As expected, Saturday’s queen stage at the Larry H. Miller Tour of Utah was a rousing battle for overall supremacy, with race leader Rob Britton and his Rally Cycling team fighting off multiple attacks throughout the day, including a dangerous late move from Brent Bookwalter (BMC) and TJ Eisenhart (Holowesko-Citadel).
Bookwalter started the 100km stage in fifth pace overall, just 44 seconds behind Britton. Eisenhart went into the day sixth overall, 58 seconds back. In between them stood Neilson Powless (Axeon Hagens Berman) at 38 seconds, Serghei Tvetcov (Jelly Belly-Maxxis) at 28 seconds and Gavin Mannion (UnitedHealthcare) in second, 26 seconds down.
The short stage featured the category 1 climb of American Fork Canyon at 33km and the Hors category final climb to Snowbird Ski and Summer Resort. In the beginning, things played out according to expectations. A large breakaway of 18 riders formed off the front in the opening kilometres, and with no threats to the general classification in the move, Rally allowed the escapees to ride away.
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“We didn’t really have a set plan, but you saw from the beginning that Rally was really happy just to keep their team together and let as many guys go as needed,” Bookwalter told Cyclingnews. “That was smart. Keeping your team together is the best thing you can do. Our best chance to split them up was to do a really hard pace on the climb.”
BMC accomplished that mission, setting a pace on American Fork that caught many off-guard and shed the non-climbing chaff from the bunch.
“It was a bit different on the first climb than I thought it would be,” Mannion told Cyclingnews. “BMC just kind of ripped it from the field. So it was quite a bit harder there than I expected.”
It rarely pays off to panic
Sunday's final showdown in Salt Lake City
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