Brent Bookwalter (BMC Racing) claimed the first summit finish of the 2017 Larry H. Miller Tour of Utah, patiently waiting until the very final metres to launch into top gear and sprint to victory over Sepp Kuss (Rally Cycling) and late attacker James Piccoli (Elevate-KHS).
With his second place finish, Kuss rode into the yellow jersey ahead of Bookwalter on the same time, as overnight race leader Ty Magner (Holowesko-Citadel) was dropped before the final climb.
The long, gradual ascent to Snowbasin Resort saw a number of riders attack the ever-shrinking peloton. Rally's Adam De Vos was the first to go after the day's breakaway was reeled in, and although he was briefly joined by Jhonatan Narváez (Axeon), the Canadian spent most of the climb dangling just off the front of the bunch before finally being pulled in by a surge from Axeon just outside one kilometre to go.
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Piccoli countered and looked set to stage a huge upset victory until Bookwalter's burst of speed put paid to those ambitions. Bookwalter said a reconnaissance ride last week paid off on Tuesday.
"I knew it was kind of steep coming through that last corner," Bookwalter said of the final kilometre. "The gate [to the ski resort, ed.] was closed when we rode it, so it was hard to get a feel of exactly how much speed you'd be carrying. Robin Carpenter did a real big dig, and Robin's got awesome like one-minute, two-minute power, so I figured if I could just hold is wheel and come off it and push to the line, I've been a close second in a lot of races the past 12 to 24 months, so I really wanted it once I launched my sprint."
There were no time bonuses for the summit finish, and so with the top riders tied on time, the overall lead was decided by stage finishes. Kuss finished 22nd on stage 1, while backwater was further back in 30th, putting Kuss in yellow at Snowbasin.
How it unfolded
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