Peter Sagan will highlight Tour of California, which begins Sunday in San Diego

Peter Sagan has had so much success in the U.S. lately that he might as well take up residency.

The Slovakian cyclist has dominated sprint stages at the Tour of California for years, and last year he surprised many by holding on for the overall victory. Then, a few months later, Sagan rode to triumph at the world championships in Richmond, Va.

He’s back to headline this year’s Tour of California, which begins Sunday in San Diego, and he will be wearing the rainbow stripes that he earned with that impressive ride last fall.

“I’m really looking forward to coming back to this race. It’s a great event at which I have some really good memories,” Sagan said. “This year will be a very difficult edition, and not quite suited to my style, but stage by stage we will see what we can do.”

The first stage should be an opportunity for the sprinters, while Stage 2 on Monday from Pasadena to Santa Clarita should be another. But the general classification will begin to take shape on Stage 3, when riders ascend the 6-mile slope of Gibraltar Road in Santa Barbara.

The race continues to Mazda Laguna Seca Raceway on Stage 4, heads to Lake Tahoe the next day, and then features another key GC stage with the Folsom Time Trial on Friday.

Stage 7 takes place in the cycling hotbed of Santa Rosa with the race concluding in Sacramento.

“It’s really a world-class field, especially for the sprint stages,” BMC Racing’s Brent Bookwalter said. “As far as the GC, maybe there’s a couple more World Tour teams than have been here in years past, and the more you get together, the higher the level.”