Jure Kocjan (Smartstop) confirmed his status as one of the fastest riders on the North American racing circuit when he beat the pro riders in the second stage of the Tour of Utah. The Slovenian was given a perfect lead-out by teammate Travis McCabe when a 30-rider sprint decided the stage and he narrowly held off Robin Carpenter (Hincapie) to take the victory while Kiel Reijnen (Unitedhealthcare) defended his overall lead by finishing fourth.

After a disappointing stint at Euskaltel, Jure Kocjan got his career back on track in 2014 when he crossed the Atlantic to join the Smartstop team. He missed out on the big win but took an impressive three second places in the Tour of Utah where he spend some time in the yellow jersey.

This year he entered the race with the goal of finally taking that elusive stage victory and after the sprinters had been denied in the opening stage, things came together for him in today’s second stage. A tough climb 30km from the finish ruled out most of the pure sprinters, and this left Kocjan as the fastest rider in the 30-rider group that sprinted for the win.

“We were really disappointed yesterday. After dinner I just went to my room and stayed there and just thought about today. I was super-motivated and angry and I knew that I had to make it over this climb,” said Kocjan.

“I knew the climb from last year when we went up the other side. My focus was to pass over the climb in the front group, and I was the last guy over with that group. But I made it over and once we came down, I looked back and saw that we had a big gap like 50 seconds. So I just told the guys, my teammates, go as hard as you can. I knew that there were not a lot of good sprinters in the front. I knew that if we made it to the end, I was probably the fastest one."