HTC-Highroad sprinter Matt Goss sprinted to victory in the final stage of the Amgen Tour of California, beating points leader Peter Sagan (Liquigas-Cannondale) and Greg Henderson (Team Sky) in a furious fight to the line. Oscar Freire came in fourth on the day, with RadioShack's Chris Horner safely finishing with the peloton to secure the overall win.
"It's nice to finish off the tour with a win as well as Tejay taking the young riders jersey," said Goss in a statement from his team. "The team worked really well and did a perfect leadout at the finish. Leigh [Howard] dropped me off at 180m to go and I had the easy part of just finishing it off. It's good to be able to repay all the hard work that the guys put it with a win."
Tejay Van Garderen started the Tour of California as the general classification leader for his HTC-Highroad team. Before the race Van Garderen told VeloNation before the race that his ambition was to ride into Thousand Oaks with the leader's jersey secured.
"I'm happy but I'm not overly thrilled," said Van Garderen of his strong fifth place finish in the overall. "I was expecting more of myself. But it's a good platform for improvement and it shows promise for the years the come.
"I'm happy that I was able to get up there and help out Gossy for the stage win. It was good teamwork today."
Jan Barta (NetApp), Bradley White (UnitedHealthcare), Michael Friedman (Kelly Benefits Strategies) and Fernando Antogna (Jamis-Sutter Home) represented the break of the day for stage six. The foursome were allowed an advantage over the peloton since none threatened the overall classification. The escape built up a lead that came close to touching the 3 minute mark, but the Saxo Bank-Sungard, HTC-Highroad and Liquigas-Cannondale gave the RadioShack team a hand keeping them within reach with their sprinters in mind. With just under 40 kilometers remaining the quartet's lead was 2 minutes and 30 seconds as they began the first of the five finishing circuits.
As the kilometers ticked down toward the 30 kilometer mark, the leaders could begin to feel the pressure from behind with their advantage down to 1 minuted and 45 seconds. The Leopard Trek and Rabobank teams were next to try their hand, firing off a rider each in the form of Martin Morensen and Maarten Tjallnglii as they made their way past Route 101. The duo quickly gained 20 seconds on the peloton and worked well together as they set their sights on the four leaders.
With 25 kilometers left to race the break's lead continued to hold around the 1 minute 25 second mark, as the chasing pair moved further across the gap. Under the finish banner the break had a 1 minute and 20 second advantage with just over 23 kilometers left to race, desperately in need of horsepower from the Leopard Trek and Rabobank chasers.
Antogna made the first attack from the break soon thereafter and disrupted the rhythm of the foursome which saw the break lose a little ground on the peloton. About 50 seconds separated the peloton to the chase and the chase to the front group, with the chasing duo having 25 seconds on either side.
Further pressure in the break saw White fall off the back, while Tjallingii motored hard to pull the duo across to make it five up front, with two pairs of fresh legs. 30 seconds separated the escape from the break as they went under the banner marking 2 laps and 16 kilometers left to race. The sprinter's teams continued to keep the pace high behind as Antogna was shed from the leaders, paying for his earlier efforts to split the group. Friedman was next, which left three in the move. Barta was understandably shattered and no longer able to contribute to the effort.
At 10 kilometers to go the peloton was only 20 seconds behind, content to let the leading trio dangle off the front to avoid having to pull back a counter attack. Linus Gerdeman (Leopard Trek), who was sitting in 11th overall, had trouble with his bike and swapped machines with teammate Jakob Fuglsang, with another teammate dropping back to help bring him back to the peloton.
The start of the final lap saw the peloton nipping at the heels of the leading trio, with the effort to stay away by the ProTeam riders really beginning to show on their faces. With 6 kilometers remaining the break began to have infighting, concerned about Barta's lack of work. The pause in effort was enough to doom the move just 1 kilometer later.
With 5 kilometers remaining and nobody off the front the sprinter's teams began to organize at the front of the race. Saxo Bank-Sungard, HTC-Highroad, Team Sky, Rabobank and then Liquigas-Cannondale was the order with less than 3 kilometers to go. HTC-Highroad led from the 2 kilometer mark, but Team Sky managed to overtake the American team as they approached 1 kilometer to go mark. Liqugas-Cannondale and Rabobank began to battle for position, while HTC-Highroad fought their way back up to the head of affairs, allowing Matt Goss power through in the last 150 meters to take the win. Sagan made a valiant effort for the line, but got swamped in the shuffle and came up short. Behind, Horner crossed the line arms in the air on the wheel of lieutenant Hamair Zubeldia.