Mark Cavendish seals Tour of California treble with stage five win

Mark Cavendish sprinted to his third victory of the race and 12th of the season on stage five of the Tour of California.

The Etixx - Quick-Step rider comfortably beat Zico Waeytens (Giant-Alpecin) into second place and Peter Sagan (Tinkoff-Saxo) in heavy rain in Santa Clarita.

Waeytens was the first to launch his sprint but Cavendish had little trouble in surging past the Belgian to win by more than a bike's length and extend his lead over Sagan at the top of the points classification to six points.

Latvia's Tom Skujins (Hincapie Racing Team) finished in peloton to retain his overall lead of the eight-day race, which continues on Friday with a 10.6km individual time trial.

The time trial had been scheduled to take place at Big Bear Lake on a 24.2km course at 2,100m altitude, but with snow forecast in the area, race organisers switched the stage to Six Flags Magic Mountain theme park.

Stage five result

1 Mark Cavendish (GB) Etixx - Quick-Step, 3:51:37

2 Zico Waeytens (Bel) Giant-Alpecin, same time

3 Peter Sagan (Svk) Tinkoff-Saxo, st

4 Jean-Pierre Drucker (Lux) BMC Racing, st

5 Danny van Poppel (Ned) Trek Factory Racing, st

General classification

1 Tom Skujins (Lat) Hincapie Racing Team, 22:02:34

2 Peter Sagan (Svk) Tinkoff-Saxo, +18secs

3 Julian Alaphilippe (Fra) Etixx - Quick-Step, +44

4 Robert Gesink (Ned) LottoNL-Jumbo, +47

5 Dion Smith (NZ) Hincapie Racing Team, same time