James Piccoli`s day went from bad to worse Tuesday at the Larry H. Miller Tour of Utah. After losing the yellow jersey by six seconds during stage 1, he was then docked 20 seconds for drafting behind his team car after suffering a puncture just before the start of the final finishing circuit. The Elevate-KHS rider started the day in yellow after winning the opening prologue time trial at Snowbird Resort on Monday. His team then rode the front all day on stage 1, keeping the breakaway in check, but things went awry when the race leader punctured, burned up his teammates trying to get back to the field and then was unable to cover attacks from new race leader Lawson Craddock (EF Education First) in the final 5km. Piccoli finished the stage in the main bunch, six seconds behind the Craddock group, getting knocked from first to second in the initial results. When the UCI commissaires` communique came out, however, he had been docked the time and slipped to 13th overall, 26 seconds behind Craddock.ADVERTISEMENT Elevate-KHS manager Paul Abrams told Cyclingnews Tuesday evening that the team was `highly disappointed` in the commissaires` decision. `James will use this as fuel,` Abrams said. `We changed his bike, then got him to the back of the convoy. He was behind our car for 10 seconds, and then you never saw us again.` Although such instances are commonplace in cycling, Abrams and the Elevate-KHS car had the misfortunate to be going through the stage`s start/finish area in North Logan City when Piccoli was following the car`s bumper.
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