Cadel Evans (BMC) risked it all in today’s queen stage of the Tour of Utah and got his just reward when he beat Joseph Rosskopf (Hincapie) in the sprint at the top of the climb to the Snowbird Ski Resort. Having attacked almost from the beginning of the stage to bridge to a group with three of his teammates, he was the driving force in the break on the final climbs and still had enough left in the tank to take the win. Tom Danielson used his Garmin team to control the race and retained his overall lead.

 

Cadel Evans again proved that there has never been any reason to criticize him for a lack of aggression when he took an impressive win in today’s queen stage of the Tour of Utah. Instead of waiting for the battle on the final climb, he attacked almost from the start of the stage in what seemed to be a carefully planned BMC strategy.

 

Evans bridged across to a 14-rider group that contained his three teammates Yannick Eijssen, Michael Schär and Danilo Wyss and he made use of their power to keep the peloton at bay in the long flat section between the early and late climbs. On the final two big mountains, he took over himself and whittled down the front group to just four riders on the final climb to the finish.

 

Despite a hard chase by race leader Tom Danielson (Garmin-Sharp), the quartet managed to stay clear but Evans seemed to have lost the battle when Joseph Rosskopf attacked inside the final kilometre. Impressively, Evans still had enough left in the tank to close the gap and after a very short breather, he sprinted past his young rival to take a fantastic victory.

 

The sixth stage was the race’s queen stage and brought the riders over 172.6km from Salt Lake City to the top of the marquee climb to the Snowbird Ski Resort. After a tough start with two smaller climbs, a long flat section led to the difficult finale that included the category 1 Guardmans Pass and the final ascent to the well-known finish.

 

Right from the start, Unitedhealthcare launched the first attack but it was the subsequent counterattack by the impressive Jens Voigt (Trek) that laid the foundations for the race’s early breakaway. Unitedhealthcare’s GC rider Lucas Euser joined the strong German and they fought hard to maintain a 15-second gap.

 

A 3-rider chase group was brought back on the lower slopes of the first climb where Michael Schär (BMC) and Kiel Reijnen (Unitedhealthcare) took off in pursuit. Impressively, Voigt dropped Euser who fell back to the two chasers who had seen five riders bridge the gap.

 

Danilo Wyss (BMC), Luis Davila (Jelly Belly), Ben Jacques-Maynes (Jamis), Joseph Rosskopf (Hincapie) and the Bissel duo of James Oram and Ruben Zepuntke made up the rest of the 8-rider chase group and they crested the summit with a slight deficit to Voigt. Rosskopf led Euser and Oram across the line behind the German who took maximum points.

 

Janier Acevedo (Garmin), Yannick Eijssen (BMC), Riccardo Zoidl (Trek), Martijn Keizer (Belkin), Travis McCabe (SmartStop) had made use of the climb to attack and they joined the chase group on the descent. Davila fell off the pace and dropped back to Cameron Wurf (Cannondale) who had attacked from the peloton.

 

With 150km to go, Voigt was 2.25 ahead of the field and 30 seconds ahead of his nearest chasers and while he continued to gain time on the peloton, he was losing ground to the second group. In the peloton, Garmin-Sharp were content to set a steady pace for Tom Danielson.

 

The situation got dangerous on the second climb when Cadel Evans (BMC) attacked and passed Davila and Wurf – the former managed to hang on for a little while – and he was now soloing towards the big chase group. When Voigt crested the summit and Rosskopf beat Zepuntke, Euser and Jacques-Maynes in the sprint for the minor points, the Australian had almost made the junction while Wurf and Davila had dropped back to the peloton.

 

Voigt won the first intermediate sprint while Reijnen beat McCabe in the battle for the minor points and moments later, Evans had bridged the gap. At this point, they had lost a bit of ground to Voigt who had climbed impressively well to open an advantage of 2.20 over his nearest chasers and 3.30 over the peloton.

 

Wisely, Voigt decided to wait for the chase group which contained no less than 4 BMC riders. In the long flat middle section, Wyss, Schär and Eijssen worked hard for Evans while Zepuntke and Reijnen sacrificed themselves for Oram and Euser respectively. In the peloton, Thomas Dekker, Gavin Mannion and Ben Kig set the pace for Garmin in a quest to keep the situation under control.

 

The peloton was gradually losing the battle as the gap continued to grow throughout most of the valley section. When McCabe beat Reijnen and Schär in the intermediate sprint at the bottom of the penultimate climb, the front group was 4.45 ahead.

 

Reijnen and Zepuntke fell off as soon as the road ramped upwards and moments later Wyss, Eijssen and Schär also paid the price for their hard work. Over the next kilometres, the 10 remaining riders stayed together but when the road got steeper, Evans blew the group apart, sending Voigt, Keizer, Jacques-Maynes, Oram and McCabe out the back door.

 

This left just 5 riders in the front group while Phil Gaimon had now taken over the pace-setting in the peloton. The American was blowing the group to pieces and only a select group of climbers were left at the top when they had pegged back the gap to around 3.20.

 

Acevedo lost contact near the top of the climb where Rosskopf led Euser, Evans and Zoidl over the line and he fell back to the peloton to support his team leader Danielson. The front group briefly split on the descent when Zoidl and Rosskopf fell off but the group found back together and started to cooperate in a quest to keep the peloton at bay.

 

The front group hit the final climb with an advantage of 3.15 and continued to work well together. In the peloton, Gaimon and Acevedo were working hard to keep Danielson in contention but when they swung off, he found himself isolated.

 

This opened the door for attack and after a fruitless move by Javier Megias (Novo Nordisk), things got dangerous when Wilco Kelderman (Belkin) and Winner Anacona (Lampre-Merida) took off. The pair quickly built a small advantage while Rob Britton (SmartStop) took off in pursuit.

 

Danielson got some surprising assistance from Alex Diniez (Funvic) who gladly led the main group which kept getting smaller

 

With 7km to go, Anacona and Kelderman were just 1.25 behind the front quartet where Evans was doing all the work. Zoidl was clearly struggling and it didn’t take long for the elastic to break.

 

At this point, Danielson upped the pace in the peloton and only the Lampre-Merida pair of Chris Horner and Ilia Koshevoy managed to keep up with him. Third-placed Ben Hermans (BMC) was riding on his own a little further back but was losing ground.

 

While Zoidl rejoined the front group, Kelderman dropped Anacona. The Colombian fell back to the Danielson trio and so the race leader suddenly found himself up against three Lampre riders.

 

Koshevoy cracked under the relentless pace but despite Danielson’s repeated attempts, Anacona managed to hang onto the race leader. Inside the final 5km they brought Kelderman back and at this point the front quartet was only 35 seconds ahead.

 

Danielson finally stopped his hard riding which caused the group to come to a standstill. Anacona made an immediate attack which Danielson shut down and so the quartet again started to look at each other until Kelderman began to ride.

 

In the front group, Zoidl had recovered and he was now contributing to the pace-setting. Instead, Euser got dropped, leaving just Evans, Zoidl and Rosskopf to press on.

 

The Danielson quartet started to lose a bit of ground to the leaders but then Horner decided that he wanted the stage win. The American asked Anacona to up the pace and while Euser rejoined the front group, Evans’ move started to lose momentum.

 

On a flatter stretch with less than 2km to go, Euser tried to sneak away from his companions but Zoidl was quick to shut it down. Moments later, the Austrian made his own move and this time there was no response.

 

Zoidl stayed clear for a little while before Rosskopf made a hard acceleration that brought the Austrian back. Euser dropped off the pace and when they passed the flamme rouge, even Evans was suffering.

 

Rosskopf rode hard on the front but Zoidl stayed glued to wheel while Evans also managed to remain in contact. With 700m to go, he attacked again and this time Zoidl cracked.

 

Impressively, Evans managed to open a long sprint to catch the young American just as they hit the flat final 300m. He spent a few moments recovering on Rosskopf’s wheel before sprinting clear for an impressive stage win. Kelderman made a late attack to take fourth, with Zoidl holding onto third.

 

Horner accelerated in the finale but Danielson matched him pedal stroke for pedal stroke and the pair crossed the line together to take fifth and sixth on the stage. Anacona finished sixth while Kelderman struggled in the finale and had to settle for seventh.

 

Hence, Danielson retained his 57-second lead over Horner ahead of tomorrow’s final stage which is another very tough affair. After a rolling first half with one categorized climb, the riders tackle the brutal Empire Pass in the finale before they descend to the finish in Park City.