Tour of Utah: Hermans wins stage 2 on Powder Mountain

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Ben Hermans (Israel Cycling Academy) took an enormous victory on the queen stage of the Tour of Utah on Powder Mountain on Wednesday to inherit the race lead from overnight leader Lawson Craddock (EF Education First).

The ascent, which kicks up to over 9000ft/2600m in altitude wreaked havoc on the overall standings, with overnight leader Lawson Craddock (EF Education First) losing over two minutes, while prologue winner James Piccoli (Elevate-KHS) showed his class with a gutsy ride to take second on the stage. Niklas Eg (Trek-Segafredo) took third on the day.

Eg's teammate Peter Stetina kicked off the attacking in the main group, midway up the climb. His move provoked splits in the group, and soon after, the lead trio emerged. Despite attacks from Piccoli, it was Hermans who proved the strongest of the three. The Belgian got away inside the final 5km and steadily built a lead over his companions, sealing his third win of the season and taking over the overall lead.

"I knew I had to be in really good shape for this climb, because you can make a lot of time or lose a lot of time here," Hermans said after the stage. "I hoped for the best legs. I had a really good feeling on the climb, and so I'm happy I could take the win.

"Last year I won on the Kitzbüheler [at the Tour of Austria] and this year I won on the Grossglockner, and now I've won here on Powder Mountain, so it's been two good years for me, and I'm really happy to have this on my palmarès."

How it unfolded

The skies were clear and roads wide again for stage 2 of the Tour of Utah from Brigham City to Powder Mountain, and once again Mexican champion Ignacio Prado (Canel's-Specialized) was on the move followed by Ulises Castillo (Elevate-KHS) and several more, but the legs in the peloton were too fresh to let anything go in the first 20km.

Travis McCabe (Worthy Pro Cycling) launched a counter-move but again, nothing could go clear. Until the first sprint, it was a free-for-all of the Continental squads, with numerous attacks pinging off the front, the riders looking back to check on the peloton before the move was reeled back.

Canel's Specialized and Neri Sottoli were the most aggressive, with stage 1 winner Umberto Marengo following a number of moves in anticipation of the sprint. But it was Nippo Vini Fantini's Marco Canola and McCabe who took the top spots ahead of Marco Pavlic (DC Bank).

Aevolo countered the sprint and the elastic began to stretch and stretch, another counter by Max Chance and Sam Boardman (Wildlife Generation) opened up a bit more of a gap, but it wasn't until Prado attacked again with Mika Heming (Dauner-Akkon) that a gap would yawn out more than a few seconds.

Quinten Kirby (Wildlife Generation), Austin Stephens (303 Project), Travis Samuel (DC Bank) and Christopher Heider (Dauner-Akkon) bridged across to make it six out front with Aevolo's Cade Bickmore chasing in no-man's land.

Prado went unchallenged in the next sprint as the leaders help a two minute advantage on the peloton, topping Samuel and Heider with 78.2km to go.

The peloton kept the gap in check just below two minutes as Bickmore faded back to the bunch.

On the day's smaller climb, Prado picked up 8 points to take the virtual lead in the mountains classification, attacking to take maximum points over Samuel and Heming. And on the final intermediate sprint, Prado again jetted away for the first place points.

Cracks started to show in the escape as first Kirby was distanced with 36km to go, but it was good news for their gap which went out to 2:45 and growing as they headed into the hills.

It wasn't until the 20km to go mark when the chase from the peloton began in earnest, with Rally UHC and Trek-Segafredo coming to the fore to help whittle down a 1:45 gap to the five leaders. With 16km to go, Heider and Prado, then Stephens were dropped by a surge from Samuel, who had Heming glued to his wheel. The pair played a game of cat and mouse to see who would be last man standing, and their gap tumbled until both were finally brought back by the bunch with 13km to go.

Oscar Sanchez (Canel's Specialized) put in the first attack as the race hit the lower slopes of the climb with 11km to go, and when he was joined by Neri-Sottoli's Sebastian Schönberger but that only served to nullify the move. Trek-Segafredo manned the front of the peloton that splintered rapidly as the gradient kicked upward. With Neri Sottoli, Trek-Segafredo, and Rally UHC well represented in the group.

Stetina launched with 7.3km to go, further shattering the leading group, with Dombrowski leading the chase. The attack spelled the end of Craddock's time in the front group.

Fresh off a podium finish in the Leadville 100, Stetina had no trouble with the high altitude and even if he cracked, he had teammate Niklas Eg in the group behind.

Piccoli took up the chase with 6km still to go, hoping to regain the race lead after being penalized for motorpacing after stage 1. He was followed by Hermans as Dombrowski and Eg lost contact.

The Elevate KHS rider reeled Stetina in with 4km to go only to be attacked by Hermans not long after, the Trek-Segafredo rider was then left well behind. The Belgian looked smooth and powerful even into the final kilometers as he pulled out an impressive advantage on his chasers.

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