2017 Tour of Utah Stage 2: Bookwalter Wins First Mountain Top Finish of 2017 Tour of Utah at Snowbasin Resort

Bookwalter Wins First Mountain Top Finish of 2017 Tour of Utah at Snowbasin Resort

By Lyne Lamoureux

American Brent Bookwalter of BMC Racing Team powered away in the final meters of the climb to Snowbasin Resort to win Stage 2 presented by America First Credit Union of the Larry H. Miller Tour of Utah. Sepp Kuss (USA) of Rally Cycling finished second, with the same time as Bookwalter.

“I didn’t exactly imagine it, but it was always a hope,” Kuss said of taking over the overall lead at the Tour of Utah. “I trained super hard for this race. I think when you prepare for a race, you can kind of envision it, but I didn’t expect to be in this position today. I’m super excited and surprised.”

By virtue of a tie breaker, Kuss secured the general classification lead which puts him in the Larry H. Miller Dealerships overall leader’s jersey. After launching a surprise solo attack in the final kilometer, Canadian James Piccoli of Elevate-KHS Pro Cycling held on for third on the stage.

“It’s the first year that the team is here and that I’m here. We’ve been preparing for a month now at altitude at Park City and doing all the courses. We’re super well prepared for this race and really happy to be here. Hopefully we show that we were a good pick,” said Piccoli about his Elevate-KHS team.

Bookwalter covered the 94-mile course on Tuesday from Brigham City to Snowbasin Resort in three hours and 38 minutes. “At the end, it was just about picking the right moment and timing it right, and gambling a little too. Coming into this race a little more relaxed and not having my whole season or months of prep riding on this race served me well because I could sort of sit back and say if these guys stayed away, well, it’s not like I’ve been staring at the big asterisk on my calendar, at this day for months. This race obviously means a lot to me and I’m inspired to do well here but that laid back approach helped.” said Bookwalter, who finished third overall at the 2015 and 2016 Tour of Utah.

As expected, the first mountain-top finish of the 2017 Tour of Utah brought major changes to the overall leaderboard, with Bookwalter moving into second overall, tied on time with Kuss. Piccoli slots into third, also with the same time. Sixth on the stage, American Robin Carpenter, Holowesko | Citadel Racing Team p/b Hincapie Sportswear moves up to fourth overall, two seconds down. Neilson Powless (USA), Axeon Hagens Berman Cycling Team moves up to eighth place overall and takes over the WCF Insurance Best Young Rider jersey.

Ty Magner (USA) of Holowesko | Citadel Racing Team p/b Hincapie Sportswear, who wore the Larry H. Miller Dealerships leader jersey after winning Stage 1 in Logan on Monday, dropped to 52nd on G.C., more than 17 minutes off the lead.

Sunny conditions greeted the riders for the start of Stage 2 presented by America First Credit Union in Brigham City this morning. Attacks started immediately from the start, as the riders started the ascent up Sardine Canyon, the first of three Utah Office of Tourism King of the Mountain climbs.

Numerous riders tried to escape but the large numbers of riders off the front doomed all moves to failure. One such rider was BMC Racing Team’s Joey Rosskopf who took top points on the first KOM. More attacks followed but it took 28 miles of racing before a breakaway was established. Initiated by Rosskopf, the reigning U.S. Pro Time Trial champion, three riders managed to escape and gain a maximum of five minutes and 10 seconds on the field.

The break included Oscar Clark (USA), Holowesko | Citadel Racing Team, and Marco Canola (ITA) of Nippo-Vini Fantini. Meanwhile in the field, Rally Cycling took position at the front to control the gap. With 40 miles to go, the gap was down to under two minutes. The trio was ultimately reeled in on the second KOM of the day, the climb up North Ogden Divide.

Bookwalter was appreciative of the work put in by his BMC Racing Team, including his teammate Rosskopf. “The only thing I could have done to do their effort justice today was to win,” he said. “ Coming into this race, I was pushing him to ride G.C., he was a little less confident, said he was comfortable being aggressive. We’ve seen it before that he’s really good at doing that, he’s been good here. The ride he did on the climb too was just incredible. He was out there all day, covered in salt, and he came back, he was still riding at the front, popping guys out of that group. He’s an animal, definitely hasn’t seen his limits, still getting better.”

The technical descent led to more attacking but the field down to 40 riders was all together as they started the final climb to the finish line. Canadian Adam De Vos of Rally Cycling countered an attach by Jhonnatan Narvaez (POR) of Axeon Hagens Berman and quickly established a gap to the field. With three kilometers, De Vos was fully committed to his attack, head down and giving it everything he had.

“Adam has a super good finishing kick himself. We decided that the climb might not be selective enough to have attacks go from the bottom and have big time gaps. I think when he saw Neilson’s teammate go near the bottom, he followed that and it ended up being a pretty good move. And he was out there until the last k[ilometer]. A strong ride by him,” said Kuss.

Powless, who is the reiging U-23 Road Race national champion, said about the climb, “It was pretty stop and go I think. It wasn’t a crazy steep uphill finish, it was a bit more tactical so it was a bit more explosive. I tried to go a couple of times, but no one was really letting me go either. I had one other teammate Jhonnatan in the group which was really nice, he went pretty early on and when we caught him, I think he ended up going again before the finish which was really impressive. It helped me a lot too, because it’s really nice to have a teammate up the road, if we catch him, I know he’s strong and he’d still probably be able to hang in as well. On an uphill finish like this, you’re really just trying to get to the last kick as fresh as possible because that’s when a lot of gaps are going to happen.”

Jacob Rathe (USA) of Jelly Belly Cycling p/b Maxxis retained the Utah Office of Tourism KOM jersey. After taking top points in the first sprint line in Wellsville, Chris Lawless (GBR) of Axeon Hagens Berman Cycling Team takes over the Utah Sports Commission Sprint jersey. Canadian De Vos was awarded the Larry H. Miller Dealerships Most Aggressive Rider jersey. Danny Pate (USA) of Rally Cycling, who has been racing for more than 17 years as a pro, was voted America First Credit Union Fan Favorite for Stage 2, in the category of Most Loved Veteran.

Stage 3 presented by Workfront marks the return of the popular individual time trial (ITT), last held in 2011. Starting at an elevation of 7,300 feet, the course climbs 1,725 vertical feet and provides a tough 5.6-mile ascent of Big Cottonwood Canyon Road. The course travels from the Donut Falls Trailhead parking at Reynolds Gulch to the front door of Brighton Ski Resort. The route passes Solitude Ski Resort, towering spruce trees and rock vistas that are part of the Uinta-Wasatch-Cache National Forest. With a 5.5 percent average gradient, the course should favor a strong rider who excels at high altitude.

“It could be the most decisive day of the race,” Bookwalter said of Stage 3. “But it’s a new stage, hard to know. Traditionally, we see pretty big time gaps on Snowbird too. Last time I was here (Big Cottonwood Canyon) two years ago, [Joe] Dombrowski put a minute into second place, it’s all open.”

Kuss agreed, “I think it will be fairly decisive. It’s a pretty fast time trial for an uphill TT, but I think the altitude will definitely play a role because it starts off pretty high on Big Cottonwood. I think it will test a lot of different abilities that than a normal TT might not or a flat TT especially.”