Tour of Utah: Morton escapes to claim final stage

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After losing the race lead on the penultimate stage to Snowbird Ski and Summer Resort, Lachlan Morton (Jelly Belly-Maxxis) got his revenge on the final Tour of Utah stage, escaping solo over Empire Pass and descending into Park City to claim the stage win and gain enough time to steal the overall victory from Andrew Talansky (Cannondale-Drapac), who slipped to third.

Adrien Costa (Axeon Hagens Berman) came in second on the stage at 31 seconds from Morton and moved into second overall, while Darwin Atapuma (BMC Racing) finished third at 50 seconds but was not able to leapfrog Talansky, who finished fourth on the day, 1:55 down

Morton, who started the day second 22 seconds back from Talansky, held his cards close to his chest throughout the stage, despite an attack on the first climb of the day from BMC's Joey Rosskopf, Talansky and third-placed Costa. The trio built a gap and began to swallow remnants of an earlier breakaway, but Morton bided his time in the bunch and relied on the race coming back together before the final climb up Empire Pass. When things did come back together, Morton jumped away from the yellow jersey group at the base of the climb and soloed away to the finish

"We had one card to play today, and that was to go all in on the last climb," Morton said. "So BMC kind of turned the race on its head in the middle there. And credit to them, they blew it apart on the middle climb. I saw Andrew pull out and then Adrien went across. That as the moment of making a decision, and sometimes you just have to stick to your guns. I knew if I went with those guys there's no chance I'd have any teammates, so I just stuck with the group.

"I knew there were 10 or 15 fast kilometres before the climb, so the chances of us coming back were pretty high. For sure there was some concern but to win any race you have to be willing to lose it first. So we just stuck to our guns and road our race and let them ride theirs."

For Talansky's part, he said jumping into the early move played well into the day's strategy, despite the possibility of using up energy he'd need later.

"I just saw Joey going, and I thought by following it I'd neutralise it, and I ended up with Adrien and Joey," Talansky said at the post-stage press conference. "It was pretty ideal really; my team didn't have to ride behind. I just sat on, and Joey, he's not here but credit to him because he was incredibly strong today. I was really impressed. And Adrien had a teammate in the break, so the responsibility to make the race fell to Joey, and he 100 percent did that. It didn't really cost me anything and it didn't play into how I fared in the end. But props to Joey for that ride.

How it unfolded

Sunday's final stage at the Tour of Utah was no parade to the final sprint. The traditional 125.5km route started in Park City with two neutral laps through town before riders traversed more than 2,400 metres of climbing.

The first climb of the day, the relatively modest category 2 climb through the gated community of Wolf Creek Ranch, topped out 67km from the finish. But the day's main obstacle is the final out-of-category ascent of Empire Pass, which started about 24km from the finish and topped out with 8.6km to go.

Next the riders faced a technical descent off the pass and into Park City for one final circuit in town and a long, slightly uphill straightaway to the finish.

After a long bout of attacking and counter-attacking a group of 10 formed off the front to animate the day’s racing. In the group were Tao Geogheagn Hart (Axeon Hagens Berman), Robin Carpenter (Holowesko-Citadel), Larry Warbasse (IAM Cycling), Angus Morton (Jelly Belly-Maxxis), Janier Acevedo (Team Jamis), Matthew Busche (UnitedHealthcare), Jacapo Mosco (Trek-Segafredo), Evan Huffman (Rally Cycling), Bryan Lewis (Lupus Racing) and Richard Handley (ONE Pro Cycling).

The group built a gap of more than two minutes, but the short stage and difficult finish meant the peloton was never going to let the escapees get too far away.

BMC went on the attack when the race reached Wolf Creek Ranch, sending Joey Rosskopf up the road on the early slopes of the climb. Rosskopf started the day sixth overall, 2:35 down, and the dangerous move was immediately marked by Talansky and Costa.

The breakaway started to come apart on the descent out of Wolf Creek Ranch, with Geoghegan Hart, Carpenter, Lewis and Warbasse dropping the rest. Behind the leaders, the chasing trio started picking up remnants of the breakaway and the group was reinvigorated.

On the flat roads leading to the final intermediate sprint in Midway, the quartet up front had 55 seconds on Rosskopf, Talansky, Costa, Acevedo, Busche, Mosca and Handley.

Rosskopf took advantage of the crosswinds on the flats to pin his fellow riders in the gutter, while in the peloton Rally Cycling took up the chase to protect Rob Britton's fifth-place position. The concerted chase brought the first chase group back into the peloton with 24km to go.

Morton, who had been quiet to this point, played his cards at the base of the climb. Attacking from the group and gaining a slight advantage. Up the road among the leaders, Morton started pulling back ad passing the breakaway riders as they faded out of the group.

Lewis was the first to succumb, followed by Carpenter and Geoghegan Hart. Morton reeled the final breakaway survivor in and took over the head of the race.

As the rest of the GC riders chased Morton, Talansky began to lose contact with the group. Last year's winner Joe Dombrowski paced Talansky up the slope, but the Cannondale leader was obviously suffering.

Costa was able to drop Talansky and ride up to Geoghegan Hart with Darwin Atapuma (BMC Racing) to form the second group on the road, while Dombrowski continued to pace Talansky and Britton in tow. With 13km to go, Morton had 1:05 on Costa and Atapuma and 1:10 to Talansky, Dombrowski and Britton.

Morton went over the top of the climb with 1:20 on Costa and Atapuma, and 1:50 to Talansky, Dombrowski and Britton.

With Morton already freefalling off the climb, Atapuma attacked Costa over the summit, but the Axeon rider countered immediately, got back on terms with the Colombian and then dropped him.

"I was kind of surprised that he jumped over the top," Costa told Cyclingnews in the finishing straight. "I thought he would just give me the points for the KOM. But I saw that I was descending fast than he was, so I decided to give it a shot. I knew that I descend pretty well, so I was able have some fun down there."

That set up the finishing order, as Morton crossed the line solo 33 seconds ahead of Costa, 49 seconds ahead of Atapuma and 1:50 ahead of Talansky to take the final overall lead.

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