Toms Skujins (Cannondale) wins Stage 5 up to South Lake Tahoe in the Tour of California

The 132 miles stage 5, from Lodi to South Lake Tahoe was mostly uphill with 13,300 feet of climbing.

With the mighty peaks of the Sierra Nevada Mountains looming a break of around 18 riders got away and established a gap of over 5 minutes.

At around 100km the breakaway of 18 riders had a 3 minute advantage.

Lotto NL Jumbo, Trek-Segafredo and BMC all driving the peleton along.

The first KOM was taken by Adam de Vos (Rally Cycling), in front of Toms Skujins (Cannondale) and Christopher Jones (United Healthcare) on the summit of Kirkwood.

With 32 miles to go, Adam de Vos (Rally Cycling) and Toms Skujins (Cannondale) went away from the othe 16 breakaway riders and got a 45 second gap up to Carson Pass on the steeper slopes.

6 rider sfrom the orginal breakaway bridged across to make a lead group of 8 riders, with 10 behind, but these also came back to a lead group of 16 riders, the peleton containing all the GC riders was just over 4 minutes behind.

BMC put the pressure on in the peletion working for Rohan Dennis and Brent Bookwalter and pulled back a minute with 15 miles to go.

3 riders went away with 7 miles to go; Adam de Vos (Rally Cycling) and got a lead of 55 seconds Toms Skujins (Cannondale) and Xabier Zandio (Sky).

Jasper Stuyen (Trek-Segofredo) put on a brave effort to catch the trio of leaders.

24 year old Latvian Toms Skujins (Cannondale) outsprinted Adam de Vos (Rally Cycling) ahead of Xabier Zandio (Sky).

Stage 5 Results

1 Tom Skujins (Cannondale) 
2 Paul De Vos (Rally Cycling)
3 Xabier Zandio (Sky)
4 Jasper Stuyven  (Trek-Segofredo)
5 Jonathan Restrepo
6 Rob Squire
7 Julian Alaphillipe
8 Travis McCabe
9 Rohan Dennis
10 Lawson Craddock

Stage 5 Overall