Mark Cavendish has said that his team did what they had to as he took a second successive victory in the Amgen Tour Of California.
Cavendish just beat Peter Sagan in a sprint at the end of a stage from Nevada City to Lodi and he told his Etixx Quick Step's team's press office: "It was a bit nervous.
"Etixx - Quick-Step was the team that rode on the front most of the day again. Tinkoff-Saxo put one rider in front to help with the chase, but this still meant we were really short in riders at the end. There was only four of us at the end with Matteo Trentin, Julian Alaphilippe, and Mark Renshaw in front of me. We were the only guys in the last laps who hadn't been riding. Against teams with eight fresh riders, instead of four, it was always going to be hard. Going into the last corner Sagan made sure he was ahead of me, but I was happy to be on his wheel. It was a headwind finish. I took a quick glance and I saw a Drapac rider come up. I tried to go around but was a bit closed. I didn't give up and I went again. I saw on the left Sagan had the slipstream of the Drapac rider, and into the headwind that was a massive advantage. I knew he'd get the slingshot. So I knew it would be hard against a strong guy like Sagan. At the line I wasnt sure if I got it.
"But I'm happy I could get the win after the hard work of Etixx - Quick-Step today. Tomorrow is a mountain stage, so it will be a different story for the stage and likely also the GC. But we won two stages in a row here at Amgen Tour of California in stages that we came here to win. We defended the yellow jersey as we wanted today. We'll do our best tomorrow and see if there are other chances for victories in the next days."