For the second time in this year's Tour of Utah, American youngster Joseph Rosskopf (Hincapie Development Team) underlined that he is a man for the future when he nearly beat Cadel Evans in a direct battle on the final climb of the queen stage. Launching a strong attack in the finale, he had the 2011 Tour champion on his limits but the veteran Australian managed to strike back and relegate his rival to second.

After stage 2 of the Tour of Utah, Joseph Rosskopf got a lot of recognition by the WorldTour riders. Having been part of the early breakaway, he was the final rider to get dropped by Michael Schär and nearly held onto second, getting passed by the peloton less than 3km from the line.

Yesterday Rosskopf did even better. Having joined a strong 15-rider breakaway on the first climb, he made the selection when four riders escaped on the penultimate climb. Suddenly he found himself up against current or former WorldTour riders Cadel Evans, Riccardo Zoidl and Lucas Euser but was clearly unfazed by the situation.

With 1km to go, Rosskopf launched a strong attack and briefly dropped all his rivals. For a moment, it seemed that he would take a hugely surprising win but Evans showed his usual tenacity and fought his way back to the leader when the road flattened 300m from the finish. In the sprint, the young American had to settle for second behind the 2011 Tour champion.

“[It was] kind of a heartbreak, but a lot less so than Tuesday when I was off the front and just got caught by the field with 3k to go,” Rosskopf told Velonew. “Actually, it’s not a disappointment. Cadel was the only one to beat me. It would have been awesome to win; it would have been unbelievable. But I’m super pleased. If I got caught by [the chase group] and got 10th on the stage, I still would have been pretty pleased. But I was okay doing a little more work in the last l or two, staying away from those guys, to take it down to three riders and sprinting for the win. I have to be pleased with that. I’ve never done this before.

"I was all in (for a stage win). I didn't really have the confidence, maybe, to give it 100 percent until two kilometers to go. I glanced back and I could see the next group coming up. We'd been out there all day, so might as well sprint and get third or fourth than get caught by however many were behind us," 

“This is a huge step for me. I actually thought I might have him (Cadel) when I kicked with the last steep pitch, where we turned down to the finish. He's been lagging a little bit on the accelerations but he knew exactly what he was doing and he came over the last little hump just close enough to get around my wheel and basically coast in for the win.”

Rosskopf earned praise from Evans.

“I’ve heard a few stories about him,” stage 6 winner Evans said. “He’s certainly got a lot of potential. I admired him when we caught him with about 10K to go on stage 2; he was going absolutely flat out until the last meter even though the group was 100 meters off him. He seems to have a lot of ambition. I think with ambition and talent, a rider can go a long way with that. I may have to go and speak with Mr. Hincapie about his future there.”