Optum’s Michael Woods has won the fifth stage of the Larry H Miller Tour Of Utah and is the new race leader.
Stage five consisted of seven laps, 89.1kms or 55 miles around Salt Lake City with Jure Kocjan as the new leader of the race, on the same time as Kiej Riejnen and two seconds ahead of Robin Carpenter, the best young rider.
Phil Gaimon, Adam Phelan, Carson Miller, Songezo Jim, Jack Bobridge, Danny Summerhill, Stefano Pirazzi, and Travis McCabe were the first to form a break and they had a lead of 35 seconds after the first lap.
That was fifty five seconds after the second lap which saw some big crowds around the circuit.
With four laps remaining, McCabe took the sprint from Gaimon and Perazzi and the three points on offer as the gaps remained steady at fifty five seconds.
Onto lap five and with a deficit of 1.05, BMC sent a stagaire rider in the 21 year old Killan Frankiny to try and bring back the escapers who had Stefan Pirazzi and Songezo Jim go off the front.
Frankiny was re-absorbed back into the field before Pirazzi and Jim, the most aggressive rider of the day, started on the Wall Street climb with its climb of 20% with a twenty second lead over their fellow break members.
The peloton caught up to what was left of the front group on a sunny day whilst Pirazzi continued to press the pace.
Stefan Leece went down, following a touch of wheels but at the other end, Robin Carpenter had worked his way up to Pirazzi and Jim and with 20kms left the break was over.
On lap six of seven and Natneal Berhane of MTN Quhbeka put in a burst of speed and he was away. The Etritrean and African Time Trial champion, quickly took 25 seconds over the chasers.
Berhane put another five seconds into the chasers before the Bardiani CSF team knocked off ten seconds.
With five kilometres left, Berhane was only five seconds ahead of a chasing UnitedHealthcare rider. Both were caught 2.5kms later and BMC immediately came to the front.
The yellow jersey was in fifth wheel of his team and then taken up by another team mate but with 150 metres to go, Michael Woods of Optum attacked on the right and rode away to win in 2.03.49 with Bardiani’s Sonny Cabrelli second and Kiel Reijnen of UnitedHealthcare in third place and take over the yellow jersey with a four second lead from Brent Bookwalter.
Stage six is a 177km stage from Salt Lake City to Snowbird Ski Resort.