Philip Deignan climbs with best in world class field for top result at Tour of Utah

Philip Deignan piles the pressure on during Saturday's stage 5 of the Tour of Utah, with eventual stage winner Chris Horner on the back of the small group (Photo: Jonathan Devich)

Philip Deignan’s pronounced return to form in 2013 has continued unabated, with the Irishman taking 6^th overall in the Tour of Utah when it ended in Park City yesterday, Sunday.

In a field featuring a world class field that included Orica GreenEdge, Garmin-Sharp, Radioshack-Leopard, Cannondale and BMC, Deignan climbed with the very best as he has done every time this year to bag the kind of result that has well and truly confirmed a marvelous return to form this season.

The opening stage of six last Tuesday, a 179km stage into Cedar City, was won by Greg Van Avermaet (BMC) in a bunch sprint, with Deignan coming home on the same time as the winner in 51^st place.

The following day’s stage 2 was the longest in the race, a 210km trek finishing in Torrey, which again ended in a sprint and was won by Australian Michael Matthews (Orica-GreenEdge), with Deignan finishing 42^nd in the bunch.

Stage 3 was a summit finish at Payson after 191km and was won by Lachlan Morton, with the Garmin Sharp riding bridging very late in the day from a select group to the remains of the early breakaway and taking the stage win, not to mention the yellow jersey from Matthews.

In the first sign that he had lost none of the climbing form he has demonstrated all season, Deignan was 8^th on the stage in a 20-man group of main favourites that came home 34 seconds behind the victor.

Stage 4 was a 54km criterium in Salt Lake City won by Matthews. Deignan finished 23^rd in the same time as the winner and crucially managed to avoid a time split in the bunch just behind him that cost those riders just a few lengths back some 11 seconds.

The penultimate stage 5 on Saturday saw the quality field tackle three categorized climbs on the 183km queen stage from Snowbasin to Snowbird, with Chris Horner of Radioshack-Loepard taking the win and the yellow jersey.

Again, Deignan was in the mix as the race blew to pieces in the climbs and he was to finish in 7^th place in the stage, some seconds down on the veteran American winner. That result put the Unitedhealthcare Irishman into 6^th overall, 58 seconds off yellow.

The final stage yesterday, Sunday, was another very lumpy affair, with the field again splitting to pieces on the 126km stage finishing in Park City, with the final climb up Empire Pass proving decisive.

Francisco Mancebo (5-hour Energy/Kenda) won the stage after he had spent most of the day in the 15-man escape that went clear just 15km in to the race. Just behind the remains of that breakaway was the battle for overall victory, with Garmin-Sharp’s Tom Danielson dropping race leader Horner and gaining enough time to win the race outright.

Deignan finished 7^th on the stage; in a group of six riders containing yellow jersey Horner that finished 1:29 down on Mancebo and 1:25 down on the flying Danielson.

That left the Irishman in 6^th place overall, 2:27 down on Danielson for what was perhaps his best result on the 2013 season which has heralded a massive returning to climbing form for him and will hopefully see him in Grand Tour contention again next year.