Van der Breggen attacked with only five kilometres to go, overtook lone leader Olga Zabelinskaya (Cogeas Mettler Look).
She quickly extended her lead to an advantage of 20 seconds and managed to hold off the chasing bunch into the finish line.
The world champion crossed the line solo with a small group 18 seconds in arrears, including Australian Brodie Chapman (TIBCO-SVB) who comes into the race with some good form after winning the Tour of Gila recently.
Van der Breggen is a former winner of the Tour of California, with the Boels-Dolmans team also boasting defending champion Katie Hall, who won the Tour of California in convincing fashion last year.
