[KHTS] – The ninth annual Amgen Tour of California wrapped up on Sunday with the announcement of the winners after the final stage ended in Thousand Oaks.

Mark Cavendish wins the 8th and final finish of the 2014 Amgen Tour of California in a photo finish.

Bradley Wiggins of Great Britain’s Team Sky was the overall winner of the tour, and was awarded with the Amgen Leader Jersey seven times since stage one, while Mark Cavendish won stage eight. 

Santa Clarita was the host city of stages six and seven of the race, with cyclists taking off from Old Town Newhall as they raced toward Mountain High North on Friday and departing from Valencia as they raced toward Pasadena on Saturday.

“This year we were very pleased to have been given two starts,” said Gail Morgan, communications manager for the city of Santa Clarita. “Two stages out of the whole event means that the tour really thinks a lot of Santa Clarita, and we’ve been good hosts so they like coming back… We’d like to see the Amgen Tour come again to Santa Clarita.”

In addition to giving Santa Clarita residents the opportunity to enjoy the race, hosting the tour benefits Santa Clarita businesses by bringing visitors to Santa Clarita who spend money in the city, eat at restaurants and stay at local hotels, she said.

City officials also offered numerous sponsorship opportunities for businesses to partner with them and benefit from the event.

“It is a prestigious, world-class event that our residents can enjoy,” she said. “From everything we heard, both at the event and through emails, it’s been a very positive experience. We tried really hard to make sure that the traffic impacts were as brief as possible and a lot of notifications went out so that people were aware of what areas to avoid, and that seemed to work really well. All in all, what we’ve heard is that it was a win-win for the Amgen Tour people and the residents and businesses of Santa Clarita, as well as our guests from out of the area.”

About the 2014 Amgen Tour of California

Presented by Crunchies Natural Snacks, the ninth annual Amgen Tour of California is a professional cycling race that featured 16 world-class teams competing across more than 720 miles of California.

Every year, cyclists race across the state’s most scenic highways, roadways and coastlines over the course of eight days.

Breakaway from Cancer, a national initiative founded by Amgen in 2005, supported the riders and honored local cancer survivors from tour communities throughout the race.

The goal of the initiative is to increase awareness of important resources available to people affected by cancer, from prevention through survivorship.

For more information about Breakaway from Cancer, click here. For more information about the Amgen Tour of California, click here.