Ben King (Cannondale) wins stage 2 of the Tour of California after a long breakaway
Ben King takes the KOM's and overall Leader's Jerseys ahead of tomorrow's epic stage 3 - finishing up Gibraltar Road
Today's stage from South Pasadena to Santa Clarita was 92 miles with over 11,000 feet of climbing.
There were a flurry of breaks, up to 19 riders that mostly failed and came back to the bunch.
The first big climb came after 12 miles, the category 1 Angeles Crest Highway at 3,631 in which the peleton mainly stayed together.
At the second climb of Upper Big Tujunca Canyon, a break of 4 riders Evan Huffman (Rally), Benjamin King (Cannondale), Sindre Lunke (Giant-Team Alpecin), William Barta (Axeon Hagens Berman) formed the break that stuck after 32 miles, with Evan Huffman taking the second Lexus KOM's competition.
The breakaway stayed ahead wity the lead going up to 7 minutes and 30 seconds.
With 50 miles to go the peleton started to chase the leaders and by the first climb in Little Tujunca Canyon, the gap was down to 2m 40 secs.
Tinkoff and Direct Energie taking up the pace setting. Peter Sagan in 5th place in the climb, clearly looking for another stage win.
The peleton's pace went up, team's looking to drop Sprinters, with 3km's to go riders were dropping off including Cavendish.
The speed of the Peleton on the descent was increased putting pressure on the Sprinters to stay in contact.
Sindre Lunke was distanced from the leading four while Evan Huffman won the KOM's points for the second time and grabbing the vitual lead of the KOM points jersey. The gap went back up to over 3 minutes 25 secs.
With one final ascent of Little Tujunca Canyon, Huffman and King positioned themselves to take the KOM points, but King didn't contest, so Huffman took the points. With 17 miles to go and over 3 minutes lead, the 3 leaders had a chance of staying away from the peleton.
The descent was out of the canyon increased up to speeds of 55 miles, with a few crashed taking place including Vasil Kirenka (Sky), world time trialist had a nasty crash.
Barta had a problem on the descent, needing a bike change left Huffman and King pressing on their own. Barta one of the youngest riders in the peleton managed to bridge up to Huffman and King.
With 15 miles and relieving Tinkoff from the front came BMC and Team Katusha to take up the chase, the gap came down quickly to 1 minute 40 seconds with 9 miles to go.
The gap kept coming down so it was looking highly likely the the breakaway was going to get caught. Sagan had only one team mate left as Tinkoff chased the breakaway down.
With 5 miles to go Barta got dropped leaving Huffman and King to try and stay away.
With 2 miles to go Huffman and King were still in for a shout with a minute gap.
Katusha came to the front but with 1km to go Huffman and King still had 55 seconds.
Hufman lead out the sprint but King just got it on the line. The peleton were only 30 seconds behind.
King had a nasty accident over the winter and broke his leag and spent most of the season on a turbo trainer trying to get back to fitness, riding up to 7 hours a day.
Ben King took the KOM and Leader's jersey's at the end of stage 2.
Tomorrow's stage 3 from Morro Bay is a very important one for the GC riders, finishing up the climb of Gibraltar Road. GC riders could gain or lose minutes on the 6 mile of steep slopes, that will make for an epic stage finish.
Stage 2 Tour of California Results
1. Ben King (Cannondale) 3h 53m 9secs
2. Evan Huffman (Rally Cycling)
3. Alexander Kristoff (Katusha) +8 secs
4. Peter Sagan (Tinkoff) + 8 secs
5. Niccolo Bonifazio (Trek-Segofredo) +8 secs
6. Danny Van Poppel + 8 secs
7. Patrick Bevan (Cannondale) +8 secs
8. Nathan Haas (TDD) +8 secs
9. Bryan Coquard (Direct Energie) + 8 secs
10. Marco Canola (United Healthcare) + 8 secs
