Stage 1 ;May 10, 2015 —
Sacramento to Sacramento, welcomed the first stage of the race The first stage of the race was generally pan flat and included three intermediate sprints in
Walnut Grove,
Isleton and West Sacramento, and a section of dirt roads starting into the race and lasting . The stage featured an elevation gain of . A breakaway of four riders formed early on, consisting of
Will Clarke of ,
Steve Fisher of , recent
Tour of the Gila winner
Rob Britton of and his teammate
Robert Sweeting; this quartet's gap grew to a maximum of around six-and-a-half minutes. Soon, took the reins of the bunch, controlling for their sprinter
Mark Cavendish. Clarke grabbed the first points on offer for the sprints classification in Walnut Grove, and also won the second intermediate sprint, accumulating six bonus seconds towards the general classification. With about to cover, one of the favorites,
Andrew Talansky () abandoned the race due to a combination of allergies and an upper respiratory infection. At the front, the four riders in the break were forming a mini-echelon to shelter themselves from the winds, when Britton suffered a mechanical and decided to sit up and wait for the peloton.
Mark Renshaw crashed as he hit a pothole, but was able to remount and return to the peloton. and started helping at the front of the pack with to go, as the gap to the three breakaway riders was down to two-and-a-half minutes. With to race, '
Johnathan Freter crashed on the left side of the road, but was also able to return to the peloton. The break resisted to make it to the last intermediate sprint in West Sacramento, again won by Clarke. }
Stage 2 ;May 11, 2015 —
Nevada City to
Lodi,
(pictured at Kuurne–Brussels–Kuurne) won his second consecutive stage in
Lodi, to extend his general classification lead. The second stage of the race again contained three intermediate sprints which were included in the first half of the parcours. There was also one categorized climb which summited after of racing, a category 4 climb situated on
State Route 49 to determine the first leader of the mountains classification. There was a finishing circuit in Lodi, which the riders completed twice. The elevation gain of the whole stage was . A flurry of attacks occurred from kilometer zero, and after numerous failed attempts,
Daniel Oss () and
Markel Irizar () succeeded in getting from the peloton. They were soon joined by
Luis Amarán of and
Robin Carpenter of , and after of racing, the four escapees held a three-minute advantage. Carpenter took the first sprint points in
Meadow Vista, and also led over the categorized climb, to take the polka-dot jersey for the third stage. later, an intermediate sprint was contested in
Cool, and was also won by Carpenter, who completed a sweep of the sprints in
El Dorado. The breakaway enjoyed a maximum advantage of just over five minutes in the flat, open terrain, with controlling the pace for race leader
Mark Cavendish. The breakaway was absorbed shortly afterwards and no one tried to escape the bunch from that point on. In a very fast finish,
Wouter Wippert () launched a long sprint and Sagan jumped onto his wheel. Cavendish opened his own sprint on the right side of the road and Sagan popped out of Wippert's wheel on the left, with Cavendish prevailing to take his second stage in a row, with Wippert rounding-up the podium.
Stage 3 ;May 12, 2015 —
San Jose to San Jose, The third stage of the race featured only one intermediate sprint, contested in
Livermore, then the climbing began. There were six King of the Mountains prizes (four were category 4 and one was category 2), with the major one being the climb to
Mount Hamilton, an "hors-category" climb of at an average 7% gradient. One of the category 4 climbs was situated at the end of the stage in San Jose, where the finale featured at an average gradient of 10%. The elevation gain for the stage was . () won the stage, following a solo attack, which gave him the lead in the general classification. As the riders rolled out of the neutral zone, the temperatures were around and sunny. Two riders did not take the start of the stage:
Warren Barguil of and
Tyler Magner of , both due to a crash that occurred on the second stage. The start of the stage was very fast since a lot of riders wanted a chance to get the mountain points on offer during the stage. After of racing and numerous attempts at forming a breakaway, riders were being dropped due to the rapid pace.
Travis Meyer () was first through the intermediate sprint as the composition of the leading group was still changing by the minute. Soon,
Roy Curvers (),
Daniel Oss (),
Jonathan Clarke (),
Evan Huffman (),
Oscar Clark and
Toms Skujiņš (both of ) joined Meyer and formed the break. Oss swept the three fourth-category climbs prior to Mount Hamilton, as the gap to the escapees was hovering around three-and-a-quarter minutes. At the foot of the climb, Skujiņš accelerated away from his companions and took maximum points, while behind him, the peloton split into several groups as they tackled the climb. Following the descent,
Peter Sagan suffered a mechanical incident, but was able to rejoin the peloton. Skujiņš won the second-category climb at Quimby, but crashed on the descent as he made contact with a protective
hay stack. After remounting, Skujiņš held a lead of two-and-a-half minutes over Oss with to cover, with a further minute-and-a-half to the next main group. Skujiņš remained clear to the end of the stage, completing a solo victory to take the lead of both the general and mountains classifications. Sagan,
Julian Alaphilippe and
Daniel Jaramillo were 1' 06" back, with a further 20 riders coming across the line 3 seconds later.
(pictured at the Scheldeprijs) took his second win of the season, ahead of
Wouter Wippert and sprints classification leader
Mark Cavendish. The fourth stage featured three intermediate sprints once again, contested in
Guadalupe,
Orcutt and
Arroyo Grande respectively. Between the final two sprints, the peloton had to ascend a third-category climb on Tepusquet Road. Despite the stiff crosswinds, the peloton rode at speeds approaching early on. The first sprint was won by
Gregory Daniel () while the race was still in "breakaway formation mode". Daniel was one of five riders that would eventually be part of the day's breakaway, along with
Jesse Anthony (),
Kiel Reijnen (),
Daniel Teklehaimanot () and
Will Clarke () – who had featured in the break on stage one. Daniel was the highest-placed rider in the breakaway, trailing race leader
Toms Skujiņš of by exactly eight minutes; he also took the honors in the second intermediate sprint at Orcutt. On the run-in to the climb of Tepusquet Road, the peloton was being marshaled by and as the gap hovered at three-and-a-half minutes. The ascent of Tepusquet Road averaged 5% until the final kilometer, which was steeper at nearly 7%. As the riders reached the last intermediate sprint in Arroyo Grande – again won by Daniel – with to go, the break held a 35-second lead. The escapees started a flurry of attacks, with Daniel the last to be caught with to cover. With a 10-second bonus for his victory, Sagan reduced Skujiņš' overall classification lead to 22 seconds. }
Stage 5 ;May 14, 2015 —
Santa Barbara to
Santa Clarita, The stage had two intermediate sprint contests held in
Ojai and
Santa Paula. Four categorized climbs were on the itinerary, two of them (both fourth-category) being situated on
State Route 150, along with the third-category Dennison Grade and the fourth-category Balcom Canyon. The last of the stage to Santa Clarita was mainly flat, with the listed official elevation gain for the stage given as .
(pictured at the 2011 Tour de Romandie) was the last of the breakaway riders to be caught, from the finish. From the start,
Daniel Oss () tried to get clear from the peloton since he was in second place in the Mountains competition, one point behind
Toms Skujiņš (), who led this classification as well as the general classification. Oss was unsuccessful in his attempt, but his teammate
Danilo Wyss also tried to get clear, despite being only 47 seconds down on the general classification. This move sparked some chasing by the peloton, but after around of racing, the gap had extended to one-and-a-half minutes. Wyss was joined the breakway by
Alex Howes (),
Javier Mejías (),
Lachlan Morton () and
Geoffrey Curran of . A bunch sprint ensued on drier roads in Santa Clarita, with
Mark Cavendish taking his third stage victory, beating
Zico Waeytens () by a bike length. With third place,
Peter Sagan reduced Skujiņš' overall lead for a second consecutive day, with the lead standing at 18 seconds. theme park in
Santa Clarita.
Big Bear Lake, situated at an altitude of , was supposed to welcome the event but was forecast to receive of snow. As a result, race organizers opted to move the event east to Santa Clarita, with the
Six Flags Magic Mountain theme park serving as both the start and finish location of the stage.
(pictured at Kuurne–Brussels–Kuurne) spent almost two hours with the best time, before being usurped by
Peter Sagan As was customary of time trial stages, cyclists set off in reverse order from where they were ranked in the general classification at the end of the previous stage. Therefore,
Carson Miller of , who, in 133rd place trailed overall leader
Toms Skujiņš () by forty-two minutes and eighteen seconds, was the first rider to set off on the final stage. Riders went on the course at one-minute intervals until the last twenty competitors, who left at two-minute intervals. There was a tailwind coming out of the start gates and a headwind coming back with temperatures hovering around . 45 minutes into the event, the erstwhile stage leader was
Jos van Emden () with a time of 12' 46". An hour into the stage and with 36 riders having completed the course, van Emden still led the timesheets. Many of the cyclists in the early wave were out on the course on their usual road machine, with no aero bars to gain an aerodynamic advantage.
Mark Cavendish – standing 62nd in the general classification – overtook the rider in front of him, sprinter
Zico Waeytens (), as he finished thirty seconds down on van Emden's time. Van Emden had to wait until the penultimate rider
Peter Sagan got on the course for his time to be beaten. Sagan negotiated the corners aggressively and registered a time of 12' 32", besting van Emden by fourteen seconds. With Skujiņš finishing 46 seconds behind in 34th position, Sagan moved into the race lead by 28 seconds.
Stage 7 ;May 16, 2015 —
Ontario to
Mount Baldy, The
queen stage of the 2015 Tour of California, the riders contended with the first King of the Mountains climb, the second-category ascent of Glendora Ridge Road. After descending into
Glendora for an intermediate sprint, the climbing resumed with another second-category climb, the Glendora Mountain Road, before an hors-category climb to the stage finish at
Mount Baldy Ski Lifts. This ascent, with 15 hairpins, took the competitors from an altitude of about to approximately , and reached a maximum gradient of 17%. The stage had the biggest elevation gain of the race, with of climbing and featured hardly any flat terrain.
(pictured at Brabantse Pijl) won the queen stage of the race, and moved into the race lead by two seconds ahead of
Peter Sagan, prior to the final stage. As the race got underway, reports indicated that the temperatures at the finish line were as low as . The race start saw a flurry of attacks which were quickly brought back. On the climb to Glendora Ridge Road, a break tried to get clear including the first two riders in the mountains classification,
Toms Skujiņš () and
Daniel Oss (), who were separated by one point. The other breakaway riders were
Gregory Brenes (),
Lasse Norman Hansen (),
Chris Butler (),
Daniele Ratto () and
Johann van Zyl of . The breakaway was splitting up on the twisting, narrow descent with Oss, Butler and Morton going clear for a period, but they were chased by the rest of the former breakaway group (with the exception of Butler), who made contact on the run-in to Glendora. Meanwhile, the peloton – led by , and – containing the favorites and Sagan were almost four minutes in arrears. Norman Hansen led the breakaway group through the intermediate sprint, prior to a mostly uphill section for until the finish line. Van Zyl attacked and Oss, now in the lead of the mountains classification, made contact with him. With to race, the gap from the peloton to the front of the race was two minutes and upped the pace in an effort to drop Sagan. After Oss won maximum points at the Glendora Mountain Road climb, he dropped back to the peloton, leaving van Zyl on his own out front. Skujiņš was distanced with remaining, ensuring that he was fall down the order from second overall. Once van Zyl was caught, all the favorites were still in the leading group along with Sagan, with remaining.
2012 Mount Baldy stage winner
Robert Gesink of was dropped with to cover, while young rider classification leader
Julian Alaphilippe () took the lead of the very depleted group. 's
Sergio Henao attacked, which caused Sagan to be dropped as he attempted to hold onto the race lead. Alaphilippe responded to Henao's attack, and ultimately dropped him on the snow-lined roads. He soloed through the twisting final kilometres featuring bad tarmac, and held on to take his first win of the season after numerous podium placings. Henao finished second, 23 seconds in arrears, alongside teammate
Ian Boswell, while Sagan finished in sixth place some 47 seconds behind, meaning that Alaphilippe held a two-second lead in the general classification ahead of the final stage.
Stage 8 ;May 17, 2015 —
L.A. Live to
Pasadena, The last stage of the race was also its shortest road stage at . There was one intermediate sprint point at the first crossing of the finish line near the
Rose Bowl, before the riders completed nine laps of a circuit in Pasadena. The total elevation gain was , with no categorized climbs.
(pictured later in the season at the Tour de France) won the general classification on the final stage, ahead of
Julian Alaphilippe. His three-second winning margin was the smallest in the race's history. This stage was supposed to have no consequences on the general classification due to its flat terrain, but the two-second difference separating
Julian Alaphilippe and
Peter Sagan meant that the Tour was not yet decided. A maximum of thirteen bonus seconds were on offer in the stage – the first three riders at both the intermediate sprint (3, 2 and 1 seconds) and the stage finish (10, 6 and 4 seconds) were able to gain time on the general classification. The race got underway in sunny weather, with temperatures around . A breakaway was formed, consisting of two riders,
Matteo Trentin and
Yves Lampaert,
Danny Pate (),
Jacques Janse van Rensburg () and
Ruben Zepuntke (). pulled at the front since they wanted to bring back the break so Sagan could have a chance to sprint for bonus seconds in the intermediate sprint. The team was down two riders since
Maciej Bodnar and
Michael Kolář had to abandon earlier in the race.
Mark Cavendish stated that he would work for Alaphilippe and forget his own ambitions for a fourth stage victory. prior to the intermediate sprint, the breakaway was reeled in. Subsequent attacks came from several riders but on each occasion were reabsorbed to the peloton. At the intermediate sprint, Cavendish won ahead of Sagan and Alaphilippe, meaning that Alaphilippe held a virtual lead of one second. Immediately after the sprint, two riders went clear,
Joseph Lewis and
Oscar Clark. They were soon joined by 's
Manuel Senni and
Jesse Anthony (). The sprinters' teams came to the fore, and with to go, the average speed of the race had been . ==Classification leadership==