined intown circuit, the two teams of the big sprinters pulled to the front. Cavendish appeared to wait too long to attack — and had to work harder after teammate Mark Renshaw recovered from a punctured tire — before finally getting free and churning his legs for one formidable closing burst.
Cavendish came up on the right of Degenkolb, the German riding for Team Giant-Shimano, and lowered his helmet to the line. Cavendish, who announced in April he would skip the Giro d’Italia — where he won five stages last year — for the Tour of California and Tour de Suisse after an illness, also won the Sacramento stage in 2010.
“This fits in perfectly for what I want to do this year,” he said. “I should be fresh enough.”
Carmen Small of the Specialized-lululemon team won the women’s circuit race. The Tour of California resumes with a time trial in Folsom on Monday.
The race has grown into North America’s most celebrated cycling event, heretofore has lived up to the billing .This year’s field contains a few world-class riders, including Cavendish and 2012 Tour de France winner Bradley Wiggins.
The winner last year—Tejay van Garderen , an American , is not participating in the race and focusing on cycling’s marquee race in July instead. But his BMC Racing Team still has aspirations of challenging Wiggins, who will no doubt be the man to beat on the mountains.
The entire winner figures to be picked out on those steep climbs, including the Stage 3 ascent up Mount Diablo on Tuesday — when a heat wave is expected to send temperatures soaring into the upper 90s — and the Stage 6 ride up Mountain High on Friday. The race ends May 18 over the same circuit in Thousand Oaks that concluded the 2010 edition.