Tour of Utah: Jasper Philipsen wins in Salt Lake City

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After being edged out in Layton on Thursday, Hagens Berman Axeon's Jasper Philipsen got the better of Travis McCabe (UnitedHealthcare) to take out the sprint win during Friday's stage 4 at the Larry H. Miller Tour of Utah in Salt Lake City.

The day's breakaway was caught with just 800m to go, setting up a hectic sprint finale, with McCabe hitting out first and Philipsen quick to get on his wheel. The Belgian surged up next to the barriers, bashing elbows with McCabe, but he managed to get a narrow photo finish victory with the bike throw.

The win marked the 20-year-old Belgian's first pro victory and his first win in the US, but Philipsen said he had to race his way into form after starting the week not feeling 100 per cent.

"At the beginning of the week I didn't feel great, but I felt every day my form was growing, and after yesterday I started to believe in it," he said. "Today everything came together, and it's just a few millimetres, but that made the difference in the end. I'm just happy that it was on my side today."

McCabe said he had a bit of "buyer's remorse" for not choosing a line closer to the barriers that would have closed down Philipsen's inside move, but at the end of the day he was happy with his effort and the second-place result.

"Jasper just came on the inside and I was over geared," McCabe told Cyclingnews in the finishing straight. "He was coming faster than me and hit me on my hip, but I was able to keep speed and it came to an uphill bike throw, and he got me. It was hectic. It was hard."

McCabe said the uphill sprint required patience and perfect timing, and Philipsen was just the better sprinter on the day.

"If I tried to sprint at 150 metres he would have won by two bike lengths," McCabe said. "So you have ot time it properly, and the way it played out I did everything I could. Maybe I could have stayed closer to the barriers. That would have been in my favour."

In the GC battle, Sepp Kuss (LottoNl-Jumbo) rode an attentive finale after his team controlled the race for most of the day, coming in 10th in the sprint to keep his race lead of 19 seconds over teammate Neilson Powless, with Tejay van Garderen (BMC Racing) still third at 25 seconds.

How it unfolded

The stage 4 circuit race in Salt Lake City consisted of 10 laps on an 11.5km urban circuit in downtown Salt Lake City. The lumpy course, which climbed from downtown up and around the state capitol grounds, featured 1,676 metres of climbing in just 110km.

The stage started immediately uphill as the peloton climbed toward the capitol, then briefly descended and climbed again into a residential neighbourhood. A fast descent into downtown followed, leading to the uphill start/finish on Main Street.

The stage included no KOMs and three intermediate sprints at the ends of laps three, five and seven.

As expected, the fireworks went off from the starting gun, as TJ Eisenhart (Holowesko-Citadel) and Laurent Didier (Trek-Segafredo) sprinted away from the peloton up the first hill. The duo was soon joined by a bridging group that included Sam Bewley (Mitchelton-Scott), Sho Hatsauyama (Nippo-Vini Fantini), Edward Anderson (Hagens Berman Axeon), Danick Vandale (Silber Pro Cycling), Lance Haidet (Aevolo) and Bernat Font Mas (303 Project) to form a lead group of eight.

A second bridging group that included Nigel Ellsay (Rally Cycling), Joey Rosskopf (BMC Racing), Michael Ries (Trek-Segafredo), Ivan Santaromita (Nippo-Vini Fantini), Serghei Tvetcov (UnitedHealthcare), Jonny Clarke (UnitedHealthcare), Taylor Shelden (Jelly Belly-Maxxis) and Michael Hernandez (Aevolo) also latched on during the first lap, leaving 16 riders off the front.

The group built a gap of 40 seconds starting the second lap as LottoNL-Jumbo took up the pace-setting in the field for Kuss. With Rosskopf the best-placed escapee overall at 1:46 behind Kuss, the Dutch team was in for a long day of defence.

The gap went up to 50 seconds as the leaders started the third lap, and they quickly added another five seconds. The pace up front became too much for Vandale, and the Silber rider dropped out of the break on lap 4, leaving 15 riders up front.

The gap went up to 1:15 by the start of the sixth lap, but an ever-vigilant LottoNL-Jumbo team never let it go out much further than that, and it was hovering at one minute when they started lap 7. Didier and Haidet suffered up the finishing straight for the sprint at the end of lap 7 and lost contact with the leaders.

The 13 up front started lap 8 with a one-minute gap as the two dropped riders solely faded back to the field. Elevate-KHS, riding for sprinter Sam Bassetti, went to the front to help LottoNL-Jumbo reel the breakaway back, and the leaders started the penultimate lap with 40 seconds.

The breakaway started to come apart on the start of lap 9 as Hagens Berman Axeon's Anderson attacked up the hill. Santaromita lost contact first, and others followed, but they were able to chase back on during the descent.
Clarke attacked the breakaway and got a gap over the 10 riders remaining in the break, but he had a long way to go and his move may have been part of UnitedHealthcare's effort to set up Travis McCabe for another stage win.

Israel Cycling Academy threw a rider into the chase as the peloton started sweeping up the remnants of the breakaway as Clarke succumbed to the chase from his former breakaway mates. Rosskopf counter-attacked when the group caught Clarke, but Tvetcov closed down the move.

The 11 breakaway riders started the final lap together with just 20 seconds on the field, which was being led by EF Education First-Drapac as the GC teams started to move forward to position their riders for the finale.

Clarke cracked on the climb and was swept up by the field at the start of the lap, but by that point, the breakaway's future didn't look too promising.

Rosskopf kept the pressure on during the final lap, and with 7km to go the leaders had 25 seconds over the chase, and riders bridged across adding new life to the move.

Sean Bennett (Hagens Berman Axeon), Nicola Conci (Trek-Segafredo) joined Ellisay, Tvetcov, Anderson, Rosskopf and Ries to make it seven out front.

Thanks to a more motivated chase from the sprinters' teams, the gap fell to just 10 seconds at the 3km banner, but the fast descent to the line made it difficult to close down. Rosskopf attacked with 2.4km to go, marked by Ellisay and Tvetcov, who kept on the gas even though the trio were caught.

The wind went out of the breakaway's sails, and with 800m the peloton surged past, setting up a bunch sprint.

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