In a race that looked to play out in the sprinters' favor, it was a breakaway led by Evan Huffman that held off the peloton's late charge and allowed the Rally Cycling rider to win Stage 4 of the 2017 Amgen Tour of California on Wednesday. While there were a series of climbs along the day's route, the long run-in after the final descent was anticipated to make it tough for any break to maintain an advantage over the sprint teams.

The breakaway started with six riders including Gavin Mannion (United Healthcare), Rob Britton and Huffman (Rally Cycling), Lennard Hofstede (Team Sunweb), and Mathias Le Turnier (Cofidis) and Martin Elmiger (BMC). Elmiger lost contact early on in the climbs, leaving it up to the group of five to build out their advantage. The gap extended to nine minutes halfway through the stage before the peloton started to get serious about bringing them back. The WorldTour teams hit the front hard on the last climb and began to cut minutes into the break's advantage.

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At this point, it looked as if it was only a matter of time before the break would be brought in for the sprinters to decide the stage win, but with around 25km to go, it still held over three minutes on the peloton. The group of five was working extremely well together, unlike the chasers behind. With no team putting in a significant effort at the front, the tailwind was helping the breakaway riders hold their lead. None of the teams were committed to burning their riders to bring in the break at the risk of losing a lead out in the sprint. The time gap finally dropped after Quick-Step and Katusha sent a few riders to take big turns at the front. Alarm bells went off at 3.5km to go with the gap holding over a minute. Sky sent their entire team forward in a massive effort to bring the race back together.

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It was all too late. The break hit the finish stretch with a 20-second advantage. Huffman and Britton sprinted away from the group to finish 1-2, respectively, in Rally Cycling's first-ever WorldTour race. Lennard Hofstede held on for third to place to make the Stage 4 podium. Peter Sagan won the bunch sprint, crossing the finish 13 seconds behind the stage winner.

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It was an exciting finale between the break and sprint teams. Opportunity for more break stage wins now drops dramatically. Stage 5 will come down to a GC battle on Mount Baldy. Stages 6 and 7 are relatively flat, and the sprint teams are going to be highly motivated to leave California with stage wins.

Place	Rider Name (Country) Team	Result
1	Evan Huffman (USA) Rally Cycling	3:41:52
2	Rob Britton (Can) Rally Cycling
3	Lennard Hofstede (Ned) Team Sunweb
4	Mathias Leturnier (Fra) Cofidis, Solutions Credits
5	Gavin Mannion (USA) UnitedHealthcare Professional Cycling Team
6	Peter Sagan (Svk) Bora-Hansgrohe	0:00:13
7	John Degenkolb (Ger) Trek-Segafredo
8	Marcel Kittel (Ger) Quick-Step Floors
9	Alexander Kristoff (Nor) Katusha-Alpecin
10	Simone Consonni (Ita) UAE Team Emirates
11	Ramon Sinkeldam (Ned) Team Sunweb
12	Reinardt Janse Van Rensburg (RSA) Dimension Data
13	Jonas Van Genechten (Bel) Cofidis, Solutions Credits
14	Geoffrey Soupe (Fra) Cofidis, Solutions Credits
15	Elia Viviani (Ita) Team Sky
16	Greg Henderson (NZl) UnitedHealthcare Professional Cycling Team
17	Jacob Rathe (USA) Jelly Belly p/b Maxxis
18	Serghei Tvetcov (Rom) Jelly Belly p/b Maxxis
19	Rafal Majka (Pol) Bora-Hansgrohe
20	Ruslan Tleubayev (Kaz) Astana Pro Team
21	Brent Bookwalter (USA) BMC Racing Team
22	Adam De Vos (Can) Rally Cycling
23	Jhonatan Restrepo (Col) Katusha-Alpecin
24	Sam Oomen (Ned) Team Sunweb
25	Robert Gesink (Ned) Team LottoNl-Jumbo
26	Michael Schär (Swi) BMC Racing Team
27	Vegard Stake Laengen (Nor) UAE Team Emirates
28	Janier Acevedo (Col) UnitedHealthcare Professional Cycling Team
29	Andrew Talansky (USA) Cannondale-Drapac
30	Luis Angel Mate (Spa) Cofidis, Solutions Credits
31	Charles Planet (Fra) Team Novo Nordisk
32	George Bennett (NZl) Team LottoNl-Jumbo
33	Floris De Tier (Bel) Team LottoNl-Jumbo
34	Matteo Dal Cin (Can) Rally Cycling
35	Haimar Zubeldia (Spa) Trek-Segafredo
36	Nicolas Edet (Fra) Cofidis, Solutions Credits
37	Lachlan Morton (Aus) Dimension Data
38	Rick Zabel (Ger) Katusha-Alpecin
39	Enric Mas (Spa) Quick-Step Floors
40	Tao Geoghegan Hart (GBr) Team Sky
41	Ian Boswell (USA) Team Sky
42	Samuel Sanchez (Spa) BMC Racing Team
43	Maximilian Schachmann (Ger) Quick-Step Floors
44	Tiago Machado (Por) Katusha-Alpecin
45	Ben King (USA) Dimension Data
46	Jonathan Dibben (GBr) Team Sky
47	Maciej Bodnar (Pol) Bora-Hansgrohe	0:00:22
48	Matteo Trentin (Ita) Quick-Step Floors	0:00:24
49	Pawel Poljanski (Pol) Bora-Hansgrohe	0:00:30
50	Scott Thwaites (GBr) Dimension Data
51	Jay McCarthy (Aus) Bora-Hansgrohe	0:00:35
52	Nick Dougall (RSA) Dimension Data	0:00:44
53	Yousif Mirza Alhammadi (UAE) UAE Team Emirates	0:01:43
54	Joonas Henttala (Fin) Team Novo Nordisk
55	Javier Megias (Spa) Team Novo Nordisk
56	Stéphane Rossetto (Fra) Cofidis, Solutions Credits
57	David Lopez (Spa) Team Sky
58	Tom Bohli (Swi) BMC Racing Team
59	Daan Olivier (Ned) Team LottoNl-Jumbo
60	Nathan Brown (USA) Cannondale-Drapac
61	Kiel Reijnen (USA) Trek-Segafredo
62	Sepp Kuss (USA) Rally Cycling
63	Tanner Putt (USA) UnitedHealthcare Professional Cycling Team
64	Michal Kolár (Svk) Bora-Hansgrohe
65	Sean Bennett (USA) Jelly Belly p/b Maxxis
66	Laurens De Vreese (Bel) Astana Pro Team	0:01:49
67	Roy Curvers (Ned) Team Sunweb	0:01:55
68	Joshua Berry (USA) Jelly Belly p/b Maxxis
69	Alexey Vermeulen (USA) Team LottoNl-Jumbo
70	Owain Doull (GBr) Team Sky
71	Fabio Sabatini (Ita) Quick-Step Floors
72	Martin Elmiger (Swi) BMC Racing Team	0:02:34
73	Kristijan Durasek (Cro) UAE Team Emirates	0:02:48
74	Marko Kump (Slo) UAE Team Emirates
75	Nils Politt (Ger) Katusha-Alpecin	0:03:00
76	Michael Morkov (Den) Katusha-Alpecin
77	Wouter Wippert (Ned) Cannondale-Drapac
78	Taylor Phinney (USA) Cannondale-Drapac
79	Guillaume Bonnafond (Fra) Cofidis, Solutions Credits	0:03:08
80	Yoann Bagot (Fra) Cofidis, Solutions Credits	0:03:13
81	Jordan Cheyne (Can) Jelly Belly p/b Maxxis	0:03:21
82	Koen De Kort (Ned) Trek-Segafredo	0:03:27
83	Markel Irizar (Spa) Trek-Segafredo	0:03:29
84	Jean-Pierre Drucker (Lux) BMC Racing Team
85	Matti Breschel (Den) Astana Pro Team
86	Antwan Tolhoek (Ned) Team LottoNl-Jumbo
87	Juraj Sagan (Svk) Bora-Hansgrohe
88	Peter Kennaugh (GBr) Team Sky
89	Bert-Jan Lindeman (Ned) Team LottoNl-Jumbo	0:03:32
90	Danny Pate (USA) Rally Cycling	0:03:49
91	Johannes Fröhlinger (Ger) Team Sunweb	0:04:04
92	Bernhard Eisel (Aut) Dimension Data	0:05:18
93	Travis Mccabe (USA) UnitedHealthcare Professional Cycling Team
94	Zdenek Stybar (Cze) Quick-Step Floors	0:05:22
95	Jack Bauer (NZl) Quick-Step Floors
96	Brendan Canty (Aus) Cannondale-Drapac	0:05:56
97	Artyom Zakharov (Kaz) Astana Pro Team	0:06:22
98	Koen Bouwman (Ned) Team LottoNl-Jumbo
99	Alberto Bettiol (Ita) Cannondale-Drapac
100	Filippo Ganna (Ita) UAE Team Emirates
101	Mads Würtz Schmidt (Den) Katusha-Alpecin	0:07:51
102	Lawson Craddock (USA) Cannondale-Drapac	0:10:12
103	Rúben Guerreiro (Por) Trek-Segafredo	0:10:58
104	Christopher Williams (Aus) Team Novo Nordisk	0:11:53
105	Ulises Alfredo Castillo Soto (Mex) Jelly Belly p/b Maxxis
106	Romain Gioux (Fra) Team Novo Nordisk
107	Andrea Peron (Ita) Team Novo Nordisk
108	Ben Wolfe (USA) Jelly Belly p/b Maxxis
109	Floris Gerts (Ned) BMC Racing Team
110	Daniel Eaton (USA) UnitedHealthcare Professional Cycling Team
111	Marco Mathis (Ger) Katusha-Alpecin
112	Arman Kamyshev (Kaz) Astana Pro Team
113	Mike Teunissen (Ned) Team Sunweb
114	Andrea Guardini (Ita) UAE Team Emirates
115	Martijn Verschoor (Ned) Team Novo Nordisk
116	David Lozano (Spa) Team Novo Nordisk
117	Erik Baska (Svk) Bora-Hansgrohe
118	Tyler Farrar (USA) Dimension Data
119	Gregory Daniel (USA) Trek-Segafredo
120	Mark Renshaw (Aus) Dimension Data
121	Martin Velits (Svk) Quick-Step Floors
122	Federico Zurlo (Ita) UAE Team Emirates
123	Daniel Jaramillo (Col) UnitedHealthcare Professional Cycling Team
124	Daniil Fominykh (Kaz) Astana Pro Team
125	Miles Scotson (Aus) BMC Racing Team
126	Colin Joyce (USA) Rally Cycling
127	Jonathan Clarke (Aus) UnitedHealthcare Professional Cycling Team
128	Riccardo Minali (Ita) Astana Pro Team
129	Truls Korsaeth (Nor) Astana Pro Team
130	Danny van Poppel (Ned) Team Sky