photo credits Tour of Utah/Facebook
Axeon’s Logan Owen powered his way to victory out of a reduced peloton during today’s stage of the 2015 Tour of Utah in Bountiful.
Meanwhile, Kiel Reijnen kept the race lead for the third day and leads four riders by four seconds.
Race Highlights
Today’s stage saw two Hincapie riders, along with Joey Rosskopf of BMC, initiate a six-man breakaway before the first intermediate sprint of the day. South African Johann Van Zyl (MTN-Qhubeka) took the intermediate sprint in Hooper, while Reijnen’s UnitedHealthcare and Airgas-Safeway drove the peloton.
From there, the sextet tackled the first climb of the day with 3:30 gap over the peloton, with Van Zyl taking the KOM point to claim the white and blue mountains jersey.
Wouter Wippert of Drapac crossed the intermediate sprint in Eden, while escapees made their way to the next climb of the day at Trappers Loop.
Again, Van Zyl was the first rider over the Cat. 3 climb.
Meanwhile, a big crash plagued the peloton along the Trappers Loop descent – delaying most of the field, and causing the American road champion Matthew Busche (Trek) to abandon.
The next climb came 48 kilometers later in Temple, where Wippert emerged from the break and set off on his own.
He was later joined by Rosskopf, who has able to make the juncture – and later take the lead.
Back in there pursuit, 10 riders flared out from the peloton in pursuit of Rosskopf.
The first rider to bridge his way to Rosskopf, was Lachlan Norris (Australia/Drapac).
Norris then shook off Rosskopf, while at the same time, found himself accompanied by Optum’s Michael Woods.
Shortly thereafter, a group of 14 riders coalesced at the summit, and then proceeded to attack one another on the plateau.
Eritrean Natnael Berhane (MTN-Qhubeka) pulled clear but was brought back before the 5-km descent to Bountiful.
Forty-riders plummeted, with UnitedHealthcare trying to get organized at the front. Smith tried his luck from 1.5-km out, but he was hauled back in the final 500-meters. Owen found the right slot and eked out a win over Brent Bookwalter (USA/BMC). .
Stage 3 Results USA 1 OWEN, Logan (AXEON CYCLING TEAM) 4:12:40 USA 2 BOOKWALTER, Brent (BMC RACING) COL 3 AVILA VANEGAS, Edwin Alcibiades (COLOMBIA) SLO 4 KOCJAN, Jure (TEAM SMARTSTOP) NZL 5 SMITH, Dion (HINCAPIE RACING TEAM) ERI 6 BERHANE, Natnael (MTN – QHUBEKA) USA 7 REIJNEN, Kiel (UNITEDHEALTHCARE) USA 8 CARPENTER, Robin (HINCAPIE RACING TEAM) AUS 9 PHELAN, Adam (DRAPAC) ITA 10 COLBRELLI, Sonny (BARDIANI CSF)
General Classification after Stage 3 USA 1 REIJNEN, Kiel (UNITEDHEALTHCARE) 12:58:59 USA 2 HOWES, Alex (TEAM CANNONDALE – GARMIN) + 4 SLO 3 KOCJAN, Jure (TEAM SMARTSTOP) USA 4 BOOKWALTER, Brent (BMC RACING) USA 5 OWEN, Logan (AXEON CYCLING TEAM) USA 6 CARPENTER, Robin (HINCAPIE RACING TEAM) + 8 RSA 7 THOMSON, Jay Robert (MTN – QHUBEKA) RSA 8 VAN ZYL, Johann (MTN – QHUBEKA) USA 9 EATON, Daniel (AXEON CYCLING TEAM) + 10 COL 10 AVILA VANEGAS, Edwin Alcibiades (COLOMBIA)
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