Two years after his breakthrough win at the 2014 USA Pro Challenge, Robin Carpenter (Holowesko) confirmed his huge potential by taking a surprise win in stage of the Tour of Utah, the final sprint stage of the race. Having made it into a two-rider break after a very aggressive and fast start, the American made a late attack to drop Ruben Companioni (Jamis) and claim an impressive solo victory and the leader’s jersey on the eve of the first GC stage in the race.

 

In 2014, the cycling world was introduced to the name of Robin Carpenter. The American youngster showed himself as a very aggressive rider that got close to winning the mountains jersey at the Tour of Utah. A few weeks later, he confirmed his huge potential by riding to a memorable solo win in Crested Butte on a brutally cold and rainy day at the USA Pro Challenge.

 

Despite his strong showing, Carpenter didn’t turn professional and a solid 2015 season that saw him finish second on a stage in Utah didn’t help him in his search for a pro contract either. This year he has taken another step as he has emerged as a stage race contender, with a fourth place at the Joe Martin Stage race, 15th at the Tour of California and a third place at the Tour de Beauce proving his huge versatility.

 

Just before the Tour of Utah, Carpenter won the Cascade Cycling Classic and this made him one to watch in the mountainous race that has always been a happy hunting ground for the American talent. Today he finally got the deserved the just reward for the three years of aggressive riding when he claimed a memorable solo win on stage 2 of America’s toughest race.

 

Carpenter showed his intentions right from the start as he was one of the most active riders in a brutally fast first hour that saw numerous small groups go clear. In the end, he was left with just Ruben Companioni for company but the pair benefited from a tactical battle between the GC and sprint teams to make it to the finish where Carpenter easily turned out to be the strongest of the pair.

 

After yesterday’s sprint stage, the fast finishers were expected to get another chance in stage 2 which brought the riders over 159km from Escalante to Torrey. Again there was a big climb on the menu as a lumpy start and the warm-up climb at Hogsback led to the difficult Boulder Mountain. However, the top came at the 84km mark which meant that there are still 75km to go. After the descent, the riders headed to the finish where they ended the race by doing two laps of a relatively flat 27.3km circuit. In the end, a slightly uphill finishing straight of 1800m awaited the riders in Torrey.

 

George Harper (ONE) was the only non-starter when the peloton gathered on another hot day in Utah. Unlike yesterday, they got the race off to a very fast start with numerous attacks and it took time for the early break to be formed. After a little while it looked like a trio with Joey Rosskopf (BMC) and a very aggressive Greg Daniel (Axeon) had gone clear but the peloton managed to bring them back after a tough little fight.

 

The attacks continued and Dylan Teuns (BMC) was one of the riders that were involved in the action. In the midst of the chaos, Thomas Vaubourzeix (Lupus) crashed hard but he was able to get back on his bike.

 

Unitedhealthcare briefly took control on a descent before the attacks could start again. Rosskopf and Daniel were again in the mix when a small group got away just after the downhill section. As the peloton slowed down, those two riders, Alex Howes (Cannondale), Ruben Companioni (Jamis), Travis McCabe (Holowesko), Ben Perry (Silber), Julien Bernard (Trek) and Chris Jones (Unitedhealthcare) rode away and they got an advantage of 40 seconds before a few riders tried to bridge across. That set the peloton alive again and when they hit the first climb, Emerson Oronte (Rally), Taylor Shelden (Jelly Belly), Daniel Eaton (Unitedhealthcare) and another rider made it across to make it a 12-rider group.

 

The peloton was not far behind though and this forced Rosskopf to go hard up the climb. That was too much for sprinter McCabe who fell off and was caught by the peloton which briefly slowed down. However, they soon started to move again and so it all came back together.

 

Just before the junction was made, Rosskopf, Howes, Jones, Companioni and Bernard went again and they were joined by Matteo Dal-Cin (Silber), Jon Hornbeck (Holowesko) and Angus Morton (Jelly Belly). As they approached the top, Rosskopf set a pace that only Howes and Dal-Cin could follow and the latter managed to come around the BMC rider to win the KOM sprint. Rosskopf was second, followed by Howes, Companioni and Jones.

 

Dal-Cin, Howes and Rosskopf kept going and were soon joined by Companioni and Neilson Powless (Axeon). Jones, Hornbeck, Morton and Bernard also made it across and gradually, a few more groups latched onto the back until a big group of more than 20 riders had formed.

 

Unsurprisingly, such a big group didn’t cooperate well and so Morton soon tried to go clear. While he tried to keep the move going, Cannondale chased in the peloton and they were very close to catching the group as they entered the final 125km.

 

Just as the junction was about to be made, Rosskopf hit out again and this time he was joined by Dal-Cin and Companioni. Evan Huffman (Rally) also made it across and then Daniel Jaramillo (Unitedhealthcare), Eddie Dunbar (Axeon) and Robin Carpenter (Holowesko) made the junction. The peloton finally seemed to be content with the situation and those seven riders were allowed to build an advantage of more than 30 seconds.

 

The group worked well together to try to extend the advantage but when Carpenter won the first intermediate sprint ahead of Companioni and Huffman, Cannondale had almost shut the move down. It came back together immediately after the line and the attacking could start again.

 

Jonathan Fumeaux (IAM) was the first to try and he created a small group that also included Jaramillo, Dal-Cin, Laurent Didier (Trek), Ben King, Andrew Talansky (Cannondale) and Companioni. They didn’t get much of an advantage though and so the peloton was again intact with 110km to go.

 

Carpenter went again and again the attentive Companioni was quick to follow. A hard chase allowed Frederic Brun (Fortuneo-Vital Concept) to bridge across and the trio soon got a solid gap. After more than an hour of aggressive racing, a small group had finally been formed and this allowed the peloton to take a small breather.

 

While the peloton stopped for a natural break – two of them even crashed in the process – Brun came through to take a turn as they continued up the long climb of Boulder Mountain. Apparently suffering from the altitude, the Frenchman blew up completely and fell back to the bunch which was rolling along slowly, with the usual mind games going on to find who was going to initiate the chase. That allowed the big group of dropped riders to rejoin the bunch.

 

BMC lost the battle and put two riders on the front when the gap had reached 4.40 with a little more than 100km to go. Race leader Kris Dahl’s Silber team also asked two riders to work and that quartet worked well together to stabilize the situation as they continued to climb towards the top of Boulder Mountain.

 

BMC stopped their work and so it was all left to Silber as they entered the final 100km. They gathered most of their team on the front but continued to lose ground. When Carpenter won the KOM sprint uncontested, the peloton was already 7.30 behind the leaders. Approaching the top of the climb, Dal-Cin launched a long sprint to go for third place but he was easily beaten by Jaramillo, with Tao Geoghegan-Hart (Axeon) rolling across the line in fifth. A big group reached the top much later, clearly in danger of missing the time cut.

 

Having made it safely over the climb, Silber increased the speed and as they returned to flat roads after the descent, they had reduced the gap to 6.35. Here the front group contested the final intermediate sprint where Carpenter was allowed to roll across the line in first position as they started the first lap of the finishing circuit.

 

When the peloton arrived, there was still one bonus second up for grabs and King tried to lead Andrew Talansky (Cannondale) out for the sprint. However, race leader Dahl and Marco Canola (Unitedhealthcare) were both much faster and it was the Canadian who came out on top.

 

Silber went back to work with the likes of Ryan Roth and Dal-Cin taking some huge turns on the front to slowly bring the gap down. Finally, they got come help as Jelly Belly came to the fore with two riders – one of them was Ulises Castillo – who shared the duties with the Silber riders.

 

Silber and Jelly Belly worked together for a few kilometres but then suddenly stopped their work. The peloton almost came to a standstill for a few kilometres before the Rally team hit the front to set up Eric Young for a sprint. Trek also asked Julien Bernard and Jacopo Mosca to do their share of the work and together those two teams had brought the gap down to 5.25 when they entered the final 40km.

 

Trek also added Laurent Didier to the group of workers but with assistance only from one Rally rider, the gap was still 4.38 as they crossed the line to start the final lap of the 27km circuit. The final Rally rider soon blew up and so all the work was left to Trek who faced the massive task of trying to close the gap and set Kiel Reijnen up for a sprint.

 

More teams finally realized that something had to be done and IAM, Unitedhealthcare, Axeon, Rally and a few more teams all put a rider on the front to work with the single Trek rider that was left. Nonetheless, the gap was still 4.30 when they hit the final 20km and it seemed that the sprint teams had left it too late.

 

The tough start had apparently taken its toll and with 18km to go, the chase blew up completely. Rally, Axeon, IAM and Trek desperately tried to keep the group going but there was clearly no organization in the chase.

 

It wasn’t until the Cannondale team put Phil Gaimon on the front that the peloton really started to move again but as he didn’t get any help, it was clearly a question of damage limitation.  Gaimon was joined by teammate Jon Dibben and as the gap was still 4.15 with 10km to go, Ben King also started to work for the American team.

 

The sprint teams had now given up and so it was left to the big GC teams to minimize their losses. Hence, BMC also put two riders on the front to share the work with the Cannondale trio and it was Dulan Teuns who took some big turns to try to keep Darwin Atapuma’s GC aspirations alive.

 

While BMC and Cannondale worked in the peloton, Carpenter and Companioni were sharing the workload nicely. They lost another minute during the next 10km as Fortuneo-Vital Concept also started to chase but it was already clear that the stage would be decided by the escapees.

 

As they approached the finish, it became evident that Carpenter was the stronger of the pair as Companioni was just sitting on the American’s wheel for most of the time, only coming through for short turns occasionally. However, it was the Cuban leading under the flamme rouge.

 

With 500m to go, Carpenter launched his attack and Companioni did not even try to respond. The Jamis rider just kept riding at his own pace while he watched his American rival sit up to celebrate his victory before rolled across the line in second five seconds later.

 

The peloton kept riding to limit their losses and it was Eugenio Alafaci who led the peloton under the flamme rouge. BMC took over with Teuns until Tanner Put did the lead-out for Marco Canola. Travis BcCabe (Holowesko) launched the sprint and he narrowly held Reijnen and David Tanner (IAM) off to cross the line in third with a time loss of 2.07.

 

Having picked up a total of 16 bonus seconds, Carpenter now takes the overall lead with a six-second advantage over Companioni while Dahl is now 2.12 behind in third. He faces a tough first day in yellow on tomorrow’s third stage which is expected to provide the first selection in GC. The first 140km are among the flattest in the entire race but it will all just be a warm-up for the difficult finale. In the end, the riders will tackle the category 1 climb of Mount Nebo. The top comes with 39.8km to go and the final part is almost all downhill. Only the final 2km are really flat and include two sharp turns before the riders get to the 1100m finishing straight.