Cannondale-Garmin’s Joe Dombrowski has won the Larry H Miller Tour Of Utah after 712 miles and over 51,000 feet of climbing.
The seventh and final stage had Joe Dombrowski of Cannodale-Garmin in the lead by fifty seconds from Michael Woods after his win at the Snowbird Ski Resort and was a 125.5km stage which started in Park City with two sprints and two climbs with 7,806 feet of climb including Empire Pass, reputedly the hardest climb in North America.
It was a stage which started without Irishman Matt Brammeier who was in hospital after being hit by a car and Travis McCabe.
Twelve riders, none of whom were a threat to the general classification, formed a break that included Taylor Phinney of BMC, Sam Spokes, Songezo Jim, Tanner Putt, Edwin Avilla, Luca Chirico, Tyler Magna, Rob Britton, Angus Morton, Griffin Easter, Jack Bobridge and Carson Miller not long after the flag dropped and were soon fifteen seconds ahead.
They extended that lead to 1.25 as Cannondale-Garmin, including Ted King in his final season and Optum led the peloton and were 1.55 ahead when Angus Morton of Jelly Belly took the sprint and the five points after 32.1kms ahead of Avilla and Phinney.
With 88kms left, the gap crept up to 2.05 and on a day where temperatures were 76 degrees, the gap went out to three minutes and then 3.45 as they headed for the category two climb on Wolf Creek Ranch.
Sam Spokes took the climb ahead of Putt and Miller whilst down the road, Avilla dropped off the front group and Janez Brajkovic of UnitedHealthcare and Camilo Casiblanco of Colombia tried to bridge.
They failed and were re-absorbed by the peloton as Avilla got back into the break which had a lead of two minutes.
Tanner Putt from Park City, decided to go for it heading towards the town of Midway. Some fifteen seconds back, Taylor Phinney chased him with the peloton three minutes back down the road.
The UnitedHealthcare rider was the first into Midway and took the sprint in a competition led by his team mate Kiel Reijnen with Carson Miller second and Songezo Jim third.
The organisers had left the worst climb of the race until last and the Hors Category Empire Pass was brutal with ramps of 20%.
MTN Qhubeka’s Songezo Jim made the decision to go after Putt and he was joined by Jack Bobridge plus Griffin Easter and they were 1.10 behind whilst the peloton was 3.10 behind but not yet on the gradients that Putt was pushing on through.
Michael Woods pushed the pace of the peloton and they passed Carson Miller who had been in the original break.
Smartstop’s Rob Britton spotted that Putt was struggling and came up and passed some of those from the original break and then passed Putt with Joe Dombrowski in the yellow jersey only forty five seconds down.
Eight riders including the race leader were now chasing Britton and had him in sight and re-joined him with ten kilometres to go.
Robbie Squire put in an attack as did Lachlan Norris with one kilometre to the top of the climb. Once, over the climb, Brent Bookwalter was on the front with Lachlan Norris, just ahead of Natnael Berhane, the most aggressive rider who was with the race leader.
Bookwalter of BMC was taking the corners very fast and was hitting speeds of sixty miles per hour on the descent into Park City. Norris was reaching 65mph and caught up to Bookwalter.
Under the flam rouge and Lachlan Norris of Team Optum got past Bookwalter to take the stage win in 3.14.50 ahead Bookwalter and twenty seconds later, Natnael Berhane, Rob Squire and Chris Horner.
Joe Dombrowski of Cannondale-Garmin finished safely and won the race overall which was the biggest win of his career to date by a margin of fifty seconds from Michael Woods and 1.05 from Brent Bookwalter, who took the Points Competition with Lachlan Norris being the best young rider.
Dombrowski also took the KOM award.