Liquigas' Peter Sagan won the opening stage of the Amgem Tour Of California.
America's biggest cycle race started with a 185km stage which started and finished in Santa Rosa.
Eight riders originally had got away in Maxime Bouet (AG2R La Mondiale), Jeffry Louder (UnitedHealthcare), David Boily (Spidertech-C10), Andrew Dahlheim and Ben Jacques-Maynes (Bissell Cycling), Sebastian Salas (Team Optum p/b Kelly Benefit Strategies), Josh Atkins (Bontrager Livestrong Team) and Sam Johnson (Team Exergy).
They were six minutes ahead of the peloton which had Brit Steve Cummings who now rides for BMC after moving from Team Sky at the front.
Canadian David Bolly took the first King Of The Mountains climb and took the sprints as well.
With the gap dropping, Ben Jacques Maynes, Maxime Bouet and Jeff Louder went for it with 25kms to go.
The peloton of a quality field which was in two groups with the first being marshalled by the oldest man in the race - George Hincapie, chased them down.
A shake of the hands and with 7.3kms to go, it was all over. Peter Sagan had a mechanical.
With 3.4kms to go, there was a touch of riders and a number of riders including Ireland's Nicholas Roche (pictured below) went down.
In downtown Santa Rosa, Orica GreenEdge had three riders but it was Peter Sagan who won in a time of 4.22.08. Heinrich Haussler was second with Rodriquez third, Howard fourth and Avermaet fifth
Tomorrow's stage is from San Francisco to Santa Cruz County.