John Murphy (UnitedHealthcare) outkicked BMC’s Taylor Phinney in the final metres of stage 7 to take the closing win of the USA Pro Challenge Sunday in Denver. Phinney held on for second ahead of Lucas Haedo (Jamis-Hagens Berman) in Third.
Rohan Dennis (BMC) attempted a last-kilometre move for the line but came up short of the stage win, finishing safely in the field to seal his overall win ahead of teammate Brent Bookwalter and Team SmartStop’s Rob Britton.
After the race Murphy said the UnitedHealthcare's ability to lock up Kiel Reijnen's green points jersey the day before freed him up to go for the stage win on the final day. The team worked hard to put him into position for the win, and when a gap opened up behind him and Phinney after an acceleration by lead out man Marco Canola, the race was truly on.
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"Coming in with 500 metres to go, when Brent [Bookwalter] wasn’t able to follow Marco’s acceleration, there was a little gap between me and Taylor," Murphy said. "I kind of used all the road to close it, so as soon as we came into the corner I was just on the wheel. As soon as I came out of the corner I was able to start off his wheel. It wasn’t easy to come around him, but in the end I was able to do it by a few centimetres."
With is overall win, Dennis became the first non-American to win the 2.HC race.
"I didn't actually know that until about two days ago," he said. "So it's a little bit special to be the first non-American. Hopefully I can come back next year and do it again. I've got to take my hat off to the team, really. They did;t put any pressure on me. I came here to help Brent initially and sort of found my legs and ended up in the yellow jersey.I'd like to thank him for quietly supporting me GC-wise and backing me."
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