Rory Sutherland wins the opening stage of the Tour of Utah 2012
Rory Sutherland of Team UnitedHealthcare Pro Cycling bagged his third victory of the 2012 season after winning the opening stage of the Tour of Utah 2012.
The Australian took a total time of 5 hours, 25 minutes and 41 seconds to complete the 211 kilometre stage at Ogden.
Damiano Caruso of Team Liquigas-Cannondale, Brent Bookwalter of Team BMC, Lawson Craddock of Team Bontrager Livestrong and Leopold Koenig of Team Net App occupied the next four positions respectively.
“It was a similar finish to last year, but it was a lot shorter coming out of the last corner,” Sutherland noted after the race.
“We checked it out yesterday and could see it was about 300 to 350 meters, so you definitely didn't want to be the first one through”.
“If you were third or fourth wheel you could kind of just jump off the other guys”.
“We've been trying for the overall in races like Tour of California and the USA Pro Cycling Challenge”.
“We kind of hovered around seventh to 10th a few times,” he concluded.
The 30-year-old opened his 2012 winning account with a stage 1 victory at the Tour of the Gila and also claimed the first overall position at the race.
He rode brilliantly throughout the Tour de Beauce which helped him with a first overall spot at the Tour de Beauce 2012.
William Clarke of Team Champion System Pro Cycling wins the first and the second sprint of the Tour of Utah 2012 while Ben Jacques-Maynes of Team Bissell Pro Cycling succeeded at the third event of the event.
Ben Jacques-Maynes of Team Bissell dominated the first three mountains of the race with Lucas Euser of Team Spidertech P/B C10 claiming the fourth climb of the event.
Rory Sutherland is currently leading the stage 1 overall with a total gap of 4 seconds over Damiano Caruso of Team Liquigas-Cannondale.
Brent Bookwalter of Team BMC is further 2 seconds behind at the third spot with Caleb Fairly of Team Spidertech P/B C10 and Lawson Craddock of Team Bontrager Livestrong holding the fourth and the fifth positions respectively.
Lawson Craddock, Flavio De Luna, George Bennett, Joshua Atkins and Wilco Kelderman are the top five names after the Tour of Utah stage 1 young rider classifications.
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