Tour of California 2014 Route stage 5: Prismo Beach - Santa Barbara

The San Marcos pass is a nasty climb – 6.2 kilometres at an average grade of almost 7%. Work to be done for Giant-Shimano if they want to drop Mark Cavendish and create a perfect position for better climber John Degenkolb to win the sprint in the streets of Santa Barbara.

Chumash Indians inhabited the Prismo Beach area for thousands of years. In fact, the word Prismu’ is Chumash for tar, a product the Indians used to caulk their canoes. Important work, as they inhabited the whole southern coastal region of California and the Channel Islands as well.

The arrival town of Santa Barbara is beautifully situated between the Pacific Ocean and the abruptly rising Santa Ynez Mountains. Think cities like Monaco or Nice – and that’s probably why the city is often dubbed the ‘American Riviera’.

2013 saw Tyler Farrar (image) claim the bunch sprint convincingly in the streets of Santa Barbara. It was part of a double win for his team Garmin-Sharp, since his colleague Ramunas Navardauskas won a stage in the Giro d’Italia just 11 hours earlier.

The stage start at 20:45 CET, and the finish will be around 00:45.

Tour of California 2014 stage 5: Images and more

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