Rob Britton (Rally Cycling) may have lost nearly two minutes in the Tour of Utah`s first GC mountain test on Wednesday during stage 2, but the 2017 overall champion was back on the attack on Thursday in a breakaway that made it inside 10km of the finish. Britton struggled to stay with the leaders during Wednesday`s climb over Mount Nebo and the ensuing descent to Payson for the finish, eventually coming in 15th on the day and losing 1:49 to stage winner and new overall leader Sepp Kuss (LottoNL-Jumbo). Rally`s Kyle Murphy finished third on the stage and is fifth overall heading into stage 4. Britton simply didn`t have the legs to stay with the GC group on Wednesday as they tried in vain to chase down Kuss. It was a different story on Thursday, though, when he made it into a 10-rider break that held the peloton at bay until Britton and UnitedHealthcare`s Jonny Clarke escaped the group on the five finishing circuits in Layton and almost stole one from the sprinters.ADVERTISEMENT The escape came up just short, however, as the peloton swept up Britton and Clarke on the penultimate lap, with UnitedHealthcare`s Travis McCabe taking the stage victory. `I wish I`d had these legs yesterday,` Britton said in the post-stage press conference. `It wasn`t really the plan for me to be in the break, but I felt great, so we were up there with about 10 or 11 of us,` he said. `It was very, very disorganised for most of the day, so we were just `putting` along there.`
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