With no sprinter on the roster, Trek just tried to stay safe in yesterday's flat first stage of the Tour of Utah. The team is looking forward to today's first summit finish where they hope to see Riccardo Zoidl and Matthew Busche among the best.

There was little to do for Trek Factory Racing in stage three, the flattest stage of the seven-day race, other than stay safe, which they successfully achieved. The team saluted the serene day ahead of a decisive summit finish on the menu tomorrow.

“Overall, it was an easy stage," Riccardo Zoidl said. "At the end everyone was waiting for a team to make a move in the wind, but then no one did. The final circuits were fast and very hard, but the rest of the stage was okay, and you could recover a little from the last days.”

A five-man escape played the day’s action but the wide-open roads of Utah coupled with a brisk wind played into the hands of the chasing peloton. The gap to the breakaway fell rapidly as the race neared Miller Motorsports Park for three final 3.5-kilometer circuits.

When the race approached its crescendo, Hayden Roulston and Jens Voigt moved into the leading positions, sheltering the team’s climbers to the front. The two experienced verterans led the peloton as they entered the Motorsports Park for the fast laps around the speedway.

On the second circuit the last relic of the breakaway was swept aside by a UnitedHealthcare-led peloton, but in the final kilometer it was all Team Belkin; Moreno Hofland easily sprinted to his second victory, beating out Andrea Palini (Lampre-Merida) and Eric Young (Optum Benefit Strategies).

“We have no sprinter here so the plan was to race safe today, especially when you get close to the circuit with the winds," sports director Alain Gallopin said. "It was tricky, and we saw some crashes just before we arrived at the circuit.

"The young guys worked super well – Ryan [Eastman] and Alex [Kirsh] did a great job for the team. Clément [Chevrier] I want to keep fresh for tomorrow along with Riccardo [Zoidl] and Matthew [Busche]. With the experience of Jens and Hayden I think the team was very good today.”

Tomorrow the race encounters it first serious ascent with the summit finish of Powder Mountain, one of the toughest climbs in Utah.