The 21-year-old, who rides for Team Sky, emerged from a group of 13 riders towards the end of the 155 kilometre race from Ventura to Santa Barbara County.

He crossed the finish line first in a time of 4 hours, 14 min, 21sec in front of Poland's Rafal Majka, riding for Bora-Hansgrohe.

Great Britain's Adam Yates, competing for Mitchelton-Scott, was four seconds further back in third.

As reported by Cycling News, following his fourth win of the season, Bernal said: "In the final two kilometres I attacked and I arrived alone.

"I'm so happy because the team did a really good job, and I'm so happy to be in this race."

The current Colombian national time trial champion also emphasised the importance of the climbs in the race.

"Before the stage, we talked about it," he said.

"We wanted to make it a really hard stage.

"The last climb was the most important part of the race.

"Tao (Geoghegan Hart) [Bernal's teammate] did a really good job, so I knew I had to take control of the race."

Bernal now leads the general classification after stage two with an overall time of 7:16.13.

Majka is 25 seconds behind in second with Yates a further four behind.

Tomorrow sees the riders undertake a 197km ride from King City to WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca.