Peter Sagan takes Tour of California lead with stage six victory

Peter Sagan's impressive week at the Tour of California continued as he moved into the overall lead with victory in the stage six time trial.

The Slovakian (Tinkoff-Saxo) had not finished out of the top three in the first five stages - taking a win, three second-places and a third - and the sprint specialist finished 15 seconds ahead of Jos van Emden (LottoNL-Jumbo) on Friday.

That moved Sagan 28 seconds ahead of Toms Skujins (Hincapie Racing Team) in the general classification, but he still trails Great Britain's Mark Cavendish of Etixx - Quick-Step by six points in the sprint standings with two stages to go.

Cavendish finished 45 seconds behind Sagan in the time trial with fellow Brit Tao Geoghegan Hart (Bissell Development Team) 36 seconds behind and Team Sky's Peter Kennaugh 39 seconds back.

Geoghegan Hart is the leading Briton in the general classification, trailing Sagan by 1min 5secs.

The short time trial on day six of the tour took the race down to the Six Flags Magic Mountain due to snow on the original course at Big Bear Lake.

The change of location also involved a change of distance, which reduced the stage to just 6.5 miles.

Van Emden threw down the early gauntlet. Starting 26th out of 123 riders, the former Dutch time trial vhampion set the early marker with a time of 12min 46sec.

Sagan's Tinkoff-Saxo team-mate Daniele Bennati produced an impressively competitive time of 12min 53sec, but it proved to be seven seconds off the lead.

Joey Rosskopf (BMC Racing) peaked at the right time to clock 12min 51sec, just five seconds off the fastest time in second place, after Team Sky rider Sergio Henao's disappointing ride.

French rider Julian Alaphilippe (Etixx - Quick-Step) then came closest. He was the second-fastest when he crossed the line, just three seconds adrift of the leading time so far.

But after Skujins finished off the pace by some 46 seconds, it was Sagan's turn and he relegated Van Emden into second place by a significant margin of 15 seconds.

Alaphilippe finished third, a further four seconds back. He is third overall, 45 seconds adrift.

Stage six results

1 P Sagan (Tinkoff-Saxo) 12 minutes, 32 seconds

2 J Van Emden (Team LottoNL-Jumbo) +0:14 seconds

3 J Alaphilippe (Etixx-QuickStep) +0:18

4 J Rosskopf (BMC Racing Team) +0:19

5 D Bennati (Tinkoff-Saxo) +0:21

6 T Zirbel (Optum p/b Kelly Benefit Strategies) +0:25

7 S Luis Henao Montoya (Team Sky) 0:25

8 J McCarthy (Tinkoff-Saxo) 0:26

9 R Gesink (Team LottoNL-Jumbo) 0:26

10 D Oss (BMC Racing Team) 0:27

Selected others

22 P Kennaugh (Team Sky) +39secs

31 M Cavendish (Etixx - Quick-Step) + 45secs

General classification

1 P Sagan (Tinkoff-Saxo) 22 hours, 15 minutes, 23 seconds

2 T Skujins (Hincapie Racing Team) +0:28

3 J Alaphilippe (Etixx-QuickStep) 0:45

4 J Rosskopf (BMC Racing Team) 0:49

5 S Luis Henao Montoya (Team Sky) 0:55

6 J McCarthy (Tinkoff-Saxo) 0:56

7 R Gesink (Team LottoNL-Jumbo) 0:56

8 B King (Team Cannondale-Garmin) 0:58

9 D Smith (Hincapie Racing Team) 1:03

10 H Zubeldia Agirre (Trek Factory Racing) 1:04 

Selected others

61 M Cavendish (Etixx - Quick-Step) +20mins 32secs