Australian cyclist Rohan Dennis narrowed the gap to suffering race leader Bradley Wiggins as he thrived in hot conditions to win the Tour of California third stage.
Dennis, who was runner up in stage two, sprinted away from the pack with a little more than 200m to go on the final 6.5km climb up Mount Diablo at the end of a tough 174km stage from San Jose.
Riding for Garmin-Sharp, he won by six seconds from Portugal's Tiago Machado (Netapp-Endura) with American Lawson Craddock (Giant-Shimano) two seconds further back in third.
Englishman Wiggins, the 2012 Tour de France winner, struggled with the heat and slipped late to finish ninth in the stage.
He retained the leader's jersey but second-placed Dennis cut his advantage from 44 seconds to 24 seconds with five stages left.
Dennis, 23, gained prominence last year when he won the inaugural Tour of Alberta in Canada. He said experience from the 2013 Tour of California helped him on Tuesday.
"Last year, at about three kilometres to go, I didn't have anything left," Dennis said.
"This year, getting past that was a bonus. I saw other people cracking around us and that gave me more confidence."
Wiggins planned to watch Dennis more closely from now on.
"This is the first time I have ridden in this type of heat in almost two years," said Wiggins. "It takes an adjustment. Actually, I am a bit knackered from it.
"It was difficult to know who was in the group riding on the front.
"That was probably the only mistake I made as Rohan Dennis took a little bit of time.
"I perhaps underestimated that he'd be there so we just need to keep a closer eye on him on the next ones."
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