Liquigas' Peter Sagan made it four out of four as he won the Tour Of California Fourth Stage today.
Stage Four was from Sonora to Clovis and was 130.2 miles or 209.6kms long.
Stijn Vandenbergh (Omega Pharma-Quickstep), Yannick Eijssen (BMC Racing Team) and Bradley White (UnitedHealthcare Pro Cycling Team) broke away early but were caught before the first King Of The Mountains Climb of the day which was won by Team Optum's Sebastian Salas.
Then a break involving Markel Irizar Aranburu (RadioShack-Nissan), Benjamin King (RadioShack-Nissan), Dries Devenyns (Omega Pharma-Quickstep), Yannick Eijssen (BMC Racing Team), Wilco Kelderman (Rabobank Cycling Team), Alex Howes (Garmin-Barracuda), Timothy Duggan (Liquigas-Cannondale), Wesley Sulzberger (Orica GreenEdge Cycling Team), Mikael Cherel (AG2R La Mondiale), Darwin Atapuma Hurtado (Colombia-Coldeportes) and Carlos Julian Quintero (Colombia-Coldeportes) did succeed.
They wwre five minutes clear when Hurtado took the second King Of The Mountains Climb at Darwin.
Barrera had already abandoned and when the race reached the feedzone, four more riders withdrew.
The race rode into Mariposa and there was an intermediate sprint which was won by Markel Irizar Aranburu.
Back to the climbs and Carlos Quintero won the third with Rabobank's Wilco Kelderman taking the fourth.
Two more abandoned before the fifth climb was won by Garmin's Alex Howes.
With temperatures rising and reports of 95f at the finish line, the riders arrived at Oakhurst for the second intermediate sprint of the day. Howes took that sprint but the peloton were breating down their necks.
After Rinaldo Nocentini had retired and a new break of George Bennett (RadioShack-Nissan), Thomas Peterson (Garmin-Barracuda) and Michael Rodriguez Galindo (Colombia-Coldeportes) formed, the final climb of the day came and was won by Michael Galindo.
The break of three had become six and they started on the descent out of the mountains and down towards the finish at Clovis.
That break was soon caught by a peloton including leader and winner of all three stages so far Peter Sagan, strung out across the road.
Tom Boonen punctured but got back in the pack as the race passed Milerton Lake.
With 17kms to go, Jonathan Clarke of the United Healthcare team went off the front. He had a lead of fifteen seconds but was caught nine kilometres later.
Heading into the town of Clovis, which has a hundred thousand population, Ireland's Nicholas Roche was near the front as the teams looked to lead out their sprinters.
Garmin's David Zabriskie went with five kilometres to go. There was a good crowd on the street to see Zabriskie caught by Levi Leipheimer and the peloton inside the final kilometre and a half.
Tom Boonen was up the front but had no lead out as the big guns came forward. Peter Sagan was one of those big guns and he took the win for the fourth succesive day in a time of 5.18.08.
Again Haussler was second with Howerd third and Boonen fourth.
Sagan leads by sixteen seconds.
Today's stage is a 29.7km time trial in Bakersfield
