EF Education First bringing loaded roster to Tour of Utah

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EF Education First are going all in for the upcoming Larry H. Miller Tour of Utah, fielding two past champions along with Tejay van Garderen and Colombian climber Dani Martinez in their seven-rider roster for the 2.HC race that starts with a prologue time trial at Snowbird Resort.

Organisers of the August 12-18 race today released preliminary team rosters, and EF Education First's offering makes it clear the US WorldTour team wants to recapture the streak of three wins that ended in 2015 with Joe Dombrowki's overall victory.

Dombrowski will return this year along with Lachlan Morton, who won the race in 2016 with Jelly Belly. The team will also field Colombian time trial champion and climber Dani Martinez, US road champion Alex Howes, Lawson Craddock and James Whelan.

Rob Britton, who won the overall in 2017, will return with Rally UHC Cycling to make another run at the Utah crown, joined on the provisional roster by climbing talents Gavin Mannion, Kyle Murphy and Emerson Oronte. Evan Huffman, Ty Magner and Nihgel Ellsay will be able helpers for Britton's quest.

Trek-Segafredo, the only other WorldTour team at this year's race, will feature Giulio Ciccone, the young Italian who finished second on stage 2 of the Tour de France and wore yellow for two days. Ciccone will have the support of Americans Kiel Reijnen and Peter Stetina on Trek's seven-rider roster.

Israel Cycling Academy's Ben Hermans will be the only rider returning from the 2018 podium, as winner Sepp Kuss (Jumbo-Visma) and Jack Haig (Mitchelton-Scott) are likely aimed at the Vuelta a España that starts August 24.

Other highlights from the preliminary roster include Worthy Pro Cycling's Travis McCabe, who won two stages last year and has a total of four stage wins in Utah. He'll be joined on the Worthy roster by Serghei Tevtcov, third on 2017, climber Keegan Swirbul and all-rounder Jonny Clarke. 

Marco Canola, winner of the Salt Lake City stage in 2017, will return with Nippo-Vini Fantini, while two-stage winner Eric Young will make his first appearance in the race with new team Elevate-KHS, which also includes GC threat James Piccoli. 

2019 Larry H. Miller Tour of Utah Teams

WORLDTOUR

EF Education First (USA)
Trek-Segafredo (USA)

PRO CONTINENTAL

Hagens Berman Axeon (USA)
Israel Cycling Academy (Israel)
Neri Sottoli-Selle Italia-KTM (Italy)
Nippo-Vini Fantini-Faizanè (Italy)
Rally UHC Cycling (USA)

CONTINENTAL

303 Project (USA)
Arapahoe-Hincapie p/b BMC (USA)
Aevolo (USA)
Canel’s-Specialized Cycling (Mexico)
Dauner-AKKON Pro Cycling (Germany)
DC Bank Pro Cycling Team (Canada)
Elevate-KHS (USA)
Team BridgeLane (Australia)
Wildlife Generation Pro Cycling p/b Maxxis (USA)
Worthy Pro Cycling (Canada)