Tour of Utah: Argentine captures Tour sprint

The climbers who will eventually claim hold of the Tour of Utah gave way to the sprinters Friday night as more than 100 cyclists circled the Rio Grande Depot for more than an hour before Argentina's Ricardo Escuela bolted between two teams of cyclists to claim victory.

Though the Garmin-Chipotle team set the tempo for much of the race, Rock Racing sent rider after rider to the front, setting up a second train of cyclists waiting for the moment to make their move.

The problem, however, is that Escuela was sitting quietly in their midst — also plotting his move and waiting for the exact moment to charge.

The time came with about 500 meters to go as he saw a Rock Racing cyclist make a little move to see who would counter. That person was Team Successful Living's Escuela and he was followed by Freddie Rodriguez who stuck to Escuela's wheel as long as he could but was never able to get around the hard-charging Argentinean.

"He was following Rock Racing the whole way," teammate and interpreter Christian Valenzuela said. "He was in the front with about 300 meters to go and that was all he needed."

Rodriguez, known as "Fast Freddie" in the cycling world, is one of the top sprinters in any peloton he joins. After laying low for about 45 minutes, Rodriguez and Rock Racing began forming their leadout group of cyclists.

The Rock Racing crew, aiming primarily for a stage win here rather than an overall victory at the Tour of Utah, had its eye on chasing down and beating the powerful Garmin-Chipotle train that was six riders strong at times.

"He was really smart," Rodriguez said of Escuela. "He waited for us to make our moves. We had a guy go with about 500 left and he opened a little gap. I saw (Escuela) jump with about 400 and got past him with about 300 left. With a rider like that, it's really hard. To chase with a guy that has a quick snap like that is tough to do."

Placing second in the stage was not a disappointment for Rodriguez. The former Giro d'Italia stage winner woke up feeling ill with a stomach virus, he said, and considered dropping out of the race.

"In all, not even thinking I would be racing when I got up this morning, I can't be anything but pleased with how things went," he said. "I think it was a really strong race for us."