Colorado Classic: Eenkhoorn wins stage 3

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Pascal Eenkhoorn (LottoNL-Jumbo) took the queen stage win Saturday at the Colorado Classic in Denver after the reduced peloton brought back a duo of escapees inside the final kilometre.

Edwin Avila (Israel Cycling Academy) was second ahead of third-placed Gavin Mannion (UnitedHealthcare), who saved his blue leader's jersey after a long day of chasing a dangerous breakaway that included multiple GC threats.

Eenkhoorn emerged from the bunch as the peloton pulled back all-day escapee Toms Skujins (Trek-Segafredo) and Serghei Tvetcov (UnitedHealthcare), who bridged to Skujins from the peloton in the closing kilometres.

The duo almost made it to the finish line near Coors Field in Denver, but the motivated peloton put an end to those ambitions on the finishing straight.

"Two teammates came by, Jan Maas and Maarten Wynants, and they screamed my name, and I just followed them and they did a perfect job," Eenkhoorn said in the post-stage press conference, adding that he didn't think he'd be around for the finish after being dropped on the first climb.

"We said before the race that it was a really good sprint for me, but I didn't expect to win actually," Eenkhoorn said. 

"I didn't think that I would survive. I was dropped on the first climb. The guys from [EF Education First-Drapac] were pulling super, super hard, but I came back and I said to my teammates that I am feeling good. There was still a lot of climbing left, and I survived all of that."

How it unfolded

Saturday's 127.8km third stage, the four-day race's queen stage, included three KOMs as the peloton made its way from Denver to the category 1 climb up Lookout Mountain 50.5km into the day. From there, the riders took on the category 2 climb up Deer Creek in Cragmont at 75km, and then faced the category 4 climb in Indian Hills at 111.7km before heading back to Denver for the finish.

The stage included plenty of climbing, but the final KOM topped out at more than 50km for the finish, and although the profile showed several more bumps on the way back to Denver, the mostly downhill run over the final kilometres meant trying to shake up the general classification was always going to be a tough row to hoe.

Intermediate sprints in Wheat Ridge at 9.5km and again in Wheat Ridge at 114km offered time bonuses of three, two and one second to liven up the action. Holowesko-Citadel's Joe Lewis took the maximum bonus at the first sprint, trailed by stage 1 winner Gage Hecht (Aevolo) and Toms Skujins (Trek-Segafredo).

No escape attempts were able to gain traction in the lead up to Lookout Mountain, where EF Education First-Drapac went to the front and started drilling the pace. The team's Hugh Carthy, Joe Dombrowski and Dani Martinez split way from the peloton and were quickly joined by Damian Howson (Mitchelton-Scott), Keegan Swirbul (Jelly Belly-Maxxis), Toms Skujins (Trek-Segafredo) and Brayan Sanchez (Holowesko-Citadel).

Carthy started the day third overall, just 21 seconds behind Mannion, while Dombrowski was fourth at 25 seconds. Howson started the day fifth at 27 seconds, followed by Martine at 29. Skujins was 10th overall at 57 seconds.

"Today was the most difficult stage and we tried," Martinez said. "The three of us attacked on the first climb, we wanted to give it everything, but in the end it did not turn out well. The first climb was quite difficult, but the others were flat for me and quite far from the finish, but I think we did a good job."

The peloton meanwhile, was blowing up under the pace as rain started to fall on the race and the mountain, making for a cool descent back into the valley. The EF-Drapac riders led a sweep at the KOM, with Martinez taking top points ahead of Carthy and Dombrowski.
The leaders had a one-minute gap over the reduced peloton over the top of the climb, and the GC chase was on for UnitedHealthcare.

The leaders started the ascent up to Cragmont holding their one-minute lead over Mannion and the reduced peloton. Swirbul took top mountain points at the summit head of Howson and Dombrowski, while UnitedHealthcare's Daniel Jaramillo led the chase back in the peloton.

The leaders opened up the gap to 1:20 on the descent of the second KOM, but UnitedHealthcare was determined not to let the dangerous break too much of an advantage, hoping the other sprinters' teams would come to the fore after the climbs to help weld things back together.

The leaders reached the bottom of the Indian Hills climb with their 1:20 lead intact. The peloton picked up the pace from there, and as the leaders entered the outskirts of Denver, their lead was down to 45 seconds.

Carthy sensed the danger and jumped, bringing Dombrowski, Howson and Skujins with him. With 5km to go and multiple teams now contributing to the chase, including Mannion himself, the gap was down to 15 seconds.

Tvetcov bridged to the group with less than 3km to go as the field bore down on the breakaway. As Tvetcov made contact, Skujins tried a solo move and was soon joined by Tvetcov. The lead duo had a workable gap inside 2km to go, and a new alliance was formed. With Tevtcov starting the day second overall, just 11 seconds  off the lead, his move was a danger to Mannion's jersey, but the UnitedHealthcare leader said it was all in the family.

"I actually didn't even realise he was up the road until after the finish," Mannion told Cyclingnews. "I was talking to my director, and he was telling me that it was Serghei. But, no, he's second on GC, so if he finishes with someone it's pretty much a guarantee that he takes over the lead, and for me that's fine. It worked out well."

EF-Drapac picked up the chase, but as they closed on the leaders a Silber rider jumped away. It was too little, too late, however, and the field pounced just before the line, with Eenkhoorn sailing across the line for the win.

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