Mark Cavendish made it three wins in the 2015 Tour Of California with victory on the fifth stage.
A 157.7km stage which started in Santa Barbara and had its finish in Santa Clarita, started with an attack from Danilo Wyss (BMC), Alex Howes (Cannondale-Garmin), Javier Megias Leal (Novo Nordisk)
Lachlan Morton (Jelly Belly p/b Maxxis), and Geoffrey Curran (Axeon Cycling) after seven kilometres.
Twenty kilometres into the stage and they had taken their lead to three minutes before Wyss took the first KOM of the day after 27.5kms.
Wyss was third as Alex Howes took the first sprint of the day but took the second KOM before Lachlan Morton took the sprint for the third KOM points as the rain started to come down.
The gap stood at two minutes with seventy kilometres left as Wyss took the second sprint.
Onto the final category climb climb and the escapers were riding at a steady tempo. Lachlan Morton led the riders over the climb as the rain continued to come down.
Chris Butler of Smartstop went after the five out front and with forty eight kilometres left, he joined them.
However, the break was to split with Curran, Howes and Wyss getting clear of Butler, Megias and Morton. The latter two were caught by the peloton with 29 kilometres left.
The rain continued to pour down as the three out front led by thirty seconds with just over seven kilometres to go.
On very wet roads, there was a crash at the back of the peloton following a touch of wheels, involving riders who could not see where they were going.
Danilo Wyss decided to go for broke but with 3.2kms to go, it was all over and the peloton flew past him.
There were not many riders at the front to contest the sprint. Mark Cavendish was in third wheel and he came down the middle after being led out to take the win in 3.51.37 ahead of Zico Waeytens, Peter Sagan and Jermpy Drucker.
Tom Skujins keeps his leader's jersey with an eighteen second lead over Peter Sagan going into the time trial which will now take place in Santa Clarita for a 10.6km time trial.