After a one-year hiatus, the Tour of Utah returned to Park City with the final stage six, start and finish, on Historic Main Street. The stage included 8000 feet of climbing over the 78-mile course. City and County officials participated in the opening ceremony with Park City Council member, Nan Worrell firing the start gun. Carolyn Murray has this:
As the final and 6th stage began, Sepp Kuss from Team Lotto NL- Jumbo wore the yellow jersey signifying the first place position in the overall standings for the Tour of Utah. The cyclists lapped Main street a couple of times for the pleasure of the crowds before making their way east on Kearns Boulevard, past Richarson Flat, picking up State route 32 and riding through Wooden Shoe Lane in Peoa. They took on a sprint in Kamas with Thomas McCabe from United Healthcare winning the sprint leader category for the stage. They rode Foothill Drive to Bench Creek and through the Wolf Creek Ranch neighborhood for a King of the Mountain Challenge.
The peloton made its way to Wasatch County and rode through the town of Midway then took on the final climb up Pine Canyon Road to Empire Pass. It’s about a six-mile descent from State Route 224 into Old Town Park City with what riders were calling a cruel uphill finish to the top of Park City’s Main Street.
Team Lotto’s Sepp Kuss won the Tour of Utah overall and came in first in the final 6th stage. He also won the final stage King of The Mountain category.
A rain shower moved through Park City with almost perfect timing as the peloton arrived at the Empire Pass Summit. It made for a hazardous final decent to the finish line. Winner Sepp Kuss said he was suffering by then and the cold and rain added to the challenge especially as he climbed to the top of Main Street. He said 3rd place finisher Jack Haig presented a challenge with just a couple of miles left in the race.
“Oh, I was definitely suffering. I think the decent in the cold rain, my legs just totally locked up. I definitely made a big effort on the climb before. The fans were so loud, I couldn’t hear anything behind me, you know like anybody switching gears or anything so I thought if they pass me, I won’t even know because it’s so loud. But yea, I was just trying to drive all the way to the line.”
Brent Bookwalter, second place stage winner from BMC Racing, has raced the Tour of Utah and he’s done many of the climbs during team training.
“The strategy today was to do what I always do….just to keep fighting and never give up, to dig and dig and dig and dig and bury myself as long as I can and try to suffer my way over the top of that last climb. Then, playing my chance on the downhill, I did that two years ago and was also a close second. I did it again today in a little bit different conditions. The way the race was unfolding, these guys moving forward and coming back. I was really glad to keep fighting, showing my tenacity and grit and nevber giving up. Hopefully, it was a nice show of determination.”
Third place winner, Jack Haig from team Mitchelton-Scott, said the Wolfcreek portion was critical for him and he was glad no one pursued an attack.
“Yea, fortunately, Lotto Jumbo helped things really well and no one lit it up, up Wolfcreek cause otherwise it might be hard to finish today. So I am grateful for that. I think it is just a matter of survival, trying to stay up in front as long as you can and setting your own pace and ended up not really having too many issues with it today.”
Ben Hermans rides with the ICA Israel Cycling Academy. He took 2nd place Saturday overall as well as the Saturday Stage which he said was painful becuase he was chasing Kuss up Little Cottonwood Canyon to finish at Snowbird.
“Yesterday I hurt myself a lot trying to follow Sepp. I didn’t want to do that mistake again today so I just did my own tempo from the bottom to the top and saw I was still many seconds behind the first guys. The gap was manageable to defend the podium and keep being in second place”
Spectators were not deterred by the rain showers. City officials told KPCW, they expected forty thousand people attended. The Tour of Utah final stage will be held on Main Street Park City, again next year.
