Tinkoff-Saxo's Peter Sagan has won stage four of the tenth Amgen Tour Of California.
A day of three sprints and one climb on a 172.2km stage from Pismo Beach to Avila Beach, started with four riders on the attacks as soon as the flag dropped.
They were quickly brought back and a new group of Ruben Zepuntke (Cannondale-Garmin), Irishman Matthew Brammeier (MTN - Qhubeka), Thomas Soladay (Optum p/b Kelly Benefit Strategies), and Gregory Daniel (Axeon Cycling) took over before they too were caught.
Daniel was part of a new break which included William Clarke (Drapac), Kiel Reijnen (UnitedHealthcare) and Jesse Anthony (Optum) and he took the first sprint and the second.
The gap had been at 3.40 but was at 2.40 when Jesse Anthony went over the day's climb which was a category three climb on Tepusquet Canyon road.
With thirty four kilometres to go, the gap was down to 35 seconds with some big crowds on the roads as the five out front rolled through the sprint at Arroyo Grande.
Anthony, Reijnen and Teklehaimanot were caught by the peloton which included race leader Toms Skujins of Hincapie Racing plus Mark Cavendish in the points jersey and they eventually caught to Clarke with less than twenty kilometres left, leaving Daniel out on his own.
The twenty year old had a thirty second lead with seventeen kilometres to go.
Daniel could not stay away and the peloton sped past him with Etixx Quick Step on the front before Trek, Drapac and Tinkoff Saxo took their turns.
Mark Cavendish was on Mark Renshaw's wheel but Daniel Oss of BMC pulled a cheeky one under the flam rouge and got away.
With less than fifty metres to go, up came Peter Sagan and he shot past Oss to take the win in 4.06.56, his second this season ahead of Wouter Wippert of Drapac, Mark Cavendish, Lucas Sebastian Haedo, Tyler Farrar, Jasper Stuyven, Jempy Drucker, Daniel Oss, Jure Kocjan and John Murphy of UnitedHealthcare.
Toms Skujins still leads the race by twenty two seconds from Peter Sagan, who said: "I never looked back and went for it. I was just in the group and told my team mate to bring me to the front. Cavendish was behind and from the last corner. I sprinted for victory and I am very happy to have won."
Stage Five is 154kms long from Santa Barbara to Santa Clarita.