Howes shows how it's done

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Alex Howes (Felt-Holowesko Partners-Garmin) further proved his pedigree with a win atop the Snow Bird Ski Resort, the biggest win of his young career. The double national title holder attacked his breakaway companions near the base of the final climb and outpaced Burke Swindlehurst (Bissell) and overall race leader, Francisco Mancebo (Rock Racing), who overcame a five-minute deficit to capture third place.

"This is a huge win, the biggest in my career," said Howes. "It's hard to believe. I can't tell you the last time that I cried but I was close. I hope it's a sign of better things to come. It's an incredibly talented field and coming into today I didn't think I had a shot."

Swindlehurst, a Salt Lake City native had eyed the Snow Bird stage win for a long time coming. He thanked his teammates for enormous support during the lengthy kilometres that prior to the finale. "I was really dreaming of winning today and to come so close was really disappointing to be honest," said Swindlehurst. "Hey, you can't win them all."

Mancebo's monstrous effort was vital in preserving his overall lead. The Spaniard heads into tomorrow's fifth and final stage with 46 seconds' advantage over Darren Lill (Team Type 1) and 1'29" on Jeff Louder (BMC) with Howes now jumping into fourth place, having started the stage in 14th. "The only intention we had today was to keep the yellow jersey," said Mancebo.

"My teammates did well today and worked a lot. [Glen] Chadwick came back from the break to help me for one or two kilometres on the climb. There is still one more stage. I've never been afraid to lose this jersey. I've won a lot of races and raced for a lot of teams."

A break of eight riders entered Little Cottonwood Canyon's long road up to the finish line after nearly 140km off the front and what seemed like an eternity. The front runners included Howes and Swindlehurst along with Ben Jacques-Maynes (Bissell), Glen Chadwick (Rock racing), Dan Bowman (Kelly Benefit Strategies), Andy Guptill (Colavita-Sutter Home), Ian McGregor (Team Type 1) and Ben King (Fly V. Australia).

A lead in excess of five minutes allowed room for tactics, although it didn't amount to much when considering the climbing specialists on the hunt behind. Jacques-Maynes was the first to make a solo move that gave Swindlehurst room to recover further back. Howes was the next to go, in a 'faux attack' to gauge who would chase. To his surprise, he got the gap and rode away with it.

"I was frustrated with the way everyone was working because I knew if we kept going at that speed we were going to get caught," said Howes. "I put in a teaser attack; this guy's was handing out hot dogs, I took a bite of one and jumped and kept going. I think they thought I was joking around. Once I got a gap I kept going."

Swindlehurst tried desperately to stay within reach of the young talent; he couldn't reel him in before the top however, as Bowman and Chadwick settled into a rhythm not far behind. "Burke is an incredible rider and I have more respect for that guy than just about anyone else in the peloton," said Howes. "Honestly, I felt kind of bad beating him today because this is his hometown race but, I'm not going to give away any presents."

Brent Bookwalter (BMC) and Oscar Sevilla (Rock Racing) took their turns leading out their respective GC riders Louder and Mancebo. Dave Zabriskie (DZ Nuts) took a short-lived flyer that resulted in Mancebo's counter attacks. Chadwick received instructions to sit up and wait for his leading teammate, Mancebo, who was quickly gaining time on the other overall contenders.

"I attacked about five kilometres at the bottom of the climb," said Mancebo. "Lill was very strong and I needed to watch him. It was a difficult climb and I didn't know it before but it turned out good for me. I went as hard as I could to make time for the yellow jersey."

Utah's queen stage turns it on

Five-time Olympic gold medallist-turned-professional cyclist, Eric Heiden sent the field off on what was billed as the Tour of Utah's 'queen' stage - 155km that featured two decisive intermediate climbs and one leg-shattering finale.

The field completed three neutral circuits around Park City and set off on course riding up and over HWY 40, a wide open climb up to the Jordanelle Reservoir. Rock Racing reeled in a number of short lived breakaways until the right combination just seemed to ride away with ease.

The break included three Bissell teammates: Swindlehurst, Jacques-Maynes and Jeremy Vennell, the New Zealand time trial champion. The three established the time gap while riders Howes, Bowman, Guptill, King and McGregor awaited their turn to pull. Rock Racing's Chadwick had a free-ticket to sit on, absolved of work duties because his teammates and race leader, Mancebo was back in the field.

Jacques-Maynes was placed highest overall, sitting just over three minutes behind Mancebo. He and Vennell's selfless work ethic drove the breakaway away demonstrated that Bissell's plan was to support Swindlehurst in a desperately-wanted stage win.

"Those guys absolutely slaughtered themselves for me," said Swindlehurst. "I feel terrible that I couldn't come through for them today. It was great that we had a plan and it worked out to have three of us in the break. I've never seen anyone ride like the way those guys rode for me today."

The breakaway started the first climb up the Alpine Loop with an astonishing nine-minute lead. BMC punched it into the bottom of the climb, bringing the gap down fast. They caught a group of three riders who had been chasing for some time - Ryan and Kevin Noiles and Nic Hamilton - relatively quickly and continued a fast-paced tempo over the top.

"We knew that it was going to be a big call for all those guys to make it to the finish," said Mike Sayers, BMC directeur sportif, who did not have a rider in the front move. "Credit to all those guys because they rode really fantastic to make it. We were going to put pressure on the climb and we had those guys where we wanted them. As we got off the climb the group split. There was some misdirection that went against us but at the end of the day we got to the climb with our two best guys."

Being alert was, in part, the name of the game today as riders occasionally found themselves close to civilian traffic or uncertain of course directions. Most notably a crash amongst the front of the peloton caused a split of seven heavy-hitting GC contenders to roll off the front on the technical descent off of the Alpine Loop.

Anthony Colby (Colavita-Sutter Home) and Jonathan Baker (KFAN) retired from the race due to the crash while Chris Baldwin (OUCH p/b Maxxis) and Oscar Sevilla also fell but were able to get back in the race.

The seven riders included Mancebo, Louder, Bookwalter, Lill, Zabriskie, Floyd Landis and Pat McCarty (OUCH p/b Maxxis) who continued to gain time on the field in pursuit of the race leaders. They missed a poorly-marked right hand turn and continued straight through an intersection. Salt Lake City native, Jeff Louder redirected the group back on course where they rejoined the regrouped peloton.

"I got there right as they had gone off course," said Sayers. "They got to a race intersection and there was no course marshal, no one to tell them where to go," said Sayers. "That was what we wanted and I think we could have made something of that. But that's racing and sometimes the breaks go your way and sometimes they don't."

After some discussion, race officials jury concluded that the deviation was a 'mere race incident' and that no compensation or time adjustments would be made. They added that it was the riders' responsibility to know the course and the distance that they travelled off course was similar to that taken by the other riders and did not constitute an advantage.