2019 Tour of Utah Stage 1 Results & Recap
Stage 1 of the 2019 Tour of Utah is in the books. The final results and standings are below, followed by our recap of how the race unfolded.
Race Recap
Marengo wins stage 1
A startling finish to stage 1 saw Umberto Marengo take the biggest win of his after rocketing past the competition to snatch the victory from a group of hopefuls who made a last minute bid for the win after 140 kilometres of racing.
“The team worked perfectly. We had Manuel Bongiorno in the breakaway so no one had to work until the final laps. When Bongiorno had a flat tire, the team moved forwards,” Marengo commented via a team translator. “On the last lap, I and [Sebastian] Schönberger decided to attack. Schönberger was not as fast as me so Schönberger worked for me, and started to anticipate with three K (kilometers) to go. At the end, this was the perfect move because I could launch my sprint and win.”
Craddock’s second on the day boosted the Texan into the overall lead by six seconds over João Almeida (Hagens Berman Axeon), who retains his best young jersey. Serghei Tvetcov (Worthy Pro Cycling) is third at 12 seconds.
“Everyone was on the limit. Alex (Howes) made a really good call. He noticed that there was a small riser with three and a half, four kilometers to go in the middle of the descent that would be a good place to launch an attack. I kind of went from there. I was able to get some speed, get a gap and from there, there was five or six of us and the race played out,” Craddock said of his attack on the final circuit in North Logan City.
Starting in North Logan City, stage 1 of the Tour of Utah was a hot and trying day out on the bike for the 113 starters. The temperatures touched the mid-90s over the course of the race, but that didn’t stop immediate attacks out of the peloton to forge a breakaway.
Francesco Bongiorno (Neri Sottoli-Selle Italia-KTM), Ignacio Prado (Canel's Specialized), Sam Boardman and Camden Vodicka (Wildlife Generation) and Travis Samuel (DCBank) took off a few kilometres into the race, and quickly gained an advantage of three minutes, which was where the peloton, led by Elevate-KHS, was content with it staying.
Over the course of the rolling stage, Boardman and Prado battled for the KOM jersey, with Boardman coming out on top, collecting 11 points, one more than Prado.
After securing the KOM jersey, Boardman dropped out of the breakaway. He was followed by Bongiorno after he suffered a puncture. Prado also fell back, leaving Samuel to forge ahead alone. The Canadian scored the most aggressive jersey for his solo effort to hold of the looming peloton.
Samuel entered the five circuits around Logan with a 40 second advantage, but that was quickly eaten up as he reached the climb with 20 kilometres left.
Counter attacks came from Lorenzo Fortunato (Neri Sottoli-Selle Italia-KTM) and Bernat Font (303 Project), but it was Marengo who played his cards right to post up with the victory.
Stage 2 presented by Monster Hydro brings a wild west showdown to the 8,900-foot summit of Powder Mountain on Wednesday, Aug. 14. The massive ascent from the town of Eden to Hidden Lake Lodge at Powder Mountain Resort is one of the steepest roads in Utah, with gradients rising to 16 percent. The 8.6-mile scale will pack a punch to the legs and lungs of the best climbers in the world.
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