Utah: Sepp Kuss attacks over Mount Nebo to take stage 2, race lead

Sepp Kuss (LottoNL-Jumbo) attacked solo from 45 kilometers to go on the lower slopes of Mount Nebo, climbed up to and through members of the day’s breakaway, and held onto his lead on the descent into Payson to take stage 2 of the Larry H. Miller Tour of Utah by 29 seconds. Kuss, who started the day 13 seconds back in the general classification, also took the 10-second time bonus, which puts him into the yellow jersey by 21 seconds.

Kuss’s teammate, Neilson Powless, attacked a chasing group of 12 with less than a kilometer to go to finish second on the stage and retain his best young rider’s jersey. He also moved into second overall. Tejay van Garderen (BMC Racing) dropped to third overall, 25 seconds back from Kuss.

How it unfolded

After several attempts by different riders to establish a breakaway, and with some 70 miles to race, a group containing Evan Huffman (Rally), Edward Anderson (Hagens Berman Axeon), Sam Bassetti (Elevate-KHS), Cormac Mcgeough (Jelly Belly), Michael Hernandez (Aevolo), and Griffin Easter (303 Project) forged ahead. The group slowly dragged their lead to 4:30 as they approached the second sprint line.

At the base of the day’s category 1 climb, Mount Nebo, the breakaway splintered, with several riders attacking and others counterattacking. Eventually, Easter passed everyone to jump into the lead. Meanwhile, in the peloton, BMC Racing set a steady tempo to control the ever-shrinking group from attacking, and keep GC leader Tejay van Garderen well protected.

Eventually, however, they could not control it anymore. Sepp Kuss (LottoNL-Jumbo) attacked and quickly bridged up to Easter. Behind, Michael Woods (EF Education First-Drapac), Peter Stetina (Trek-Segafredo), and Anderson launched from the group. Joe Dombrowski (EF Eduation First-Drapac) then bridged to his teammate. Minutes later he dropped him, setting off to try and drag back Kuss on his own.

With five kilometers to go to the KOM point, Kuss’s lead was out to 45 seconds over Dombrowski. Brent Bookwalter (BMC Racing) continued to push the pace for van Garderen, in a group of 12 total riders, including Woods, Stetina, Hugh Carthy (Education First-Drapac), Neilson Powless (LottoNL-Jumbo), Gavin Mannion (UnitedHealthcare), Ben Hermans (Israel Cycling Academy), Kyle Murphy (Rally), Luis Villalobos (Aevolo), Jack Haig (Mitchelton-Scott), and Keegan Swirbul (Jelly Belly).

Carthy then launched an attack and bridged to teammate Dombrowksi. Meanwhile, Powless, Mannion, Stetina, and Bookwalter were dropped.

At the KOM point, Kuss led by one minute over the EF pair. With 35 kilometers to go on the descent of Mount Nebo, that pair was absorbed by the chasing group containing van Garderen and others.

Soon after, Murphy, Villalobos, and Carthy attacked and extended a 10-second lead on the group, while Bookwalter, Powless, and Mannion rejoined the van Garderen group.

Kuss continued his solo time-trial ride across the rolling plateau atop Mount Nebo into a stiff headwind. With seven miles to go, the yellow jersey group of nine riders regrouped with the three chase riders. Moments later Woods crashed taking a righthand turn. He quickly remounted and started to chase.

With five kilometers to go, Kuss still held a one-minute lead, and he was able to power ahead to the win. Amid a flurry of attacks from the chasing group, Powless snuck away to sprint to second place.