Toms Skujins of Hincapie Racing took victory and the race lead on the third stage of the Amgen Tour of California.
A 168.9km stage which started and finished in San Jose and took in the town of Livermore, had Mark Cavendish of Etixx Quick Step in the lead but with a day in the mountains in prospect, the lead was expected to change on a day where Warren Barguil and Ben Jacques Maynes did not start after bad crashes in stage two.
Michael Schär (BMC), Travis Meyer (Drapac), Gregory Brenes (Jamis-Hagnes Berman), Greg Daniel (Axeon) and Chris Butler (SmartStop) launched the first break with a 15 second lead but they were brought back and a new group comprising of Daniel Oss (BMC), Roy Curvers (Giant-Alpecin), Travis Meyer (Drapac), Jonny Clarke (UnitedHealthcare), Oscar Clark (Hincapie), Toms Skujin (Hincapie), and Evan Huffman (Team SmartStop) took over.
Daniel Oss took the first climb after 54kms,the second and the third a category four climb with 55kms left.
Roy Curvers was dropped from the break as Toms Skujins attacked off the front of the lead group and quickly got a minute clear.and 4.40 ahead of the peloton.
Skujins took the points on the next climb at Hamilton as he extended his lead over Oss, Clarke and Hufffman to two minutes.
On a tricky descent, Huffman was dropped as Jonathan Clarke veered off the road on the descent. Oss waited for him as Skujins started on Quinby Road.
Toms Skujins crashed into a hay bale on the descent and Clarke went the wrong at the same place where Skujins crashed.
Team Sky with Peter Kennaugh driving on, were leading the peloton which was now 4.30 behind the Latvian from the Hincapie team.
Toms Skujins was 2.35 clear with 15 kilometres left whilst back down the road, Oss and Clarke were caught by the Peter Kennaugh and Phillip Deignan led peloton.
Skujins had a lead of two minutes going into the final climb on Motorcycle Climb. The 23 year old Latvian looked in pain but he took the win in 4.33.10 ahead of Peter Sagan who was more than a minute down and Julien Alaphilippe of Etixx Quick Step.
Toms Skujins now leads the race by 32 seconds from Peter Sagan for the fourth 173.1km stage from Pismo Beach to Avila Beach.