Tour of Utah: Kocjan wins in Ogden

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Team Smartstop's Jure Kocjan proved the fastest of the strongmen during stage 2 of the Larry H. Miller Tour of Utah on Tuesday. The Slovenian powered to the line of the 161.8km stage to Ogden, holding off a late charge from Robin Carpenter (Hincapie) and a fading Brent Bookwalter (BMC), who had been in a late breakaway.

Race leader Kiel Reijnen (UnitedHealthcare) finished fourth on the stage to keep his yellow jersey over Alex Howes (Cannondale-Garmin), with Kocjan moving into third thanks to the time bonus. Both riders trail Reijnen by four seconds.

It's not the first time Kocjan has enjoyed success in Utah. Last year he took the lead on stage 2 and wore the yellow jersey for two stages but never won a stage. He was second three times and won the overall points classification.

Kocjan had to make it over the climb of North Ogden Divide to take Tuesday’s win, and he barely hung onto the lead group over the top.

“I knew the climb from last year when we went up the other side,” he said. “My focus was to pass over the climb in the front group, and I was the last guy over with that group. I looked back and we had a gap. I had four other teammates with me, so I told them to go as hard as you can. There were just a few sprinters in the group, and I knew that I was the fastest.”

Carpenter, too, said he was “fully red-lined” to make it over the top of the climb, but he recovered enough on the downhill run to the finish to claim the runner-up spot.

Kocjan may have had a psychological advantage over the others, however, admitting he went to sleep Monday night motivated and angry after missing the stage 1 podium.

Bookwalter attacked the split peloton on North Ogden Divide, bridging up to Axeon’s Daniel Eaton, the lone survivor of the day’s breakaway, with about 25km to go.

“The pace was a little slow and I was feeling good, so I though, ‘why not?’ I thought I’d bring a few strong guys with me,” he said. “For a minute I had [Team SmartStop’s] Chris Butler with me, which I thought was great because I thought these guys were a good group for a reduced bunch kick. But I lost Chris on the downhill.”

How it unfolded

Tuesday’s 161.8km stage from Trementon to Ogden featured just one major climb that topped out 31km from the finish.

A breakaway of five riders animated the early racing. MTN-Qhubeka’s Jay Thomson jumped away form the field before the fist intermediate sprint 32km into the day. He was soon joined by Hincape Racing’s Mac Brennan, Optum Pro Cycling’s Pierrick Naud, Axeon’s Daniel Eaton and Jamis-Hagens Berman’s Ben Jacques-Maynes.

By the time the leaders reached Brigham City with 97.5km remaining, their gap had grown to four minutes. That was the largest margin the peloton was willing to let out, however, and the gap started coming down slowly from there.

When the quintet off the front entered Ogden Canyon with 56km to go, their gap had dropped to just two minutes. As they started the relatively short but incredibly steep climb up North Ogden Divide, Eaton dropped his breakaway companions and the peloton was breathing down their neck.

Eaton continued on alone and was soon joined by Bookwalter, who made contact at the bottom of the descent. The duo pressed the pace into downtown Ogden, while SmartStop came to the front to help UnitedHealthcare pull back the gap.

The teams with sprinters still in the front group were hot on their heels, however, and with 2km to go the peloton, minus the group that was distanced on the climb, swept them up and hurtled around the closing circuits in Ogden to set up the sprint finish and Kocjan’s win.

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