Tour of Utah final stage, Britton finishes 17th

On Sunday,  Cadel Evans (BMC) won his second stage of the Tour of Utah in as many days after displaying his fortitude on the final descent of the race. In the final 10 km, Evans drove the pace up the Empire Pass with Carter Jones (Optum presented by Kelly Benefit Strategies). They were chasing a quartet of riders containing the 2013 Vuelta a Espana champion Chris Horner (Lampre-Merida), his teammate Winner Anacona Gomez, Tour of Utah race leader Tom Danielson (Garmin-Sharp) and Weldo Kelderman (Belkin).

Over the top the climb, the GC favourites were clearly marking each other, while Evans hammered out a pace with Jones glued to his wheel. It was on the descent that Evans threw down a barrage of calculated risks to bridge the 10-second gap to the lead group. Evan’s dropped Jones on the descent and once he caught the group, he forced the pace through the final technical corners and sprinted to a second stage win ahead of Kelderman and Gomez. Tom Danielson retained the overall lead to win his second consecutive Tour of Utah.

Rob Britton (Team Smartstop) was Canada’s top finisher, placing 17th on the stage. On what was a successful week for his team, where they held the yellow jersey for two stages after Britton’s Slovanian teammate Jure Kocjan placed second on Stages 1 and 2. Britton’s performance was impressive, beginning on Stage 4 when he finished 13th atop Powder Mountain less than four minutes behind eventual overall race winter Danielson. On Stage 6 he placed 17th and held his own among some of the WorldTour’s top climbers up the Snowbird Climb. Britton’s consistency throughout the race didn’t receive the most accolades, however, he’s been racing strong all year in weeklong stage races, such as the Tour of the Gila in May. Britton has managed to hone his form to be competitive among WorldTour teams in what has undoubtedly been a long season for the Victoria native.