2018 Tour of Utah Prologue: Van Garderen Fastest; Report, Photo Gallery, Results

BMC Racing Team Scorches Prologue in St. George with 1-2-3 Finish for Hot Start at Tour of Utah

American Tejay van Garderen Claims Larry H. Miller Dealerships Leader’s Jersey

By Lyne Lamoureux – August 6, 2018 – The talk before the start of the 2018 Larry H. Miller Tour of Utah centered around Tejay van Garderen (BMC Racing Team) and his recovery from the Tour of France. Even van Garderen had no idea how his body would respond. It only took six minutes and 28 seconds to get an answer. He smashed the Prologue, and led a BMC sweep of the podium.

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“I did a couple of days that were three hours after the Tour, the rest was just one-hour days and easy, pure recovery. I really had no idea how I was going to respond, especially coming into this heat, at altitude and such a violent short effort. I was stepping into the unknown but I was motivated and did my warm up routine as if I was starting any other time trial,” van Garderen said. “The legs responded well. As soon as I started pushing on the climb I knew, gauging my sensations, ‘okay this could be a good one.’”

“I have the Vuelta [a España] coming up, I have the Tour [de France] in my legs, I was thinking that after a week of recovery, I could actually start training again, starting hitting set on the power meter and cranking out efforts up the climb or I could come and help out at the Tour of Utah. I love Utah, I have a long history here. This was my first professional victory in 2011 in the TT (Time Trial) at the Tour of Utah,” commented van Garderen, who was the 117th and last rider to start the Prologue in St. George. He will wear the Larry H. Miller Group of Companies Leader’s jersey on Tuesday.

“I just came here to have some fun, keep the body rolling. I told myself if there is a chance for a result, I’ll take it and today was a great opportunity for that,” added van Garderen. In 2011, he finished fourth in the opening Prologue, which was held in Park City. Later that week he won the ITT on Stage 3 in Tooele, Utah.

Reigning U.S. Pro Individual Time Trial champion Joe Rosskopf finished four seconds back in second place. Tom Bohli (SUI), who sat in the hot seat for most of the day, finished in third, six seconds off the pace.

“It give us confidence for the rest of the Tour,” Rosskopf said about having Top 3 at Prologue. “We had our money on Tom Bohli, a great individual time trial specialist. Going 1-2-3 is a bonus.”

Surrounded by inspiring views of the Red Hills Desert Garden at Pioneer Park on the northern cliffs above downtown St. George, van Garderen bested 116 other riders in the opening day of racing for the weeklong stage race. Pacing was key on the out-and-back 3.3-mile (5.3 kilometer) course, where temperatures soared above 100 degrees. The riders started with a mellow climb for the first two kilometers and continued with a short downhill to the turnaround.

“We started out uphill, the roads are wide so it’s deceiving the gradient was I think higher than people expected, or what it looked like,” van Garderen explained. “So you had to overpace and then try to recover a little bit on the downhill, overpace on the way out and then you’re basically screaming at 75 k [kilometer] an hour all the way to the finish line. You don’t want to blow up but at the same time gauge your efforts well.”

Bohli, the 15th rider to start, set the early fast time but admitted to struggling with his pacing. “It was a really, really brutal prologue. I went yesterday to look at the race [course], and it changed my plans that I made for the prologue. I [had] planned to go flat out each hill and then recover on the downhill but the downhill was very flat and you actually had to pedal there as well. I tried to pace but perhaps I overpaced at the beginning because I was missing some power in the end. It was not a technical prologue in this context, there were not a lot of corners, we didn’t use TT bikes, there was one u-turn and the climb was getting pretty steep in the middle for 600 meters I believe. I came back and I was almost dying, and 20 minutes in the hot seat. My lungs, I almost coughed them out, it was so bad, my legs so much pain. I really think I didn’t pace it perfectly well.”

Bohli waited and watched to see if his time would hold. He had to wait until his teammate Rosskopf, the 100th rider to start unseated him A few minutes later, van Garderen clocked the best time.

“At the first moment as Joey beat me, of course it was a bit of a deception because I was hoping I could win it today. But then, my second reaction was ‘was yeah it’s Joey’. First of all I like that guy, he’s a good mate and it’s BMC, good for us and good for him,” Bohli said.

“Good for us as friends, and as Tejay beat us, it was also a happy moment,” he continued. “We were not all sure because the Tour de France is a big race, a lot of big effort, and that he won the prologue today really showed that he is in really really good shape and he can go for the win. It gives us good confidence, especially me as I am here to make good work for the team. I’m really glad to see how good shape he is, it motivates me more.”

A total of 36 riders are now separated by 20 seconds at the top of the standings, making for an exciting opening to the 14th edition of the Larry H. Miller Tour of Utah. Finishing fourth, American Neilson Powless of Team LottoNL-Jumbo claimed the WCF Insurance Best Young Rider jersey.

“It was pretty hot but it was a gorgeous venue in St George,” said Powless who won the Best Young Rider at the 2017 Tour of Utah. “It got a bit warm throughout the day, I went a bit earlier so it was a little bit cooler but it certainly stop these guys from setting insanely fast times. Very happy to be back in the Best young rider’s jersey, I think that my spring was sort of up and down and it’s nice to be coming back into fitness again.”

Sixth on the day, 11 seconds from the win, Serghei Tvetcov (ROM) of UnitedHealthcare Pro Cycling Team was voted the America First Credit Union Fan Favorite, in the category of International Rider. Fifth on the stage, Pascal Eenkhoom (NED) of Team LottoNL-Jumbo was awarded the Larry H. Miller Dealerships Most Aggressive Rider jersey. Rosskopf claimed the Utah Sports Commission Sprint jersey and Bohli was awarded the Utah Office of Tourism King of the Mountain jersey.

Joe Dombrowski (USA) of EF Education First-Drapac p/b Cannondale, the overall winner of the 2015 Tour of Utah, is 13 seconds back in 12th place, and defending champion Rob Britton (CAN) of Rally Cycling is in 29th place, 18 seconds down.

“I haven’t looked at the full list of results, where the other contenders are but I think that after a 5K efforts, I can’t imagine that it’s more than a handful of seconds and the climb to Snowbird, that’s a hard climb,” van Garderen pondered when asked about his strategy to defend the race lead and the importance of Stage 5 presented by University of Utah Health. “It’s hot, it just bakes in the sun, it’s steep so if you have a bad day on that day, whatever advantage you gain on a 5k prologue is going to be wiped away.”

True to its nickname as “America’s Toughest Stage Race,” the 2018 Larry H. Miller Tour of Utah, Aug. 6-12, will dish out 548 miles of racing and 43,780 feet of elevation gain. The UCI 2.HC-rated stage race began in St. George today with 17 professional teams, representing 20 countries.

Stage 1 presented by America First Credit Union returns to Cedar City for a fourth time on Tuesday, Aug. 7. The 101-mile (162.5 km) Stage 1 route includes 8,950 feet of elevation gain. It also features the highest climb of the week, passing Cedar Breaks National Monument at 10,600 feet. The course is similar to the one used in 2016, this year with a new circuit finish in downtown Cedar City. The first Utah Sports Commission Sprint line will be contested in Parowan, then hit a Category 1 climb at the top of Parowan Canyon at the ski resort town of Brian Head. This ascent climbs 4,500 vertical feet in 15 miles, with some sections challenging riders with a 15 percent gradient.

AWARD JERSEYS

Larry H. Miller Group of Companies Overall leader – Tejay van Garderen (USA), BMC Racing Team

Utah Sports Commission Sprint leader – Joe Rosskopf (USA), BMC Racing Team

Utah Office of Tourism King of the Mountain – Tom Bohli (SUI), BMC Racing Team

WCF Insurance Best Young Rider – Neilson Powless (NED), Team LottoNL-Jumbo

Larry H. Miller Dealerships Most Aggressive Rider – Pascal Eenkhoom (NED), Team LottoNL-Jumbo

America First Credit Union Fan Favorite – Serghei Tvetcov (ROM), UnitedHealthcare Pro Cycling Team

Results: