When the road went upwards at the Tour of California, Philip Deignan proved he is one of the very strongest.
Philip Deignan has once again demonstrated he is in mint condition just weeks ahead of Team Sky naming its Tour de France line-up; the Donegal man imposing himself at the Tour of California.
Deignan and his team mates are riding for leader Sergio Henao in the US at present and when the road went upwards yesterday on stage 3, the Irishman showed he is among the very strongest.
There was panic in the peloton when young Toms Skujins of the Hincapie Racing Team proved a lot more difficult to recapture than the rest of the early escapees on the 170km stage starting and finishing in San Jose.
The 23-year-old Latvian pulled ahead of the remains of the breakaway on his own with 55km remaining when he dropped the others on Mount Hamilton.
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Despite having only four minutes on the main field and still facing a late climb, Skujins put his head down and rode for home, taking the stage with 1:06 to spare on what remained of the peloton.
It was brought home by the under pressure Peter Sagan (Tinkoff-Saxo) who has been 2nd on all three stages so far and is 2nd overall.
When the chase became most intense with around 8km remaining and the speed ramped up after Skujins, Deignan hit the front and clearly put the others in the greatly reducing group under pressure.
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And while his long and impressive turns could not bring back the lone leader, it did help limit his advantage.
In the end, Deignan lost 48 seconds on the group he was with as he was tailed off in the very closing stages of the race thanks to his work rate, placing 31st on the day.
Skujins now leads from Sagan overall by 32 seconds with Deignan’s team mates Henao and Peter Kennaugh among a group of riders 47 seconds down.
The Irishman is 29th at 1:35 with five stages remaining, including a time trial and plenty of climbing.
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