Eric Young took the biggest win of his career when he won stage 5 of the Tour of Utah in a very fast bunch sprint. Having been delivered on the front a bit too early, the American had to be creative to come away with the victory.

American Eric Young of Optum presented by Kelly Benefit Strategies surged past the field in a sprint finish to Kamas to cap off Stage 5 at the Larry H. Miller Tour of Utah. The stage started in Evanston, Wyoming on Friday morning, marking the first time the Tour of Utah had traveled roads outside the Beehive State.
 
Jure Kocjan (SLO) of Team SmartStop retained his Utah Sports Commission sprint leader’s jersey by finishing second and UnitedHealthcare’s Kiel Reijnen (USA) was third.
 
"It's totally unbelievable, for me personally and the team as well. We were so close on stage 1 and stage 3 as well. We rode pretty hard to get the break back today. Our three guys, (Tom) Soladay, (Mike) Friedman and Jesse (Anthony) really had to lay it on for that," Young said. "I'm really happy to reward the whole team with a win today. It was awesome."
 
Young followed his teammate's wheel as they passed the one kilometer to go sign on the sprint to the finish line.  "Alex Candelario took me up the left side of the group and just flew by everybody. That was great, but he's not going to be able to go out of the saddle for a whole kilometer. He started to run out of gas. At that point, you just have to be a sprinter and you have to be creative. I knew that I couldn't go from 500 (meters) so I looked around. One of the Jelly Belly attacked up the right side and then he swung over. No one was on his wheel and I was able to get up out of the saddle and accelerate onto his wheel. I sat there for a moment, caught my breath. I saw the 300 meters to go sign. I knew that was within my range," he explained. "I didn't know that Jure or Kiel were on my wheel, I had to go. It was just up the left side with everything I had and that was it.

“My teammates worked their butts off today. Jesse (Anthony), Tom (Soloday) and Mike (Friedman) worked hard to bring back a dangerous break and set up this sprint. Belkin had the front, and Alex (Candelario) gave me an incredible leadout through the final kilometers. He brought me safely past the dangerous Belkin leadout train and to the front of the race, so I decided, “It’s time to get creative.”

“It’s really nice. We (Team Optum) brought some sprinters here, and we wouldn’t be happy without a stage win. So to come away with this, we’re pretty happy.”
 

Young’s win was made possible by a team effort and punctuated by team captain and leadout specialist Alex Candelario. Candelario had this to say about the win:

“Teams like Belkin, Lampre, and BMC have big leadout squads here, so we wanted to get past them and give Eric a clean shot at the line. He has been boxed in a bit the last couple chances, so I hit out early and tried to open a gap. It worked perfectly and it was definitely made possible by the team’s efforts today. It feels great to get a win.”

Sport director Jonas Carney added his insight to the big victory in Utah:

“From the gun it was windy and the field started splitting. Alex Candelario placed himself in a very strong six man move but Garmin would not let it go over a minute. Once the crosswinds subsided, Alex realized it was a waste of energy and came back to the field with two others to save it all for the leadout. The break was down to three guys.

"Eventually three more riders went across on the climb. At this point we realized that Belkin’s sprinter had abandoned. With Lampre’s sprinter being disqualified yesterday for holding onto a car, there weren’t a lot of teams interested in a field sprint. It was going to be up to us and SmartStop.

"We put 3 guys on the front after the descent. Friedman, Jesse, and Soladay joined two SmartStop riders and with about 70k to go, they needed to bring back over 5 minutes on a very strong six man move. Unfortunately the SmartStop guys were suffering and with 40k to go it was just our three guys. Somehow they managed to get the gap under 1 minute with about 20k to go before they came apart. The break was caught with less than 3k to go and it was up to Alex Candelario to deliver Eric Young. With 1k to go Alex unleashed his sprint, overtaking the Belkin team. Alex made it to about 500meters, where Eric was able to jump on a Jelly Belly rider briefly, before unleashing his own sprint with 300 meters to go. Nobody was able to come around.

"It’s always great to win, but it’s an incredible feeling to have the team earn it like they did today. Everyone rode their hearts out for Eric and it was a true team effort.”