Team Colombia-Coldeportes strongly believed in the possibility of having Edwin Avila lay his mark on the fourth stage of the Tour of Utah, a 205-km loop starting and finishing in Soldier Hollow, but as always in the sprints, opportunities can vanish in an instant, or in a twist, and today for the Escarabajos things went exactly that way.
 

In the last 500 meters of the uphill sprint, Sebastian Molano tried to lead-out Avila within the last left turn, but he was closed near the barriers by yellow jersey Kiel Reijnen (UnitedHealthcare), avoiding a dangerous collision, but also losing any chance of netting a top result. The victory went to the US rider Eric Young (Optum), ahead of Dion Smith (Hincapie) and Jure Kocjan (Smart&Stop), who managed to take the leader’s jersey from Reijnen’s shoulders.

It was a pity, as the Escarabajos had already shown their determination on the main difficulty of the day, Wolf Creek Pass, more than 60 km from the finish, when all the riders led by Valerio Tebaldi from the team car pushed a high pace, shattering the peloton and cutting into the break’s gap – Ben King (Cannondale), Tim Roe (Drapac), Songezo Jim (MTN), Robin Carpenter (Hincapie), Dan Eaton (Axeon), Nicolae Tanovitchii (Jamis-Hagens) and Luis Lemus (Airgas-Safeway ) – which had only 30 seconds left as it crested the climb.

The escapees got to increase their advantage on the descent, but were eventually caught a couple of kilometers before the finish, after being chased by Reijnen’s UnitedHealthcare team. Following the problems encountered by Molano and Avila, the best placed cyclist of Team Colombia-Coldeportes was Daniel Martinez, 27th at the finish.

Tomorrow, the Escarabajos will try to be again among the protagonists in stage five, a 89-km long circuit around the state’s capital, Salt Lake City.