Tejay van Garderen wins Tour of Utah opening Time Trial
Van Garderen beats BMC Racing teammate Rosskopf on the short, hard and fast opening prologue in St. George
A week after competing in the Tour de France, Tejay van Garderen captured the Prologue in St. George and the leader’s yellow jersey after the first day of the Larry H. Miller Tour of Utah. Van Garderen led a 1-2-3 podium sweep for the BMC Racing Team as Joey Rosskopf finished second and Tom Bohli claimed third. The top four places were separated by only seven seconds.
The 5K prologue was hard and fast. The course was an out and back with a mellow climb for the first 2K and a short downhill to the turnaround. After a short climb out of the turnaround it was fast straight downhill to the finish. Van Garderen started last which gacve him th upper hand and and sprinted out of the starting gate, knowing the best time to beat.
The opening time gaps are small but sets the stage for a great week of racing.
Tomorrow's Stage 1 gets down to business quickly with 101 mile mountain stage that features the Category 1 climb up Parowan Canyon through the ski resort town of Brian Head into Cedar Breaks National Monument climbs 4,500 ft in 15 miles with some pitches hitting 15%. This will also be the highest climb of the week topping out at 10,600’.
The riders will traverse the Markagunt Plateau and serpentine through the Mammoth Creek lava flows. After turning west in the town of Duck Creek the riders will face a long mellow climb up to the Bristlecone KOM. Then it’s all downhill from there into the college town of Cedar City. The riders will complete 3 circuits around Cedar City and Southern Utah University before the finish in front of the new Southern Utah Museum of Art.
VIDEO: 2018 Tour of Utah Prologue
2018 Tour of Utah Prologue Top 10
1 Tejay van Garderen (USA) BMC Racing Team 0:06:27.49
2 Joey Rosskopf (USA) BMC Racing Team 0:00:03.76
3 Tom Bohli (Swi) BMC Racing Team 0:00:06.47
4 Neilson Powless (USA) LottoNL-Jumbo 0:00:06.93
5 Pascal Eenkhoorn (Ned) LottoNL-Jumbo 0:00:10.68
6 Serghei Tvetcov (Rom) UnitedHealthcare Pro Cycling 0:00:11.09
7 Nathan Brown (USA) EF Education First-Drapac p/b Cannondale 0:00:11.27
8 Travis McCabe (USA) UnitedHealthcare Pro Cycling 0:00:11.52
9 Evan Huffman (USA) Rally Cycling 0:00:11.94
10 William Clarke (Aus) EF Education First-Drapac p/b Cannondale 0:00:12.20