Kreuziger wins in Fort Collins

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Roman Kreuziger (Tinkoff-Saxo) outfoxed his five breakaway companions Saturday to win stage 6 at the USA Pro Challenge in Fort Collins.

Kreuziger won a sprint finish ahead of Novo Nordisk's Javier Megias and Trek Factory Racing's Leonardo Basso to claim his first victory since the UCI dismissed it’s biological passport case against the Czech rider.

Dylan Girdlestone (Drapac), Tom Zirbel (Optum Pro Cycling) and Nathan Brown (Cannondale-Garmin) were the final breakaway survivors to finish 41 seconds ahead of the charging field.

The win was Tinkoff-Saxo's only notable result of the week after both GC hopefuls Kreuziger and Chris Anker Sørensen fell out of overall contention. Kreuziger said he finally started to feel better after coming to the race unprepared for Colorado's high altitude.

"I thought today was a good day to try because I started already to feel better yesterday during the time trial," he said. "I felt the condition was better than other days. So the plan was to try, and finally it worked. It was much, much better here, because on Independence Pass it was really not easy to breathe."

Kreuziger tried to escape the group late in the race with Brown, but Megias closed the gap with the rest in tow, and a mad dash for the line was on.

"The last kilometres you never know what is going to happen, because after the hot day and we came down from high altitudes to more normal," Kreuziger said. "I had just to try, so 4k to go I tried with Brown and then [Megias] came back. I was surprised that he closed the gap, but in the end he pulled me nicely to the win."

How it unfolded

Saturday's 164.5km stage from Loveland to Fort Collins provided riders with a break from the high altitudes of Colorado's Rocky Mountains as the race transitioned into the Front Range and more moderate elevations around 1,500 meters.

The route traversed around Loveland and Carter Lake before heading into Buckhorn Canyon and the day's major obstacle, the ascent to the category 2 KOM in Rist Canyon at 2,450 metres. A quick descent into Bellvue led to the category 4 KOM at Horsetooth Reservoir with 21.6km remaining. From there the race made its way over several more lumps before the finish in Fort Collins.

Crosswinds buffeted the peloton in the early going as high winds blew in smoke from nearby forest fires, creating a slight haze as riders battled for position in the wide-open plains.

As echelons began to form in the peloton, attacks flew up the road, but nothing was able to stick until after the second intermediate sprint of the day back in Loveland.

A group of seven riders eventually peeled away, with Kreuziger, Brown, Girdlestone, Basso, Zirbel, Megias and Danny Summerhill (UnitedHealthcare), forming the day’s breakaway.

The escapees built a maximum gap of 4:10, and with Kreuziger the best-placed GC rider at more than 15 minutes down, Dennis' race lead was never in danger. But the teams hunting for the stage win helped BMC keep the break in check for most of the day.

Team SmartStop took over the pace setting as the peloton went up Rist Canyon, with Jelly Belly taking the reins several kilometres in. The team's position on the front provided a launching pad of Lachlan Morton, who jumped away without a response from the bunch.

Up ahead, Summerhill lost the leader's pace as the gap started coming down precipitously. The gap was just over a minute when Kreuziger pressed the pace in the break, shedding all but Basso and Brown. Kreuziger took maximum points at the top of Rist Canyon ahead of Brown and Basso. Zirbel, Megias, Girdlestone reconnected with the leaders on the descent to re-establish a group of six.

Summerhill crashed on the descent and was quickly passed by Morton, who was steaming down the hill hoping to make contact with the break before the gap went back out. At 1:53 down, Morton's move put pressure on BMC, and his presence was not welcome in the breakaway.

"I just got a little unlucky," Summerhill said after the stage. "I crashed into the guardrail on the descent and I have to go get stitches now."

The peloton finally pulled Morton back on the climb to Horsetooth Reservoir, where they closed the gap to the leaders to just under three minutes as the breakaway crossed the final KOM of the day.

UnitedHealthcare and Axeon shared the workload coming down off the climb, and the gap came down to 2:10 with 20km remaining. Morton jumped away again on the undulations. Moron needed to gain just 23 seconds on Team SmartStop's Rob Britton, who started he day third overall, to move onto the general classification podium.

The move was short-lived, however, as the UHC-led bunch brought him back after a few kilometres. The front of the bunch fell into disorganisation as Axeon took over, with 10km to go.

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