With 4.5 miles (7.2 km) to go in the race, the 3 remaining breakaway companions, Ben Jacques-Maynes (Bissell), Maxime Bouet (Ag2r–La Mondiale) and Jeff Louder (UnitedHealthcare) shook hands to congratulate each other for the nice effort since the bunch was 10 seconds behind them and reeled them in moments later.

Race leader Peter Sagan was part of a crash that occurred near the top of the Empire Grade climb, but he could recover and got back on his bike after some on-the-fly repairs by the team's mechanic.

[9] Alexandre Geniez from Argos–Shimano was part of an early break with 5 other riders and was the lone surviving escapee, but was caught on the last climb of the day with 35 kilometres (22 mi) to go.

Another crucial part of the journey was the Patterson Pass (Category 3), which summit is situated 9.3 miles (15.0 km) away from the finish line in Livermore.

A breakaway composed of 4 men formed atop the first climb of the day, Calaveras Road (Category 4), including Sebastian Salas of Optum–Kelly Benefit Strategies whose team manager stated prior to the stage that their main objective was now the red jersey awarded to the best climber.

Sagan stated after his third consecutive success that he was surprised to be a part of the finale since the Patterson Pass' climb was a steep one and was situated very close to the end of the race.

The longest stage of the 2012 Tour of California was also the one with the greatest number of categorized climbs, since the peloton had to tackle with six of them and compose with high temperatures.

A number of breaks formed, but ultimately all of them were swallowed by the bunch, the most significant effort being led by a group of 11 riders with a maximum lead of 5' 25".

[17] After going past the last climb of the day, category 3 Crane Valley Road, the peloton regrouped on the descent to Clovis with all the favorites.

After an attempt by David Zabriskie of Garmin–Barracuda to solo onward to victory failed near the 1 kilometre (0.62 mi) mark,[18] Peter Sagan sprinted out of his teammate's wheel, edging Heinrich Haussler on the line for the fourth day in a row.

David Zabriskie of Garmin–Barracuda took the yellow jersey off the shoulders of Peter Sagan, with an advantage of 3' 27" over the former race leader, who finished in 52nd position.

[22] Forty-year-old RadioShack–Nissan rider Jens Voigt came in second place, with American Tejay van Garderen of BMC Racing Team rounding up the podium.

Seven riders broke away almost from the starting line, including David Boily and Sebastian Salas, who were battling it out for the red jersey.

Boily came first atop the first difficulty of the day, but ultimately could not keep up with the pace of the breakaway and Salas remained the leader of the mountain's competition as the stage finished.

Sebastian Salas, approaching the last climb that would lead the race to Big Bear Lake, reportedly told Georges that he did not have the legs to continue cooperating with him, with 48 kilometres (30 mi) still to go.

Back in the group, general classification contender Tejay van Garderen of BMC Racing Team survived a scare when he punctured while descending the first categorized difficulty of the day, but a teammate was there to promptly give him his wheel.

The final stage was a relatively flat affair with a modest elevation gain of 2,069 feet (631 m) over the entire course, which included 6 laps of a 5 miles (8.0 km) circuit in Los Angeles where the riders went by the Staples Center.

[33] A breakaway occurred, but it never gained more than a 35 seconds advantage over the field, since the Rabobank team dictated a fast pace to protect Robert Gesink's lead.

The overall classification winner Robert Gesink dedicated his victory to the memory of his father, who died as a result of a cycling accident in October 2010.

For the general classification, calculated by adding the finishing times of the stages per cyclist, the leader received a yellow jersey.