Wednesday 13 May 2015 19:15, UK
Toms Skujins overcame a minor crash to take victory in stage three of the Tour of California and move into the overall lead.
The Latvian, who rides for the American Hincapie team, earned the biggest win of his professional career in the 170km stage that started and finished in San Jose.
Skujins was part of an early four-man break and he kicked away from his rivals on the climb of Mount Hamilton before soloing to the finish 66 seconds ahead of Peter Sagan, who finished second for the third straight day.
He briefly came off his bike at the bottom of the Quimby climb and then hit the wall inside the final kilometre, but had more than enough in hand to cross the line in first place.
Sagan beat Julian Alaphillipe into third, with Daniel Jaramillo fourth - they finished three seconds ahead of the peloton, which had been cut down to less than 30 riders on the race's toughest stage so far.
Mark Cavendish, who won the first two stages and was wearing the leader's jersey, ran out of steam early on Mount Hamilton and came home in a big group just over 21 minutes down on Skuijns.
Skujins takes a 32 second lead over Sagan into stage four, a 173.1km ride from Pismo Beach to Avila Beach.
"The last half hour was pure pain," Skujins said. "In the headwinds I was just dying. It is easier to win solo because then you don't have to sprint. I had nothing left."
Stage three result
1 Toms Skujins (Lat) Hincapie Racing Team 4hrs 33mins 10secs
2 Peter Sagan (Svk) Tinkoff-Saxo +1:06
3 Julian Alaphilippe (Fra) Etixx - Quick-Step same time
4 Daniel Jaramillo (Col) Jamis - Hagens Berman st
5 Danilo Wyss (Sui) BMC Racing +1:09
Overall standings
1 Toms Skujins (Lat) Hincapie Racing 14hrs 04mins 01sec
2 Peter Sagan (Svk) Tinkoff-Saxo +32secs
3 Rob Britton (Can) Team SmartStop +43
4 Julian Alaphilippe (Fra) Etixx - Quick-Step +44
5 Daniel Jaramillo (Col) Jamis - Hagens Berman same time
