A sore throat prevented Moreno Hofland from finishing yesterday's sprint stage of the Tour of Utah. Instead, Robert Wagner took over sprinting duties for Belkin from the double stage winner and sprinted to fourth place.

The Belkin Pro Cycling TEAM's Robert Wagner sprinted to fourth in the Tour of Utah stage five on Friday. The escape nearly made into Kamas, but with the help of his team-mates in green and black, the German was able to have a crack at the stage win. 

"It was pretty windy, side winds, in the last two kilometres," Wagner said. "In the final K, the Optum team came up hard and had a good lead out. I was in fourth position and I stayed in fourth position, I didn't really have the power to do more than that." 

Eric Young (Team Optum) won the sprint after a 163.1-kilometre stage that took place in the Bald Mountain pass at 3279 metres. He nearly did not have his chance as an escape lasted until the final kilometre. 
 

Moreno Hofland won two stages in the tour, but after becoming sick, gave way for Wagner to have a chance in stage five. 

"I knew early on I'd have a go because Moreno didn't feel that good", Wagner added. "He decided to start, but it was fast and it was hard for him."

"The plan was to sprint with Moreno," Sports Director, Erik Dekker added, "but after two kilometres, he stopped the race because he had a sore throat, just sick, not good enough." 
 

Kelderman and the others have their eyes on the Snowbird Ski and Summer resort stage finish at 2367 metres. Saturday's stage is the second and final summit finish of the Tour of Utah and likely to decide the winner. Belkin's Dutch leader sits fifth overall at 2-07 minutes. 

"A break or the classification riders could fight for the win," Dekker said. "There are two long climbs, one is really steep and the finish is hard. We are of course going to try to protect Wilco, but maybe try to get in the break with Martijn Keizer or Maarten Tjallingii. Everything can happen tomorrow." 

After tomorrow, the peloton only has one stage left to race, the final mountain loop around Park City.