Home > News

Britton has one hand on the Tour of Utah title after queen stage

Ciccone wins penultimate stage, rivals can't budge Britton

Rob Britton
August 5, 2017
Share on SMS

Rob Britton is poised to take the biggest triumph of his career, the 2017 Tour of Utah title, with only one stage remaining. Britton survived pressure on Saturday’s queen stage as the three riders closest to him in the GC tried to shake him on the mighty Snowbird climb. Bardiani-CSF’s Giulio Ciccone earned the win.
https://twitter.com/wcstats/status/893956306217971712
The traditional summit finish on Snowbird has had a big impact on the GC over the years. Last season Andrew Talansky grabbed the leader’s jersey after his win, and in 2015 Joe Dombrowski also took the win and the yellow for good on Snowbird.

Riders had a short but intense 97.8-km to ride starting in the 1:00pm heat. The early American Fork Canyon climb was a tough warmup.
https://twitter.com/BMCProTeam/status/893856627056660481
Britton had done well on the climbing stages so far, placing 7th on the Snowbasin Resort summit finish and, of course, winning the uphill time trial. There were six riders within 1:00 of Britton, with Gavin Mannion (UnitedHealthcare) the closest at 26-seconds back.

The 20-strong breakaway contained both Marc-antoine Soucy (Canada/Silber) and the very active Guillaume Boivin (Canada/Israel Cycling Academy). On the slopes of American Fork Ruben Companioni (Cuba/Holowsko) bridged over to the escape and then took off on his new breakmates. Behind in the peloton BMC tried to crack up the race.


The Cuban returned to the breakaway on the descent. Meanwhile BMC’s work had helped pre-race favourite Brent Bookwalter, only 44-second in arrears of Britton, get loose of the yellow jersey group. Caja Rural helped Rally chase.

Men from the break dropped back to help their leaders as the race approached Sunbird. By its foot the yellow jersey group was 35-seconds back. Various riders from the breakaway, now containing Bookwalter, pulled away on the climb.


However, the tables soon turned on Bookwalter as he found himself overwhelmed by Britton, Mannion, third place Serghei Tvetcov (Romania/Jelly Belly), fourth place Neilson Powless (USA/Axeon Hagens Berman), Ciccone and two others, this group taking over the front of the race.

When Ciccone attacked with 4.5-km to go, Britton looked a little shaky. The Italian’s compatriot and teammate Simone Sterbini tried to bridge over. Tvetcov put in a bid for glory with 3-km remaining.

It would be Powless who would be the only main contender to take time back from Britton–three seconds. Mannion and Britton finished together, fourth and fifth respectively, while Tvetcov conceded two seconds.

Canadian James Piccoli continued his impressive debut by finishing 8th, hoisting him to 9th on GC.

Sunday is an 11-lap Salt Lake City circuit route of 117.8-km.

Tour of Utah Stage 6
1) Giulio Ciccone (Italy/Bardiani-CSF) 2:45:38
2) Simone Sterbini (Italy/Bardiani-CSF) +0:35
3) Neilson Powless (USA/Axeon Hagens Berman) +0:41

Tour of Utah GC
1) Rob Britton (Canada/Rally) 18:21:21
2) Gavin Mannion (USA/UnitedHealthcare) +0:26
3) Serghei Tvetkov (Romania/Jelly Belly) +0:30