BMC’s Brent Bookwalter finished third in the 211-kilometer opening stage of Tour of Utah following a commissary decision after photo finish analysis.
Extremely Happy
At the conclusion of a long and warm day, BMC Racing Team’s Sport Director assistant Mike Sayers said, the riders stayed calm despite a 5 men breakaway that enjoyed more than five minutes of freedom at a point. “We had Larry Warbasse chasing the break in front at a moment, but we preferred to stay quiet and see how the things would go. Then on the last climb, with about 18km to go our team was in the front and our guys were attacking until the final”. In fact, BMC Racing Team was the best represented team with seven riders in the main group at the finish, “During the last kilometer, there were Schar, Frank and Bookwalter in front, and there has been a bit of confusion here, but despite this, they tried it twice and Brent finished third, which is very good and I know he is extremely happy”, explained Sayers. While Rory Sutherland (UnitedHealthcare) won the stage and the race lead, Bookwalter crossed the line in third position, just ahead of Damiano Caruso (Liquigas-Cannondale)
Ready For the Team Time Trial
The BMC Racing Team will be the second from the finish to start on Wednesday’s team time trial “As we start in late afternoon, the temperature should be lower, which can play in our favor”, said Sayers. He added that the team is well prepared and can be confident “He have already recognized the roads previously, which is not the case for all our opponents, and we saw today that we have riders in strong condition here, so I hope we can be in the Top 3”.
