On Sunday, Luxembourg's Frank Schleck (TREK Factory Racing) finished 4th in the Tour of Utah having being passed on the steep downhill section following the 10 km Empire Pass ascent.
Having proved to be one of the strongest climbers in the race all week, it was a heartbreaking setback for Frank Schleck. The top riders in the General Classification were unable to unseat each other on the stiff climb with a 9% average gradient and crested the climb together. With only nine kilometers remained in the week-long Tour of Utah, all downhill with sharp hairpins - the race, needless to say, was not over - and 12 leaders, including Fränk Schleck, began the steep descent.
Brent Bookwalter (BMC) and Lachlan Norris (Drapac) attacked the steep downhill and opened a gap. The duo came into the fast finish with a 20-second gap. Norris grabbed the win by a hair, but Bookwalter’s second place gained him six bonus seconds - enough to leapfrog him from sixth to third overall. It dropped Fränk Schleck from the final podium back into 4th place.
Director Alain Gallopin expressed his disappointment: “First I was not happy because they did not make a barrage on the climb and a few guys came back at the end in the flatter part with the help of the cars. And then to lose the podium after Bookwalter took a gap on the downhill – that is disappointing. But this is why I was a little bit nervous of the ending today, and we saw that. Bookwalter knew the descent well, and he went full gas. It’s a game eh? It was a big focus to keep the podium and I am a little bit disappointed…but anyway, that’s bike racing. Fränk is disappointed to lose the podium, he’s not happy of course, but what can you do? He was quite good on the climbs and he showed something here and I think he is ready to do a nice Vuelta."
While Fränk Schleck's next race is the Vuelta a España, the rest of the team, including the newest young guns, will stay on and race the USPro Challenge in Colorado beginning in just over a week’s time.
