Cannondale-Drapac's Talansky Takes Mount Baldy Win

Talansky out sprinted race leader Rafal Majka in the final metres ahead of George Bennett

The stage started with a 15 man breakaway including Matteo Trentin (Quick-Step Floors), Jack Bauer (Quick-Step Floors), Martin Elmiger (BMC), Peter Sagan (Bora-Hansgrohe), Erik Baska (Bora-Hansgrohe), Lawson Craddock (Cannondale-Drapac), lberto Bettiol (Cannondale-Drapac), iago Machado (Katusha), Nils Politt (Katusha), Bert-Jan Lindeman (LottoNL-Jumbo), Rob Britton (Rally), Matteo Dal-Cin (Rally), Evan Huffman (Rally), Peter Kennaugh (Team Sky), Lennard Hofstede (Team Sunweb), Artyom Zakharov (Astana), Reinardt Janse Van Rensburg (Dimension Data), Greg Henderson (UHC), Daniel Jaramillo (UHC), David Lozano Riba (Novo Nordisk), Sean Bennett (Jelly Belly), Jacob Rathe (Jelly Belly), oann Bagot (Cofidis).

They built up a lead of 3 minutes with 30 miles to go.

With 22 miles to go, Rob Britten (Rally) has attacked the breakaway and was joined briefly by Peter Kennaugh (Team Sky)

Kennaugh faded away and with 6 miles to go and Rob Britten has=d 1m 25 secs over the peloton, being led by Lotton Jumbo who increased so pace, thinning the peloton even further until only the main favorites were left.

David Lopez (Sky) attacks the favorites for some unknown reason and was swallowed up.

To everyone's surprise Robert Gesink (Lotto Jumbo) was dropped. 

Talansky started the attacks and race leader Rafal Majka followed every move.

Talansky attacks, Bennett and Majka follows distancing the other rfive riders left in the race.

Ian Boswell fought back and managed to bridge across, while Brent Bookwalter and Sam Oomen paced themselves back up to the front.#

With 1 km to go it was between Boswell,  Majka, Bennett and Talansky.

Majka made the decisive attack and Talansky followed and tok the inside line, being head in the final sprint/

Talansky out sprinted race leader Rafal Majka in the final metres ahead of George Bennett.

Behind Boswell and BMC Racing's Brent Bookwalter finished 4th and 5th repectively.

Tomorrow's penultimte stage is the Individual Time Trial at Big Bear lake, don't miss it.

Tour of California Stage 5 Top Ten Results

1 Andrew Talansky (USA) Cannondale-Drapac 03:43:15
2 Rafal Majka (Pol) Bora-Hansgrohe 00:00:00
3 George Bennett (NZl) Team LottoNl-Jumbo 00:00:02
4 Ian Boswell (USA) Team Sky 00:00:05
5 Brent Bookwalter (USA) BMC Racing Team 00:00:08
6 Sam Oomen (Ned) Team Sunweb 00:00:20
7 Lachlan Morton (Aus) Dimension Data 00:00:27
8 Tao Geoghegan Hart (GBr) Team Sky 00:00:40
9 Robert Gesink (Ned) Team LottoNl-Jumbo 00:00:00
10 Sepp Kuss (USA) Rally Cycling 00:00:56

General classifiction after stage 5

1 Rafal Majka (Pol) Bora-Hansgrohe 19:47:57
2 George Bennett (NZl) Team LottoNl-Jumbo 00:00:06
3 Ian Boswell (USA) Team Sky 00:00:25
4 Andrew Talansky (USA) Cannondale-Drapac 00:00:44
5 Lachlan Morton (Aus) Dimension Data 00:00:49
6 Brent Bookwalter (USA) BMC Racing Team 00:01:02
7 Sam Oomen (Ned) Team Sunweb 00:01:14
8 Robert Gesink (Ned) Team LottoNl-Jumbo 00:01:31
9 Tao Geoghegan Hart (GBr) Team Sky 00:01:34
10 Vegard Stake Laengen (Nor) UAE Team Emirates 00:01:50

VIDEO: 20178 Tour of California Stage 5 Highlights