Tour Of Utah Stage 5: Queen Stage

It's been building to this.  101 miles, 10,000 feet of climbing, 4 plus hours in the saddle through four Utah counties and a handful of towns and cities.  Today saw Jeff Louder (BMC Racing) attempt to claim a second stage in his home race.  Louder set out early in a strong break away with Mike Olheiser (Canyon (Bicycles), Peter Latham and Frank Pipp (Bissell), Jeff Louder (BMC Racing), Sidney Taberlay (California Giant), Ian Gray and Taylor Kneuven (Rio Grande), Chris Jones and Thomas Rabou (Team Type 1), Chris Baldwin and Max Jenkins (UnitedHealthcare p/b Maxxis), Darren Rolfe and David Tanner (Fly V Australia), Ben King, Alex Dowsett and Taylor Phinney (Trek-Livestrong) and Andrew Barker, Caleb Fairly and Danny Summerhill (Holowesko Partners). This group eventually held a 2:20 lead over the main field.  Marc de Maar and Jai Crawford bridged to this group and they headed up the Alpine Scenic Loop to the first KOM.  The big group disintegrated on the run up to the summit and by the time the riders emerged from American Fork Canyon on the other side it was Louder, Rolfe, Crawford, Ben King, Chris Jones and de Maar headed over Suncrest and into the mouth of Little Cottonwood Canyon.

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Full results

Behind the breakaway group, Levi Leipheimer, Francisco Mancebo and the remainder of the field made inroads on the lead built up over the course of the day.  At the bottom of the canyon, Crawford put in a hard acceleration.  De Maar matched it and the two rode a solid tempo for two to three km up the ramp to Snowbird.  Louder found that his tanks were empty from his solo romp in Park City on Saturday night and faltered, slowly falling adrift of the leaders.  Behind them a battle between Leipheimer and Mancebo ate into the 1 minute gap the break had held at the base of the climb.  Levi slowly ground out tempo, passing the rements of the break scattered down the road.  By this time Crawford had shaken de Maar and was riding solo toward his destination.  Levi closed that gap and with 500 meters to go, the two came together.  Crawford was able to make a small recovery behind Leipheimer, and had just enough in the legs to cross the line in front of a gracious Leipheimer, who with the race win solidly in his possession granted Crawford his first stage win in the states.  On the road Mancebo held his pace and finished third on the day. 

The final race standings look like this:

Stage 5:

The Final GC:

Podium Cafe favorites Phil Zajicek and Brent Bookwalter finished 16 and 20 respectively. That's a wrap on this years Tour Of Utah. See in a couple of months for cyclocross.