Tour of Utah: Van Garderen leads BMC sweep in St. George prologue

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Fresh off the Tour de France, Tejay van Garderen led a BMC Racing podium sweep Monday during the prologue time trial at the Larry H. Miller Tour of Utah, covering the 5.3km course in 6:27 to finish ahead of US time trial champion Joey Rosskopf and teammate Tom Bohli.

Starting last, van Garderen sprinted out of the start house and quickly set a pace that clearly looked to put him in with a good chance of taking the stage win. Setting the fastest time at the turnaround, van Garderen continued to press the pace on the descent to the finish.

"Pacing was certainly important today," van Garderen said in the post-stage press conference.

"You started out uphill. The roads are wide, so it was deceiving," he said. "The gradient was higher than people expected or what it looked like. You had to over-pace and then try to recover a little bit on the downhills. Over-pace on the way out and then you're basically screaming at 75k an hour all the way to the finish line. You don't want to blow up, but at the same time, you have to gauge your effort well."

Rosskopf described the effort as "violent."

"The prologue was short and sweet," he said. "It was a pretty violent effort, just going as hard as you could over the climbs and then barely pedalling on the downhills. It wasn't your normal pacing strategy, so there was a fair amount to think about out there for it being such a short course."

Forecasts for temperatures in the 100s Fahrenheit never materialised, as the mercury climbed to only 94 degrees by the time van Garderen finished.

LottoNL-Jumbo also set themselves up well for the coming general classification battle, with Neilson Powless placing fourth and Pascal Eenkhoorn in fifth.

How it unfolded

The 5.3km time trial amidst the striking red rock geology in St. George, the fastest-growing city in the US, took place on an out-and-back course that started with a gentle 2km climb that gained about 60 metres of elevation. Riders hit a short descent to the turnaround, then climbed back up to a fast, non-technical downhill run to the finish.

Starting a minute apart, the riders began the day at 10 a.m. when temperatures had already climbed into the mid-80s Fahrenheit. The 303 Projects's Cristhian Ravelo got things rolling, and he was quickly followed by 2017 top-10 riders Sepp Kuss (LottoNL-Jumbo) and Gavin Mannion (UnitedHealthcare).

Most of the teams chose to send their top riders out early to try and beat the heat, and the top times of the day started coming in fast. Starting seventh, Kuss set a top time of 6:44, but he was knocked out of the hot seat less than a minute later as Mannion came in at 6:40.

BMC Racing's Bohli crossed the line with a time of 6:33 to take the lead, averaging 48.6 kph over the short course. UnitedHealthcare's Serghei Tvetcov, who was third overall last year, came close to Bohli's time and slotted into second place with a time of 6:38. EF Education First-Drapac's Mike Woods came in with a time of 6:41.

Defending champion Rob Britton (Rally Cycling) came in with a time of 6:45, more than 11 seconds off the winning time. BMC's Brent Bookwalter, starting 32nd, also wasn't able to topple his teammate Bohli, coming in at 6:42 to slot in fifth at the time. Trek-Segafredo leader Peter Stetina set a time of 6:44 for a top 10 spot with 78 riders to finish.

LottoNL-Jumbo's Powless, fourth overall last year, came in with the second-best time behind Bohli, clocking 6:34 to miss the lead by one second. Mitchelton-Scott's Jack Haig kept up with his fellow GC contenders, coming in with a time of 6:42 for a top-10 spot at the time.

EF Education First-Drapac's Will Clarke put in a top time, stopping the clock at 6:39 to slot into fourth with more than half of the field left to finish. Clarke's teammate Joe Dombrowski, who won the overall in 2015, finished with a good time, clocking 6:40 to slot into fifth at the time. Dombrowski's teammate Hugh Carthy came in just seven-tenths of a second slower.

LottoNL-Jumbo's Eenkhoorn found the short course to his liking, stopping the clock at 6:38 for the third-best time with 43 riders remaining.

Starting 100th and with just 17 riders left to finish, Rosskopf blistered the course with the new best time of 6:31, knocking his teammate Bohli into second place by just two seconds.

It was Rosskopf's teammate, however, who stamped his authority on the race as van Garderen claimed the top spot by four seconds.

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