photo credits @ Tour of Utah
Kiel Reijnen (Trek-Segafredo) claim today’s stage 5 of the Tour of Utah, after making his way up the front during the closing 100 meters to win a hotly contested sprint ahead of Tao Geoghegan Hart (Axeon Hagens Berman) and Alex Howes (Cannondale Drapac).
Meanwhile, race leader Lachlan David Morton (Jelly Belly p/b Maxis) survived a tough day to retain grip on the overall lead ahead of tomorrow’s queen stage.
“Today was definitely kind of a more emotional win for me just because I didn’t really believe in myself for the first 100km of the stage, but the team did,” Reijnen said. “Once we hit the circuits and got to the climb the first time and I felt the legs, after that I knew I had a good chance of winning if the break came back. So big thanks to the team for believing in me.”
Race Highlights
A sizable breakaway group containing Logan Own (Axeon Hagens Berman), Tom Bohli (BMC Racing), Simon Pellaud (IAM Cycling), Julien Bernard (Trek-Segafredo), Chris Jones (UnitedHalthcare), Daniel Eaton (UnitedHealthcare) Frederic Brun (Fortuneo-Vital Concept), Brayan Sanchez (Team Jamis), Thomas Vaubourzeix (Lupus Racing), Evan Huffman (Rally Cycling) and Alex Cataford (Silber Pro Cycling), got underway from the outset of today’s stage.
From there, Pellaud took the first intermediate sprint, while Eaton won the first KOM over North Ogden Divide.
By the time the leaders reached the second sprint of the day in Eden, their advantage over the peloton had extended to more than five minutes.
Owen was the first rider to get dropped from the group. But, he somehow managed to regain contact and subsequently claim the maximum sprint points.
As the breakaway group entered the Bountiful finishing circuits with a little more than a one minute advantage, a flurry of attacks later caused the group to splinter.
As a result, Bernard, Jones, Huffman and Cataford managed to ride clear, while Pellaud was forced to battle his way back to the leaders.
Shortly thereafter, Bohli managed to bridge his way back to the leaders as well, as the group made their way up Bountiful Bench for the first time.
With 1 kilometer to go, Bernard decided to attack, quickly gaining a slight advantage over his breakaway companions. But, it wasn’t long before he was reined in during the start of the next lap.
Busch was the next rider to try and ride clear during next trip up Bountiful Bench, but he was soon caught and passed by Axeon’s Eddie Dunbar.
With the rest of the breakaway group re-absorbed by the peloton, Team Jamis’ Janier Acevedo jumped away and bridged his across to Dunbar, only to be joined by BMC Racing’s Darwin Atapuma and Geoghegan Hart, who immediately launched his own attack.
However, despite all of the shuffling and attacking, the peloton eventually reclaimed all of the escapees during the final 6 kilometers.
From there, the peloton plummeted down the final technical descent into downtown Bountiful toward an inevitable sprint finale.
Top 10 Finishers
1 Kiel Reijnen (USA) Trek-Segafredo 4:22:38 2 Tao Geogheagn Hart (GBr) Axeon Hagens Berman 3 Ales Howes (USA) Cannondale-Drapac 4 Andrew Talansky (USA) Cannondale-Drapac 5 Daniel Jaramillo (Col) UnitedHealthcare 6 Joey Rosskopf (USA) BMC Racing 7 Dylan Teuns (Bel) BMC Racing 8 Javier Megias (Spa) Novo Nordisk 9 Rob Britton (Can) Rally Cycling 10 Damiano Cunego (Ita) Nippo-Vini Fantini
General Classification after stage 5
1 Lachaln Morton (Aus) Jelly Belly p/b Maxxis 19:17:18 2 Andrew Talansky (USA) Cannondale-Drapac 0:00:09 3 Adrien Costa (USA) Axeon Hagens Berman 0:00:34 4 Joey Rosskopf (USA) BMC Racing 0:01:32 5 Darwin Atapuma (Col) BMC Racing 6 Rob Britton (Can) Rally Cycling 7 TJ Eisenhart (USA) BMC Racing 0:01:34 8 Robin Carpenter (USA) Holowesko-Citadel 0:02:11 9 Kiel Reijnen (USA) Trek-Segafredo 0:03:51 10 Tao Geogheagn Hart (GBr) Axeon Hagens Berman 0:04:01
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