Peter Sagan bagged his fifth victory during the eighth stage of the Amgen Tour of California 2012

Peter Sagan bagged his fifth victory during the eighth stage of the Amgen Tour of California 2012

Peter Sagan is enjoying a terrific season and his top performance during the Amgen Tour of California is a clear evidence of his absolute form.

The cyclist bagged the first, the second, the third and the fourth stages of the event to mark a perfect start to the Californian race.

He has now claimed yet another victory at the event after his marvellous performance during the 72 kilometre final stage of the contest.

The Slovakian was challenged by Tom Boonen throughout the event but he managed to restrict the Belgian at the second spot.

Peter finished the stage in an impressive time of 1 hour, 27 minutes and 36 seconds with Boonen at the second position.

Gerald Ciolek of Team Omega Pharma-QuickStep, Roger Kluge of Team Argos-Shimano, Heinrich Haussler of Team Garmin-Barracuda and Lloyd Mondory of Team AG2R La Mondiale occupied the next four spots.

“I’m very happy with this Tour of California, I am also happy for the sponsor Cannondale because it is a very important race”.

Sagan also secured the top spot after the overall point’s classifications with a maximum number of 87 UCI points in his back pocket.

Heinrich Haussler of Team Garmin-Barracuda occupied the second spot with 54 points while Tom Boonen of Team Omega Pharma-QuickStep, Leigh Howard of Team Orica GreenEdge and Sylvain Georges of Team AG2R achieved the next three positions.

While commenting on his plans for the remaining season, Sagan has shown interest towards riding the Tour de France.

He is keen towards bagging at least one stage at the French Grand Tour this season, “I want to win some stage in Tour de France,” Peter noted.

“I think Mark Cavendish will be very strong. For the sprint, when we have flat stages it will be very hard to beat Cavendish”.

“Maybe the stages when there are climbs before the sprint will be good for me. I don’t know – we will see on the Tour de France. I also will do the Olympic Games and world championships,” he concluded.

The 22-year-old finished at the 42^nd overall spot after the final general classifications, 27 minutes and 28 seconds behind the race leader Robert Gesink of Team Rabobank.

David Zabriskie of Team Garmin-Barracuda finished at the second position while Thomas Danielson, Tejay Van Garderen and Fabio Andres Duarte Arevalo of Team Colombia – Coldeportes finished at the third, the fourth and the fifth positions respectively.