Tour of Utah 2014 – Stage 5 Preview

By David Hunter

Stage 4 Review

We got a copy of 2013, with a battle between the two old boys, Danielson and Horner. All else, couldn’t cope with the altitude and gradient and under constant pressure, it was Horner that went pop! Tommy D rode off into the distance to take the stage and GC. Ben Hermans, BMC, was a brilliant 2nd with the Brazilian, Diniz, an equally brilliant 5th.

Stage 5 Evanston – Kamas 163.1km

A totally different stage.

Nothing special in the profile, they go up a mountain and then down! Don’t stop reading though, it gets better! The climb of Bald Mountain is the highest point of the 2014 race, at 3268 metres. It’s only a cat 2 climb, the profile makes it look a lot worse than it is. The riders have a long grind up the hill for the opening 77km of the race! Don’t worry, they’ll go easy, but it will still hurt. After that they have a long descent into town. Today is a historic day for the Tour of Utah, for the first time they leave the state and enter Wyoming!

They say this is the wild west and to give the riders a taste of old America, they get to ride on a dirt track. This is 3.2km long and only 16km from the end of the race. It certainly means a sprint finish is not easy to create.

Hofland and Belkin already have 2 stage wins and after a long day yesterday, I don’t think they’ll have the stomach for this one. Given the nature of the profile, I would expect a break to stay away today. Who could be in it?

Robin Carpenter is wearing the KOM jersey, after a good couple of stages. Despite only being a cat 2 climb, he’ll want more points and I still like the look of British rider, Tao Geoghegan Hart of the Bissell Development Team.

If the break fails, expect quite a few attacks on the dirt road. Cadel Evans is a master of these conditions, winning a stage of the Giro on the white roads, back in 2010. It would be great to see Cadel on the attack!

Prediction time…

Carpenter from the break or a bold move by Cadel.

If it’s a sprint, you should all know who’s going to win…….Hofland!

David Hunter

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