Rob Britton doesn't ski. But that won't stop the Rally Cycling rider from enjoying the set of downhill skis he got as a prize for winning the stage 3 uphill time trial at the Larry H. Miller Tour of Utah and seizing the race lead.
"I'm stoked," he said in the post-stage press conference. "I don't ski at all, but I just moved to Calgary last fall, and all my friends who used to bike race quit bike racing last year, so I can either go mountain biking with them or backcountry skiing with them. Now that I have skis, I mean I don't own skis, so I'm actually legitimately excited."
Such is the glass-half-full attitude that has served the 32-year-old Canadian well throughout his often-overlooked career. Britton drew plenty of spotlight on himself Wednesday, covering the 9km uphill course at altitude in 18:29, 13 seconds faster than runner-up Serghei Tvetcov (Jelly Belly-Maxxis) and 26 seconds faster than third-placed Gavin Mannion (UnitedHealthcare).
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Britton took the yellow jersey from teammate Sepp Kuss and now leads Mannion in the overall by 26 seconds and Tvetcov by 28. Cylance Cycling's Kyle Murphy is fourth at 34 seconds, with Axeon Hagens Berman's Neilson Powless rounding out the top five, 38 seconds back. BMC Racing's Brent Bookwalter, who was third in 2015, is currently sixth overall, 44 seconds down.
Britton used a simple strategy to take the win: go as hard as he could for as long as he could and then try and hold on when the power started to fade. He was one second off Tvetcov's top time at the intermediate time split halfway up the climb, then surged to the win over the final 4.5km.
"The watts did nothing but drop for the entire race, more or less," Britton said. "That's the way I planned it, but I just didn't want to have too big of a drop. But definitely the first 5 or 6km I was running pretty hot, and then the last couple I was just holding on for dear life."
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