Tour of Utah: Kuss wins stage 2

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An incredible solo break from Sepp Kuss (LottoNL-Jumbo) saw the young American rider claim stage 2 of the Larry H. Miller Tour of Utah. The 23-year-old attacked with over 50km of the stage remaining and built a lead of more than a minute on the final climb, and despite a chase group containing several WorldTour rivals, including race leader Tejay van Garderen (BMC Racing), Kuss was able to hang on and win by 29 seconds.

Neilson Powless made it an even better day for LottoNL-Jumbo with a late attack to take second on the stage. Kyle Murphy (Rally Cycling) finished third in a group that contained overnight leader van Gardern and several other GC contenders.

Kuss came into the stage 17 seconds down on van Garderen's yellow jersey but now leads the race by 21 seconds from his teammate Powless, with van Garderen third at 25 seconds.

"This is pretty awesome," Kuss told Cyclingnews shortly after crossing the line. "I felt good in the months leading up to this, and I knew maybe I could do something. When I attacked I thought, 'I hope like one or two guys come with me.' And I kind of waited a little bit, and then I thought, 'Why not.'

"It was a headwind pretty much a headwind the whole time, so to win like that is pretty special for me and the team. Whatever happens for the rest of the race, personally I can be happy to win a stage. The team was great today. We've all got super energy and every day we're racing. Honestly, I think we've taken a lot from watching the guys in the Tour give it everything every day, so it just caused us to go out there and have fun."

The race was marked by the final main climb and then the long descent to the finish. Kuss was consistent throughout the climb and then held his lead at just over a minute for most of the remaining 52km. EF Education first-Drapac looked to attack from the yellow jersey group but made no inroads in Kuss' advantage.

On the descent, the chase group fragmented several times, with Hugh Carthy (EF Education First-Drapac), Murphy and Luis Villalobos (Aevolo) at one point putting 30 seconds into the yellow jersey. However, Brent Bookwalter came to van Garderen's aid and chased down several late attacks. At the finish a delighted Kuss took the win, while several other GC hopefuls saw their chances of winning take a major dent.

How it unfolded

Stage 2 started in Payson and also finished there after 142.6km and one whopper of a climb over Mt. Nebo, a 21.7km category 1 ascent that topped out at 3,627 metres of elevation just 42km from the finish. A highly technical descent off the climb led back the finish. The stage also included two intermediate sprint with time bonuses of three, two and one second. The first came back in Payson at 17.2km, and the second came in Nephi at 73.2km.

The escapees' advantage quickly ballooned up to 4:30, and with 90km remaining Huffman was once again the virtual leader, as he was when he made it into the stage 1 breakaway the day before. Bassetti collected the maximum points and bonus at the second sprint in Nephi, where the leaders' advantage held solid at four minutes.

As Mt. Nebo approached, Holowesko-Citadel sent some riders to the front to help BMC with the chase, and the gap slowly started coming down. The leaders started the climb with just 2:50 over the peloton, prompting Aevolo's Hernandez to jump away from the group solo. McGeough joined him to form a new lead duo on the front, but McGeough soon lost contact with Hernandez and Hagens Berman Axeon's Edward Anderson successfully bridged up to the lone leader but couldn't hold his pace.

The 303 Project's Easter bridged to Hernandez at the front of the race and then dropped the Aevolo rider, taking on Nebo alone from about a third of the way up the climb.

Back in the field, Jelly Belly's Keegan Swirbul countered a move by EF Education First-Drapac's Nathan Brown and gained a small gap on the field, which had been reduced to about 40 riders by this point. Kuss jumped out of the field next and quickly gained a gap as he went in search of Easter.

Kuss, who started the day 17 seconds off the overall lead, caught Easter with 52km to go and then dropped the 303 Project rider to assume the front position in the race. EF Education First-Drapac's Mike Woods bolted out of the peloton next, sweeping up Easter and setting off for Kuss. Van Garderen remained in the much-reduced peloton, paced up the climb by loyal lieutenant Brent Bookwalter.

With 50km remaining, Kuss had 15 seconds on Woods and EF Education First-Drapac's Joe Dombrowski, who had bridged to Woods out of the now-13-rider peloton. Van Garderen's group was 40 seconds back.

Dombrowski buried himself for Woods, but Kuss extended his gap over the EF-Drapac riders to 25 seconds.

Dombrowski's effort eventually shed Woods, who faded back to the yellow jersey group as the two young Americans continued to battle up front.

Riders in the chasing GC group included BMC's van Garderen and Bookwalter, EF Education First-Drapac's Woods and Hugh Carthy, LottoNL-Jumbo's Neilson Powless, Israel Cycling Academy's Ben Hermans, Mitchelton-Scott's Jack Haig, UnitedHealthcare's Gavin Mannion, Rally Cycling's Kyle Murphy, Jelly Belly's Swirbul and Aevolos Luis Villalobos.
Kuss contined to extend his lead over Dombrwoski, with his gap going up to 45 seconds with 44km remaining. The yellow jersey group was 1:15 in arrears.

Kuss crossed the KOM with a minute on Dombrowksi and 1:15 on the yellow jersey group. He faced a few minor rises before hitting the technical descent. While Dombrowski started to fade and lose more ground, his EF-Drapac teammate Carthy jumped out of the yellow jersey group and bridged to Dombrowski to form a two-man chase of the leader.

In the yellow jersey group, Rally's Murphy attacked just before the KOM, and the acceleration briefly distanced van Garderen, but the yellow jersey latched back on during the descent with Bookwalter's help. 

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