Tour of Utah: Schär steals stage victory from the sprinters

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BMC's Michael Schär held off the charging peloton by just a few meters to take the stage 2 win Tuesday at the Larry H.Miller Tour of Utah, while Team SmartStop's Jure Kocjan took the yellow jersey from stage 1 winner Moreno Hofland (Belkin) after finishing second for the second consecutive day.

Schär, the sole survivor of a daylong breakaway that was out front for most of the 210km stage, struggled mightily in the closing kilometers to hold off the field sprint led by Kocjan and third-placed Serghei Tvetcov (Jelly Belly). Schär is now second overall, followed by Tevtcov.

"It was a really tough day for me today," Schär said. "On the top of the climb I felt very good. I had a four-minute advantage. Then I went down and all of the sudden I got cramps. I had to change my shoes in the morning. I broke a shoe on the bus, so I had new shoes and new cleats. There was a little millimeter difference, but after 200km it makes a big difference in the legs. I had the worst cramps of my life."

Kocjan, who started the day four seconds down in the general classification, knew the stage suited him, and with time bonuses he'd be able to take the overall. Nevertheless, when the breakaway's advantage grew to seven minutes and the field had difficulty bringing it down, he thought maybe his chances for stage win or leader's jersey were disappearing.

"I knew when I saw seven minutes, that with Jens [Voigt] and Mike up there it was going to be tough, and it was," Kocjan said. "We went really hard, and there were some sectors with a crosswind that were really hard, and the gap was still six, six and a half. It was incredible how fast they were going.

"When we came to the top, [Schär] still had four minutes, and I thought, 'Well today it will not be possible,'" Kocjan continued. "All of the sudden we went pretty fast on the downhill and the gap was at 1:50. I thought, 'Maybe, yeah.' I thought maybe something went wrong, like [Schär] had a flat or something. He lost two minutes over five kilometers on the downhill. Then I believed we could catch him, and we were close."

Although Kocjan didn't grab the stage win, his six-second time bonus pushed him into the overall lead by two seconds over Schär and eight seconds over Tvetcov.

"I was very motivated for today's stage," Kocjan said. "I knew that last year on the same stage 60 riders came into the sprint. So I knew if I could make the climb with the first group I was probably the fastest man. This is incredible. We are a small team, a low-budget team, and we have here several [WorldTour] teams, so it's kind of incredible what we did this year so far."

The day's breakaway escaped just a few kilometers into the 210km stage, which followed Utah Scenic Byway 12 through Bryce Canyon National Park and the Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument before finishing on Main Street in Torrey.

After several shake-ups and reshuffling, the group of five escapees included Schär, Trek Factory Racing's Voigt, UnitedHealthcare's Ben Day, Drapac's Darren Lapthorne, Funvic-Brasilinvest's Ramiro Rincon Diaz and Hincapie Sportswear's Joey Rosskopf.

The powerful group quickly started building a gap that eventually topped out at 6:55 after the first KOM of the day. But the second KOM at the Grand Staircase about 76km into the race proved too much for Rincon Diaz, who finished second there but dropped off the leaders' pace immediately after. The Funvic rider cracked hard and eventually abandoned the race.

From there the gap started to come down consistently, dropping below two minutes on the way to the third KOM of the day on the Hogsback, where Schär and Rosskopf dropped their fellow breakaway companions. The two riders powered away and rebuilt their gap to more than three minutes. Schär then attacked and dropped Rosskopf on the final climb of the day over Boulder Mountain.

The Hincapie rider wasn't ready to give up, however, and he clawed his way back toward the leader on the 30km descent into Torrey. But the extra effort cost Rosskopf, who cracked in the final kilometers and succumbed to the chasing peloton. Schär, meanwhile, would not be denied the stage win.

"At the end I couldn't barely pedal on the downhill," Schär said. "I had to drink a lot of electrolytes, and then the last two kilometers I saw the bunch approaching, and I felt like I was going in slow motion. You just do all you can. Don't look back anymore. Don't give them any motivation. Just do all you can. It was really simple. In my brain I think there was not very much going on anymore."

The Tour of Utah continues Wednesday with the 190.3km stage from Lehi to the Miller Motorsports Park. The stage profile suggests another opportunity for a successful breakaway or a field sprint.

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