Tour of Utah: Travis McCabe wins stage 4

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Travis McCabe (Holowesko-Citadel) won stage 4 of the Tour of Utah in Kearns with a convincing sprint win ahead of Kiel Reijnen (Trek-Segafredo) and Sebastian Haedo (Team Jamis). Lachlan Morton (Jelly Belly-Maxxis) finished in the bunch and retained his overall race lead.

McCabe's win marked Holowesko-Citadel's second stage win of the race after Robin Carpenter took stage 2.

McCabe was unstoppable and dominant in the sprint, with no team able to really take control after a long and difficult day in the saddle. The American rider hit the front inside the final 250 metres, coming by his opposition after Trek tried to set up Reijnen. Haedo started his sprint from too far back and was unable to draw level with McCabe.

"It was a pretty hectic finish with that downhill," McCabe said in the post-stage press conference. "We were coming into that at 70km/h with a pretty choppy left-hand turn. The road was pretty beat up so it was just kind of a patience game and staying in good position, not too far forward.

"I think I jumped at 250 metres or thereabouts and was able to hold it. It was great. It was really good."

Reijnen, who won the opening stage last year at the Tour of Utah and was fourth during this year's stage 2 finish in Torrey after finishing behind McCabe in the field sprint, said his Holowesko-Citadel rival was just faster today.

"If you saw the sprint we did in Torrey, Travis was quicker than I was, so I think to beat him today I had to come from behind," Reijnen said. "I tried to play that card and he didn't take the bait, so definitely a deserved win."

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How it unfolded

The 154.5km stage 4 route from IM Flash corporate headquarters in Lehi to Kearns was the flattest of the week, with just 1,378 metres of climbing over the saw-tooth profile.

The course took riders up and down a divided highway for two-and-a-half laps between the two towns before three 6.4km finishing circuits.

A breakaway of eight riders escaped from the peloton about 20km into the day to serve as the day's bait. In the group were Matthew Busche (UnitedHealthcare), Eddie Dunbar (Axeon Hagens Berman), Nicolae Tanovitchii (Lupus Racing), Hayden McCormick (One Pro Cycling), Nicola Bagioli (Nippo-Vini Fantini), Luis Amaran (Team Jamis), Joe Lewis (Holowesko-Citadel) and Danny Pate (Rally Cycling).

"The field wasn't going to give us much leash to go anywhere," said Busche, who won the prize for most aggressive rider on the day. "I think the sprinters wanted their day today. But we saw on stage 2 that even two guys could stay away, so it was kind of a potentially a fruitless venture, but you don't know if you don't try."

The leaders built a gap of nearly three minutes with 100km to go, and the race was on between the escapees and the teams that were hoping to set up a bunch sprint for their fast men.

Jelly Belly-Maxxis controlled the chasing peloton in the early stages of the race, keeping the breakaway in check in hopes that the sprinters' teams would eventually come forward and finish it off.

Jelly Belly's plan worked, and the gap was down to just 1:20 with 50km remaining. The breakaway began to split up under the pressure from behind, and the group spit with 30km remaining, leaving Busche, Dunbar, McCormick and Pate as the new lead quartet with a gap of just 40 seconds.

The Silber Pro Cycling team of stage 1 winner Kristofer Dahl threw several riders into the chase, and the breakaway looked doomed with just over 20km to go, and the peloton made the catch just after entering the finishing loops.

Lupus Racing's Chad Beyer and Fortuneo-Vital Concept's Elsie Gesbert countered attacked when the catch was made and got a little gap, but Beyer lost the pace and Gesbert started of the second lap alone.

He wasn't solo for long, however, as 11 more riders soon joined him. In that group with Gesbert were Joey Rosskopf (BMC Racing), Robin Carpenter (Holowesko-Citadel), Janez Brajkovic (UnitedHealthcare), Peter Stetina (Trek-Segafredo), Chad Beyer (Lupus Racing), Damiano Cunego (Nippo-Vini Fantini), Ulises Castillo (Jelly Belly-Maxxis) and Pierrick Naud (Rally Cycling).

That group was shortlived, however, and UnitedHealthcare's Tanner Putt tried a solo move next. That move also went for naught as the bunch regrouped in the final kilometres and the bunch gallop was on. 

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