Tour of Utah: Piccoli pulls surprise podium result at Snowbasin

James Piccoli probably did not make many lists of riders who could potentially put in a podium performance in the Tour of Utah's first summit finish. The 25-year-old Canadian was only recently called up by US Continental team Elevate-KHS.

But there he was on the podium at Snowbasin Resort after having finished third behind BMC Racing's Brent Bookwalter and Rally Cycling's Sepp Kuss. Piccoli's team rode the front on the lead-up to the climb, putting the rider in position with his bigger-named rivals on the final 12km ascent.

Not intimidated, Piccoli actually went on the attack in the final kilometre, countering a move by Rally's Adam de Vos and opening a small gap before Bookwalter and Kuss passed him.

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"I was hoping for 50 more metres, but I just got passed at the line," Piccoli said. "Brent rode super well to bring me back in the last part of the race. My team set me up as best they could. I think we surprised a lot of guys in the peloton, going to the front. So the team support was huge for me today and certainly helped a lot."

The support Piccoli gets from his new team goes beyond riding for him in races and moving him to the front at the bottom of climbs. Mechanicals derailed his chances in two races this year, and Elevate director Paul Abrahams said he wanted to find out what Piccoli was capable of in a professional team.

"Every year we look for young and exciting talent, and we saw him at Redlands," Abrahams said. "He finished really strong on Oak Glen, and actually at Tour of the Gila this year he was in a breakaway on the last day and was in the yellow jersey on the road, and then he had a mechanical issue and it knocked him out of the race.

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