Tour of California 2018 Route stage 7: Sacramento - Sacramento

Saturday, 19 May 2018 - The last stage of the Tour of California starts and finishes in Sacramento. Amounting to 146 kilometres, the route is as flat as can be. So a bunch sprint is the most likely outcome.

California’s State Capital has seen its fair share of fast finishes. Mark Cavendish is record holder, winning the Sacramento stage in 2011, 2014, 2015 and 2016. Marcel Kittel powered to victory last year.

The race starts in the shadow of the California State Capitol before it rolls across the photo-genetic Tower Bridge and moves through West Sacramento. Once on the western bank of the Sacramento River, the Tour traverses the straight rural roads of Yolo County into Woodland and Winters. There are no KOMs underway and back in Sacramento, the peloton finishes with three 3.3 kilometres loops around Capital Circuit.

The Sacramento area was ‘discovered’ around 1800 by the Spanish explorer Gabriel Moraga. One of the writers in his staff noted: 'Es como el sagrado sacramento!’ meaning something like ‘It’s like the Holy Sacrament’. It was a short step to find an appropriate name for the city that was built on the banks of the river.

The first three riders on the line take time bonuses of 10, 6 and 4 seconds, while two intermediate sprints (at kilometre 66.5 and at kilometre 135) come with 3, 2 and 1 seconds.