Kuss wins 2018 Tour of Utah

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Sepp Kuss (LottoNL-Jumbo) took no mercy on his rivals at the Larry H. Miller Tour of Utah on Sunday, claiming his third stage win of the race and cementing his overall victory in Park City.

Kuss dropped the race's best climbers on the ascent of Empire Pass, and then railed the descent into Park City to finish alone ahead of all chasers, appearing to chuckle as he rode up Main Street Park City to the line.

Kuss had to dig deep one more time on the finishing straight, as Brent Bookwalter (BMC Racing) led Jack Haig (Mitchelton-Scott) across the line eight seconds later to claim second and third, respectively, while Hugh Carthy (EF Education First-Drapac) beat Keegan Swibul (Jelly Belly-Maxxis) for fourth.

Kuss jumped away from Haig on Empire Pass as the duo tried to chase down leader Nathan Brown (EF Education First-Drapac), who had survived from the early breakaway. 

"When Jack went I was feeling OK, but he definitely had me on the ropes there," Kuss said in the post-stage press conference. "I was just kind of pulling through with him to keep pace on the climbs; it's kind of pitchy.

"Then when I could see Nate up ahead I thought maybe I could go again for the stage win, and it broke my heart a little bit to pass him because he's one of the good guys," Kuss said. "But I just had the idea to go again for the win. I've never ridden that descent before, so I didn't really know what to expect from the corners. It was a bit wet as well, so I didn't want to take any chances at all. I knew the guys behind, especially Brent, would probably take some chances, so I just tried to ride a safe descent and try to make it to the finish line."

Bookwalter had joined Haig on the descent, and they nearly caught Kuss on the uphill finishing straight on Main Street in Park City, but the 23-year-old overall leader dug deep once more to hold them off and take his third stage win of the week.

"After that descent in the cold rain, my legs just totally locked up," Kuss said. "The fans were so loud that I couldn't really hear anything behind me, like anybody switching gears or anything, so I thought if they passed me I wouldn't even know because it's just so loud. I was just trying to drive all the way to the line. It was really something."

How it unfolded

The traditional final stage in Park City returned to the Tour of Utah after a one-year absence, and as typical with the short-but-difficult stage, it delivered an exciting finale.

The 126km route featured two intermediate sprints, the first coming 31.9km into the day in Kamas, and the second at 99.7km in Midway. The real racing for the GC contenders started with the category 2 climb through the affluent gated community of Wolf Creek Ranch with 67km remaining.

The final obstacle came in the form of the hors category Empire Pass climb, a 16km ascent with multiple switchbacks through massive Aspen groves. A technical 8.8km descent to the finish crowned the overall winner.

The peloton was feeling stingy in the opening kilometres, and despite multiple attacks a few moves that looked like they would go, the breakaway was not established until just before the first sprint at 31.9km, where Ulises Castillo (Jelly Belly-Maxxis) took maximum point from the break.

In the 15-rider group were Castillo, Evan Huffman (Rally Cycling), Sam Bewley (Mitchelton-Scott), Rob Power (Mitchelton-Scott), Nathan Brown (EF Education First-Drapac), Daniel Jaramillo (UnitedHealthcare), Gavin Mannion (UnitedHealthcare), Brayan Sanchez (Holowesko-Citadel), Jordan Cheyne (Elevate-KHS), Lionel Mawditt (Jelly Belly-Maxxis), Emile Jean (Silber), Griffin Easter (303 Project), Tony Baca (303 Project), Niccola Conti (Trek-Segafredo) and Damiano Cima (Nippo-Vini Fantini).

The leaders built a gap of more than two minutes with about 90km remaining, and the chase was on as LottoNL-Jumbo led the peloton. With no threat to Kuss' GC lead in the breakaway, the escapees were given plenty of leash, and the gap went up to four minutes with 75km remaining.

Wolf Creek Ranch

The escapees reached the Wolf Creek Ranch climb, a 4.1km ascent with an average grade of 8.2 per cent, with their four-minute gap intact. Jaramillo took maximum points at the KOM to cinch his hold on the snowflake mountains jersey, and the escapees' gap was down to just above three minutes.

Huffman dropped out of the breakaway and faded back to help teammate Kyle Murphy, who jumped away from the group on the climb. Murphy started the day 13th overall, 4:08 behind Kuss. Huffman and Murphy joined forces with 303 Project's Isaiah Newkirk and were soon within a minute of the break as the gap from the break to the peloton hovered at three minutes.

Huffman slayed himself to get Murphy up to the breakaway, and the gap from the chasing trio to the leaders continued to come down precipitously. Huffman pulled Murphy and Newkirk within 10 seconds of the leaders, and then he ran out of gas. Murphy went on alone as both Huffman lost the pace and Newkirk flatted, but the timing for Murphy was unfortunate as the escapees were picking up the pace ahead of the intermediate sprint. Murphy endeavoured persevered, however, and made contact just after the sprint.

Empire Pass

At 12.3km and reaching pitches of nearly 23 percent, the Empire Pass climb has played the role of kingmaker at the Tour of Utah in the past. The leaders started the climb with 2:35 on the peloton, and the breakaway immediately started coming apart. Castillo was the first to come off, followed by Bewley, Jean, Cheyne and all but a quintet of climbers that included Power, Brown, Conci, Jaramillo and Mannion.

EF-Drapac's Brown attacked the leaders and opened up a small gap as the Kuss-led yellow jersey group lingered 1:45 back. Mitchelton-Scott's Haig attacked the GC group and was quickly matched by Kuss as the pair rode away together.

With 18km remaining, Brown had 15 seconds on Conci, Jaramillo and Mannion. Overall runner-up Ben Hermans (Israel Cycling Academy), Luis Villalobos and Carthy were another 15 seconds adrift, while Kuss, Haig and Power were 1:05 behind the leaders.

Kuss took over the pace-setting in his group and quickly dropped Power. Kuss and Haig swept past Jaramillo and Mannion as they went after Brown, who had just 25 seconds on them with 16.5km remaining. Conci was able to stick with Kuss and Haig to form a first chase group of three.

As the riders battled up Empire Pass, rain started falling in Park City.

Kuss wasn't worried about the precipitation, however, as he dispatched Haig and Conci, and then caught Brown before the KOM with 14km to go. Haig and continued to chase with Carthy, but Kuss proved too strong and continued to open up the gap.

Carthy dropped Haig and set off after Kuss alone. The race leader claimed the Empire Pass KOM, while Carthy went over the top 40 second behind. Precipitation was falling on the other side of the pass, and Kuss had to ease is bike through the technical corners near the top.

Another five seconds back, Jelly Belly's Swirbul joined Haig over the top and onto the descent. Bookwalter caught Haig and Swirbul on the descent, and they swept up Carthy as well.

Meanwhile, Kuss railed the descent and rode into Park City alone to stomp his authority on the 2018 race.

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