Mark Cavendish takes Tour of California opening stage

SACRAMENTO, Calif. — Mark Cavendish has more than 100 victories throughout the world, containing 25 stages in the Tour de France, but he had never a victory as the one he had on Sunday.
Cavendish was far ahead of John Degenkolb in an exciting sprint to win the first stage of the Tour of California in the hithermost finish in the nine-year history of the event.
“It’s the first time in my career I really didn’t know the result until it was confirmed to me,” he said.
Degenkolb pulled ahead of the most decorated stage winner in Tour de France history in the final stretch , before the British “Manx Missile” burnished his legacy again. The two raced shoulder-to-shoulder until Cavendish came up along the right side and threw the rim of his bicycle’s tire just ahead as he crossed the line in a photo finish.
No one celebrated until learning of the final results, which were confirmed by photos, though Degenkolb looked depressed waiting for the final word. After the results were announced, he congratulated Cavendish with a heartbreaking hug.
“I knew that I lost,” Degenkolb said. “Sometimes it’s really just 1 or 2 centimeters, but normally you feel it straight away.”
Cavendish finished the 120-mile stage in 4 hours, 44 minutes, 7 seconds for the Omega Pharma-Quick Step Cycling Team. Belkin Pro Cycling’s Moreno Hofland of the Netherlands was third. Slovak sprinter Peter Sagan, who has won event-record 10 stages, got buried in the pack and finished fifth.
The longest stage of the eight-day, 720-mile tour through California’s eclectic climates came down to a drama-filled finishing stretch— and even then it took another minute to know who had actually won.
As the bell rang for one lap to go around the tree-lined intown circuit, the two teams of the big sprinters pulled to the front. Cavendish appeared to wait too long to attack — and had to work harder after teammate Mark Renshaw recovered from a punctured tire — before finally getting free and churning his legs for one formidable closing burst.
Cavendish came up on the right of Degenkolb, the German riding for Team Giant-Shimano, and lowered his helmet to the line. Cavendish, who announced in April he would skip the Giro d’Italia — where he won five stages last year — for the Tour of California and Tour de Suisse after an illness, also won the Sacramento stage in 2010.
“This fits in perfectly for what I want to do this year,” he said. “I should be fresh enough.”
Carmen Small of the Specialized-lululemon team won the women’s circuit race. The Tour of California resumes with a time trial in Folsom on Monday.
The race has grown into North America’s most celebrated cycling event, heretofore has lived up to the billing .This year’s field contains a few world-class riders, including Cavendish and 2012 Tour de France winner Bradley Wiggins.
The winner last year—Tejay van Garderen , an American , is not participating in the race and focusing on cycling’s marquee race in July instead. But his BMC Racing Team still has aspirations of challenging Wiggins, who will no doubt be the man to beat on the mountains.
The entire winner figures to be picked out on those steep climbs, including the Stage 3 ascent up Mount Diablo on Tuesday — when a heat wave is expected to send temperatures soaring into the upper 90s — and the Stage 6 ride up Mountain High on Friday. The race ends May 18 over the same circuit in Thousand Oaks that concluded the 2010 edition.