Tour of Utah 2016 Stage 6

photo credits @ Tour of Utah 

Andrew Talansky won today’s Queen Stage of the Tour of Utah at the Snowbird Resort, and in doing so, also seized the overall race lead. 

The Cannondale – Drapac rider, who started the day in second place overall behind Jelly Belly’s Lachlan Morton, rode with a select group of race favorites during most of the way up final climb, before marking an attack by BMC Racing’s Darwin Atapuma (BMC Racing) during the last few kilometers before the summit.

From there, the duo succeeded in distancing their rivals, while working in unison to extend their advantage until the finish – with Talansky winning the final dash to the line. 

“Almost every day, you can count on a tailwind up Snowbird … except for the timing of this storm rolling through, Talansky said. 

“When we hit the bottom of the climb, that was a little bit frustrating.”

Meanwhile, Adrien Costa (Axeon Hagens Berman) crossed the line 31 seconds later in third place to claim the last spot on the podium.

Talansky now leads Morton by 22 seconds in the general classification, followed by Costa in third, who sits a further 34 seconds back.  

Race Highlights

An early breakaway group containing Ben King (Cannondale-Drapac), Rick Zabel (BMC Racing), Jonathan Fumeaux (IAM Cycling), Kiel Reijnen (Trek-Segafredo), Daniel Eaton (UnitedHealthcare), Nielson Poles (Axeon Hagens Berman), Robin Carpenter (Holowesko-Citadel), Stephen Bassett (Team Jamis), Emerson Oronte (Rally Cycling), Kris Dahl (Silber Pro Cycling), Luis Amaran (Team Jamis), Chad Beyer (Lupus Racing) and Dion Smith (One Pro Cycling), went on to establish an advantage of almost 5 minutes over the peloton. 

However, by the time the leaders made it to Park City, their gap had fallen to under 3 minutes. And, from there, the breakaway group started to splinter on the lower slopes of the climb, with Reijnen and Smith being the first riders to get dropped, followed by Basset, Dahl and Amaran.

As the leaders reached the summit, Beyer decided to attack, while King, Eaton, Poles and Oronte were left to chase in earnest.

Ornate was later dropped from the chase group, while the remaining leaders tackled the final descent before hitting the climb of Little Cottonwood. 

King then dropped Beyer and Eaton, both of whom had faded back toward the field, as Tanovitchii and Ledanois continued on as the first chase group behind King – who had since gone solo.

Further down the slopes, Cannondale was setting the pace for Talansky, while Tanovitchii and TJ Eisnehart, who had attacked out of the yellow jersey group, caught and passed Ben King.

The new leaders’ time off the front was short-lived however, as the yellow jersey group was soon on terms with them and the race hit reset.

A crash with a camera motorbike later caused a split in the field, with a new lead group comprised of Morton, Talansky, Costa, Atapuma, Rob Britton (Rally Cycling), Eisenhart, Rob Squire (Holowesko), Laurent Didier (Trek-Segafredo), Janier Acevedo (Team Jamis) and Andre Krasilnikau (Holowesko), quickly emerging.

Atapuma then attacked, with Talansky quickly marking the Colombian rider’s move. 

“Darwin attacked and I couldn’t go when he went,” Talansky said. “He has a great acceleration and is a really good climber. But I thought that if I could get up to him we could maybe work together and get that gap. I was looking for a spot, hoping the wind would shift but it didn’t. So I just said, ‘OK, there’s 4km to go and we have to go now.’ I went, we got the gap to Lachlan an then we drove it all the way to the finish.”

From there, Morton, Acevedo and Costa tried to catch the leaders, but they proved to be no match for the duo. 

As a result, Acevedo subsequently dropped out of the chase, leaving Morton and Costa alone to chase down the leaders.

In the finale, Talansky hit out on the slightly downhill run to the finish and took the win just ahead of the Atapuma.

Top 10 Finishers

1 6 USA19881123 TALANSKY Andrew CANNONDALE-DRAPAC PRO CYCLING CDT 4:47:03 0:00:00
2 11 COL19880115 ATAPUMA HURTADO Darwin BMC RACING TEAM BMC 4:47:03 0:00:00
3 98 USA19970819 COSTA Adrien * AXEON HAGENS BERMAN AHB 4:47:34 0:00:31
4 121 AUS19920102 MORTON Lachlan David JELLY BELLY pb MAXXIS JBC 4:47:34 …
5 141 CAN19840922 BRITTON Rob RALLY CYCLING RLY 4:47:49 0:00:46
6 104 USA19900401 SQUIRE Robbie HOLOWESKO/CITADEL pb HINCAPIE HSD 4:48:04 0:01:01
7 13 USA19890905 ROSSKOPF Joseph BMC RACING TEAM BMC 4:48:15 0:01:12
8 37 AUT19880408 ZOIDL Riccardo TREK-SEGAFREDO TFS 4:48:25 0:01:22
9 34 LUX19840719 DIDIER Laurent TREK-SEGAFREDO TFS 4:48:40 0:01:37
10 17 USA19940614 EISENHART Taylor * BMC RACING TEAM BMC 4:48:40 …

General Classification After Stage 6 

1 6 USA19881123 TALANSKY Andrew CANNONDALE-DRAPAC PRO CYCLING CDT 24:04:30 0:00:00
2 121 AUS19920102 MORTON Lachlan David JELLY BELLY pb MAXXIS JBC 24:04:52 0:00:22
3 98 USA19970819 COSTA Adrien * AXEON HAGENS BERMAN AHB 24:05:26 0:00:56
4 11 COL19880115 ATAPUMA HURTADO Darwin BMC RACING TEAM BMC 24:05:53 0:01:23
5 141 CAN19840922 BRITTON Rob RALLY CYCLING RLY 24:06:39 0:02:09
6 13 USA19890905 ROSSKOPF Joseph BMC RACING TEAM BMC 24:07:05 0:02:35
7 17 USA19940614 EISENHART Taylor * BMC RACING TEAM BMC 24:07:32 0:03:02
8 104 USA19900401 SQUIRE Robbie HOLOWESKO/CITADEL pb HINCAPIE HSD 24:09:29 0:04:59
9 1 USA19910512 DOMBROWSKI Joseph Lloyd CANNONDALE-DRAPAC PRO CYCLING CDT 24:10:05 0:05:35
10 34 LUX19840719 DIDIER Laurent TREK-SEGAFREDO TFS 24:10:05 …