Trek Factory Racing’s stagiaires have been nothing short of stellar since joining the team for its USA races. Saturday it was Italian Leonardo Basso’s turn to lead the show of the team’s two newest young guns, joining the day’s successful breakaway in stage six of the USA Pro Challenge and sprinting to third after another hard, windy race.
Basso, 21, was all smiles as he was led to the podium for the award ceremonies, crediting this result as a dream come true.
“In Utah and also here in Colorado, a breakaway never made it to the finish. But because of the chrono yesterday, I think the general classification leaders were okay with a breakaway going today,” said Basso. “This podium is a dream for me, it’s a big opportunity for me to be here with Trek, and I am very happy.”
There was no secret the 164.5-kilometer stage six from Loveland to Fort Collins was a day a breakaway could ride to the end, and also likely the last chance in the weeklong race with an expected sprint finish Sunday. As a result, it was a fast start with numerous riders and teams all wanting the same thing and it was well over an hour before the day’s escape formed.
Finally, after 64 kilometers were pedaled, four riders moved clear, and three – including Basso – quickly followed to form a leading group of seven riders.
“There was lots of crosswind and that climb was very hard, quite steep; it was quite a hard day actually,” explained sport director Kim Andersen. “It took one hour and 15 minutes before the breakaway went and we had over 50km/h the first hour! Leonardo did a great job and he was one of the strongest in the break."
“Our plan was to get in the break today, and all our guys tried numerous times. Laurent [Didier] almost caught the right one, but then four guys went and Leonardo bridged with two others and that finally was the break. No one was placed [in GC] so it was a perfect breakaway.”
The seven riders shared the work until the steep pitches of Rist Canyon sorted the strongest. Roman Kreuziger (Tinkoff-Saxo), Nate Brown (Cannondale-Garmin) and Basso moved clear of the remaining four, but the long descent that followed allowed three others to rejoin. Together the six riders continued to work well and were able to hold off the chasing peloton led by UnitedHealthcare and Axeon Cycling.
With four kilometers to go Kreuziger made his move, which Brown quickly covered. The duo held off the remainder of the breakaway, holding a 50 meter gap until the group came together again just before the final corner.
Even with his late effort Kreuziger was still able to come over the top of Javier Megias Leal (Team Novo Nordisk) in the final meters to claim the win, easily proving the strongest of the breakaway, as a happy Basso crossed the line in third.
“In the climb the breakaway split and I was with Kreuziger and Brown, but then on the downhill the three other riders came back together again. We worked well together to the end,” added Basso.“It was a difficult moment when Kreuziger attacked, but just before the last corner it came back together and I was able to sprint for third place. I am very happy with that.”
Julien Bernard, Matthew Busche, and Laurent Didier arrived with the reduced peloton that rushed across the line 41 seconds later, keeping Bernard’s 10th place in the overall intact.
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