photo credits @ Tour of Utah
Joe Dombrowski won today’s first mountain summit finish of the 2015 Tour of Utah.
Dombrowski’s valiant effort on the climb to Snowbird Ski and Summer Resort, not only earned him the stage victory, but also awarded him the yellow jersey as well.
Race Highlights
Three riders started up the day’s first climb of Little Mountain. Rob Britton (SmartStop) was part of the trio, as was the KOM jersey holder Greg Daniel (USA/Axeon), who rolled over the summit first. A chase bolstered the breakaway to 12-riders, but Daniel still held off challengers and took the maximum KOM points on the Cat. 3 Big Mountain.
With 71-km to go, the breakaway was holding a 3:55 gap over the Airgas-Safeway and Drapac – led peloton.
Escapee Sonny Colbrelli (Italy/Bardiani-CSF) took his second intermediate sprint of the day before the race headed up the Guardsman proper.
Once the gradient kicked up, the breakaway started to disintegrate, while UnitedHealthcare and Jelly Belly continued to drive the chase back in the peloton.
Up ahead, the escape group kept losing numbers. And, with the Guardsman peak around 1.5-km away, BMC’s Joey Rosskopf’s pace dispatched even more breakaway companions.
Roffkopf later summitted with Britton on his wheel, while the peloton was now only 50-seconds away.
The duo was later joined by Ben King (Cannoindale-Garmin) along the gradual downhill leading to the foot of the Snowbird climb.
With 8-km to go, Joe Dombrowski (USA/Cannondale-Garmin) bridged himself to teammate Ben King, while Frank Schleck (Luxembourg/Trek), Rob Squire (USA/Hincapie) and race leader Michael Woods (Canada/Optum) grabbed onto the Cannonade rider as well.
Schleck was the last man that Dombrowski dropped with 7-km to go, while last year’s runner-up, Chris Horner (USA/Airgas), made his way to the chase group.
With 4-km remaining, the Cannondale-Garmin rider was 40-seconds ahead of Woods, giving the American the virtual yellow jersey.
Dombrowski kept increasing his gap right up until the finish, while Woods followed in second place at 1:16 behind.
Woods now sits in second place in the overall general classification – at 50 seconds back.
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Stage 6 Results USA 1 DOMBROWSKI, Joseph Lloyd (TEAM CANNONDALE – GARMIN) 5:00:20 CAN 2 WOODS, Michael (OPTUM P/B KELLY BENEFIT STRATEGIES) + 1:17 ERI 3 BERHANE, Natnael (MTN – QHUBEKA) LUX 4 SCHLECK, Frank (TREK FACTORY RACING) USA 5 HORNER, Christopher (AIRGAS-SAFEWAY CYCLING TEAM) ITA 6 PIRAZZI, Stefano (BARDIANI CSF) + 1:44 AUS 7 NORRIS, Lachlan (DRAPAC) + 1:54 USA 8 BOOKWALTER, Brent (BMC RACING) COL 9 PEDRAZA MORALES, Walter Fernando (COLOMBIA) COL 10 MARTÍNEZ, Daniel (COLOMBIA) USA 11 SQUIRE, Robbie (HINCAPIE RACING TEAM) AUS 12 MORTON, Lachlan David (JELLY BELLY P/B MAXXIS) COL 13 CASTIBLANCO CUBIDES, Jorge Camilo (COLOMBIA) + 2:34 AUS 14 CANTY, Brendan (TEAM BUDGET FORKLIFTS) + 2:37 GBR 15 GEOGHEGAN HART, Tao (AXEON CYCLING TEAM) + 3:03 SUI 16 FRANKINY, Kilian (BMC RACING) USA 17 ROSSKOPF, Joseph (BMC RACING) SLO 18 BRAJKOVIC, Janez (UNITEDHEALTHCARE) AUS 19 CLARKE, Jonathan (UNITEDHEALTHCARE) + 3:38 NZL 20 SMITH, Dion (HINCAPIE RACING TEAM) USA 21 MANNION, Gavin (JELLY BELLY P/B MAXXIS) + 3:44 USA 22 BUTLER, Chris (TEAM SMARTSTOP) USA 23 CARPENTER, Robin (HINCAPIE RACING TEAM) + 4:06 MEX 24 DE LUNA, Flavio (TEAM SMARTSTOP) + 5:17 COL 25 SARMIENTO TUNARROSA, Cayetano José (COLOMBIA) + 5:28
General Classification after Stage 6 USA 1 DOMBROWSKI, Joseph Lloyd (TEAM CANNONDALE – GARMIN) 24:51:37 CAN 2 WOODS, Michael (OPTUM P/B KELLY BENEFIT STRATEGIES) + 50 LUX 3 SCHLECK, Frank (TREK FACTORY RACING) + 1:07 USA 4 HORNER, Christopher (AIRGAS-SAFEWAY CYCLING TEAM) ERI 5 BERHANE, Natnael (MTN – QHUBEKA) + 1:26 USA 6 BOOKWALTER, Brent (BMC RACING) + 1:31 COL 7 MARTÍNEZ, Daniel (COLOMBIA) + 1:41 AUS 8 NORRIS, Lachlan (DRAPAC) + 1:42 USA 9 SQUIRE, Robbie (HINCAPIE RACING TEAM) + 1:46 AUS 10 MORTON, Lachlan David (JELLY BELLY P/B MAXXIS) + 1:50
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