Haedo wins first stage of Tour of California

Even before Juan Jose Haedo sped across the finish line, his CSC teammate Fabian Cancellara raised his fists, celebrating a second straight win for the squad at the Amgen Tour of California.

Haedo, a 26-year-old sprint specialist from Argentina, won his first race for CSC and his fifth stage at the 3-year-old Tour of California on Monday when he shot past former world champions Tom Boonen and Paoli Bettini. Haedo finished the 97-mile course from Sausalito to Santa Rosa in 4 hours 3 minutes 8.29 seconds and won by the length of a bike over two Germans, runner-up Gerald Ciolek, of Team High Road, and third-place finisher Heinrich Haussler of Gerolsteiner.

Cancellara, of Switzerland, held on to the leader’s jersey he earned by winning Sunday’s prologue.

Moving into second place overall is Tyler Farrar, a 23-year-old American riding for Slipstream-Chipotle. He trails Cancellara by two seconds and is two seconds ahead of Team High Road’s Bradley Wiggins. Defending champion and Santa Rosa resident Levi Leipheimer of Astana is fourth overall, six seconds behind Cancellara.

One of the overall favorites, Team High Road’s George Hincapie, crashed in the final turn but was able to get back on his bike and finish. Last year, Hincapie fell during the sixth stage, completed his ride and then was diagnosed with a broken wrist.

A 115.8-mile stage between Santa Rosa and Sacramento today will include stretches through the Sonoma County wine country and an 1,800-foot climb up Trinity Road.

Haedo came to the U.S. in 2000 to do his cycling apprenticeship on the domestic scene, riding most recently for the Toyota United team. Bjarne Riis, CSC sports director, took notice of Haedo at last year’s California race and made Haedo one of five new riders for CSC.

With little money and small cycling earnings at first, Haedo spent time painting houses and cleaning out garages to make extra cash. He said after his win Monday, “I could never imagine I would someday be riding for a top team and looking forward to riding in the European classics. Not when I was painting a room for some extra change.

“But many people don’t realize the level of racing is very good here. It is a good racing school.”

Jackson Stewart of BMC led by himself for nearly three hours and was ahead of the field by as much as 12 minutes before the teams featuring top sprinters took aim and chased him down.

diane.pucin@latimes.com