Tour of Utah: Second win for Hermans on stage 3

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Ben Hermans (Israel Cycling Academy) made it two for two in the Larry H. Miller Tour of Utah on Thursday, attacking over the top of the final climb into North Salt Lake and dropping his GC rivals to win by seven seconds over Kyle Murphy (Rally UHC) and eight seconds over Niklas Eg (Trek-Segafredo).

The move gives Hermans 43 seconds over James Piccoli in the general classification and 1:05 over Eg.

"Our team was pressured, but we never lost control of the race, so the team was pretty strong," Hermans said. "I didn't have to do much until the last kilometre on the last climb. I just had to follow Piccoli, and in the last kilometre I had an attack for 30 seconds and I could make a good gap, and it was enough for the stage win."

Hermans waited patiently as the lead group whittled itself down to a very select few. His move with 1km to go was devastating and not challenged by anyone in the group.

"Piccoli gave all he had on the first part of the climb, but he couldn’t drop me, so he didn't have anything for the second part of the climb," Hermans said. "I saw the guys on the front were very close, and so I attacked to try and catch them before the top of the climb. It was good timing. It was a good situation for us, and sometimes you can be lucky in these situations."

Murphy had joined EF Education First's Lawson Craddock up the road in an earlier move and was with Craddock when the Hermans-Piccoli group caught them. An acceleration from Craddock initially dropped him, but he was able to fight his way back to the group to take the reduced sprint for second.  

"I was riding for time, and Lawson was riding for the stage," Murphy said. "I was OK with that. I thought maybe I’d be able to surprise him. But when he saw Hermans coming, he panicked a little and attacked me. I was able to just barely catch on before the descent and just kind of caught my breath before the sprint.

"If we had started racing sooner, I think this could have been harder than Powder Mountain with the heat and how explosive some of the riders are in North America," Murphy said, referencing the 94 degrees Fahrenheit throughout the day. "It was a brutal day, but I’m happy with that went down."

Piccoli was obviously less happy with the day. Th 27-year-old Continental rider had tagged this stage early on as a potential GC day, and the race played out just as he anticipated. He got the GC battle he wanted on the final climbs in North Salt Lake, but Hermans proved himself stronger once again.

"I gave it all I had today and tried to attack the last time up the climb, because this finishing circuit was actually really hard," he said. "This climb was brutal.

"I just went a little bit early hoping that Hermans would crack, but he was super strong today," Piccoli said. "He just waited patiently in my draft, patiently, patiently, and then hit me over the top and rode away. Great ride by him."

How it unfolded

The 138.3km stage from Antelope Island State Park to North Salt Lake started out fairly flat but got extremely lumpy on the finishing circuits in Bountiful, where the peloton faced five climbs up the short-but-steep Bountiful Bench, where the race finished.

A breakaway of seven riders initially pulled away while the peloton was still on the island just 25km into the day. In the move were Jonny Clarke (Worthy Por Cycling), Emerson Oronte (Rally UHC), Dylan Sunderland (Bridgelane), Scott McGill (Aevolo), Philip Mamos (Dauner-Akkon), Tony Baca (303 Project) and FilippoZaccanti (Nippo-Vini Fantini-Faizane).

That group swelled to 20 riders almost immediately, and a game of musical chairs started in the breakaway from there. The new group included dangerous riders like Dayer Quintana (Neri Sottoli Selle Italia KTM), Gavin Mannion (Rally UHC) and Sergei Tvetcov (Worthy Cycling).

The size of the group was prohibitive, and Israel Cycling Academy lined out the bunch to bring the move back. Rally immediately countered and inspired a new 16-rider move. At the first intermediate sprint in Layton at 65.4km, Matt Zimmer (DC Bank) took maximum points ahead of Flavio De Luna (303 Project) and Travis McCabe (Worthy Pro Cycling).

A new break formed from there. In the new move were Alex Howes (EF Education First), Nigel Ellsay (Rally UHC), Lorenzo Fortunato (Neri Sottoli Selle Italia KTM), Marco Canola (Nippo-Vini Fantini-Faizane) and Travis McCabe (Worthy Pro Cycling).

McCabe won the second sprint in Fruit Heights, as the new moved appeared to meet with the peloton’s approval, and the gap started going up. Hayden McCormick (Team Bridgelane) was the final rider to join the group, and the advantage was up to two minutes with 50km remaining.

Howes took maximum points on the first KOM at 90.8km as the riders went over Bountiful Bench for the first time.

With three finishing circuits remaining, the leaders still held 1:45 over the bunch, which was being led by Elevate-KHS for Piccoli. The third time up the climb Canola and McCabe lost contact with the leaders, but the duo was able to return on the corresponding descent. McCabe lost contact again the next time up the climb and faded back the field.

Howes was together with McCormick, Canola and Forunato as attacks started coming from the field. Lawson Craddock (EF Education First) jumped away first, and he was quickly marked by Rally UHC’s Kyle Murphy. The chasing duo caught the leaders with 12.3km to go, and the breakaway had fresh engines to power the move. Fortunato soon lost contact.

The field behind them started to split as the climb was taking its toll. Trek-Segafredo took up the chase with 5km to go, bringing the gap down to 25 seconds. On the final climb, Murphy and Craddock were the only riders left out front, with just 20 seconds over a small group with leader Hermans, James Piccoli (Elevate-KHS), Keegan Swirbul (Worth), Niklas Eg (Trek-Segafredo) and Joe Dombrowski (EF Education First). The rest of the peloton was scattered along the road around 1:35 behind.

Piccoli nearly reeled in the leaders with 1.5km to go, dropping Swirbul with a surge, and sensing the catch, Craddock attacked to drop Murphy. Hermans then attacked from the field just before the crest, passing Craddock and flying down the other side with 1.2km to go, holding off the chase to win by seven seconds.

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