The cyclists careened through Coast Village Road in a tight, fast pack. If you fiddled with your phone, you might have missed them.
Forty-five minutes later, after Egan Bernal crossed the finish line at the summit of Gibraltar Road to win Stage 2 of the Amgen Tour of California (ATOC), he had time to try on four different jerseys while the majority of the 117 riders were still laboring up the mountain on a sunny Monday afternoon.
Bernal, a 21-year-old Colombian riding for Britain’s Team Sky, sprung to the lead on the steepest part of the road with two kilometers remaining. The few riders who managed to stay in contention were powerless to answer his move. Runner-up Rafał Majka was closest at the end, 21 seconds behind — a gaping margin in a sport where races are won by the thickness of tires.