Last year Kiel Reijnen opened the Larry H. Miller Tour of Utah with a stage 1 win ahead of friends and rivals Alex Howes (Cannondale) and Taylor Phinney (BMC Racing). Reijnen was on track to repeat his feat Monday in Cedar City when a minor mishap in the finishing straight broke his front wheel and knocked him out of contention.
Throughout the day, Trek-Segafredo held its cards close to its chest and let teams like Rally Cycling, who was working for sprinter Eric Young, and Cannondale-Drapac, who was protecting 2015 overall winner Joe Dombrowski's GC ambitions, do most of the work in reeling back a four-rider breakaway that stayed away into the final throes of the stage.
Reijnen's team added some power to the chase near the top of the final climb, then contributed to pulling back the final two escapees. When the peloton caught the last two breakaway riders on the penultimate finishing circuit in town, Eugenio Alafaci gave Reijnen the perfect leadout as the sprint wound up.
ADVERTISEMENT
"I slotted in with 250 meters to go, like fourth or fifth wheel, and from the left side a guy came across and his derailleur went into my front wheel and broke some spokes," Reijnen said. "It's lucky we didn't crash, but really disappointing because it was a good day for a result. The legs were good, the guys were perfect, and I was in the right position."
Instead of riding across the line with his arms lifted skyward in victory, Reijnen ended his day walking across the line with his front wheel in one hand the rest of his bike in the other.
"It's definitely a disappointing day when we had the legs to win the stage," he said. "The stage was not that easy today, but my legs felt really good. The guys went all-in for me for the stage; they were perfect. I followed a small attack on the little kicker on the circuit, and it didn't stick, but I still felt really good, so we lined up for the sprint."
Video Highlights
You can read more at Cyclingnews.com
via Cyclingnews Latest News http://ift.tt/2aNg6f6
No comments:
Post a Comment