Louder takes victory from Crawford as climbers dominate criterium

Jeff Louder (BMC Racing) captured a solo victory in one of the most brutal hilly criteriums held on American soil at the Tour of Utah’s stage four in Park City. Jai Crawford (Fly V Australia) took second place after he out-paced defending champion Francisco Mancebo (Canyon Bicycles) to the line.

“Today I had my thoughts on Terry McGinnis, who was one of my best friends and we trained together for years,” said Louder, who dedicated his win to the late Terry McGinnis, executive director of the Tour of Utah. “He would always go out and ride with me no matter what kind of conditions. Once I was out there today and I had a chance I felt like I really had him with me. It meant a lot out there and I was thinking of Terry.”

Levi Leipheimer (Mellow Johnny’s) maintains his overall race lead heading into the fifth and final ‘queen’ stage, which ends with a lengthy climb to the top of the Snowbird Ski Resort.

“Today the course was hard so all I had to do was watch a couple of guys and it was possible to do by myself,” Leipheimer said. “Tomorrow, of course, I am going to follow the top guys on the general classification but I can’t follow everybody. I would expect a group to go away and the race will blow open. We might see an early breakaway gain like 10 minutes and end up winning the stage and the overall.”

Mancebo is currently leading the event’s King of the Mountain competition, David Tanner (Fly V Australia) tops the event’s best sprinter category, Darren Lill (Fly V Australia) is the best Utah rider and Ian Boswell (Bissell) is ahead in the best young rider.

Louder makes Utah proud

Louder capitalised on his altitude training and course reconnaissance during his BMC Racing team training camp held in Park City a week prior to the start of the Tour of Utah. The crowds went wild when Louder, a Salt Lake City native, jumped ahead of the field roughly two-thirds into professional men’s 75-minute criterium and gained a sizable 60-second lead in the closing laps.

“I would say that my directeur Mike Sayers was freaking out from the first lap I was away and he really motivated me the whole way,” Louder said. “When I had five laps to go and I still had a minute, I knew, unless they were really saving something big at the end, that I had a pretty good chance.

“I have to thank the fans today because that was insane,” he added. “That was the biggest wall of sound I’ve ever heard and the biggest crowd I ever won in front of, that’s for sure. I was amazed at the number of people cheering for me. Without the crowd today I don’t know how I would have done it. It softened the hill a little bit.”

Crawford made his bid for second place by attacking the field on the climb with two laps to go. He was nearly caught at the finish line my Mancebo, who leaped out of the peloton on the last lap hoping to gain a small amount of time on Leipheimer.

“Today was very hard and there were so many attacks…I tried,” Mancebo said. “I tried and Darren Lill tried, we didn’t gain time during the race. I tried more time and was able to get second place but not too much time. I’m more than a minute back and that is a lot of time in the overall. Tomorrow is hard and there is an opportunity to win for me. I hope to win.”

What was left of the peloton muscled up the final climb several seconds behind Mancebo in a bunch sprint for fourth place won by Davide Frattini (Team Type 1).

A brutal climb, a fast descent and a strong man

The Tour of Utah’s penultimate stage four was a brand-new criterium course at Park City. The extensive amount of climbing suited to the climbers, with a hilly 1.6-kilometre circuit held in the historical downtown area. The peloton lined up at the starting line located a third of the way up the lengthy ascent on the straight away.

“It was a very tough course and you could feel the altitude, it was very tough,” Leipheimer said. “I feel a little embarrassed to be getting a lot of the cheers out there because these other guys here are doing a great race. The field here deserves a lot of those cheers. But I appreciate it for sure.”

Riders called to the line included Salt Lake City native Burke Swindlehurst (KFAN Composite-Teamgive), Lill and Louder. Other riders worthy of a call up included Boswell and Tanner, Alex Dowsett and time trial winner Taylor Phinney (Trek-Livestrong) and Phil Zajicek (Fly V Australia).

“I don’t do a lot of criteriums, so I just tried to stay at the front for most of the race and stay out of trouble,” Leipheimer said. “I had to watch Lill and Mancebo and they were both very aggressive. I had to jump a lot of times after them. It’s not really my forte to jump like that but fortunately it turned out.”

Dowsett was the first to strike an attack at the base of the climb on the first lap, some 100 metres into the professional men’s 75 minute criterium. The race was reduced by 15 minutes from its pre-scheduled 90-minute time due to warnings of extremely warm temperatures.

Phinney was the next to go on the ascent followed by Mancebo and Pat McCarty (Team Rio Grande). With Mancebo sitting in second place overall the group’s efforts were short-lived as the break was pulled back after one lap by some of the higher placed general classification contenders. Frattini counter attacked and rode solo ahead of the field for four laps. He was joined by Lachlan Morton (Holowesko Partner) and Phinney, but the trio were again reeled back quickly.

Louder put forth a massive effort in what turned out to be the most significant move of the race. He separated himself from the peloton and gained 15 second almost immediately. A chase group followed that included Phinney, Alex Hagman (On The Rivet), Tanner and Jeremy Vennell (Bissell), who joined the chase later on.

“The guys were all hitting each other trying to test each other,” Louder said. “A couple of laps before I saw Phinney go and I thought that the field wouldn’t worry about me. I didn’t want to be the guy that gets caught flat-footed when someone else gets a gap and no one chases. It was early but I thought if I could go out and ride my own rhythm then I had a chance.”

The course catered to a solo breakaway because of its fast descent and cagey figure-eight at the bottom of the circuit. Louder shot out at the base of the ascent and further distanced himself from the main field on each lap. He gained a maximum of 60 seconds as he lapped the majority of dropped riders and stragglers on the way to through the final laps. One rider of note was top 10 in the overall Rory Sutherland (UnitedHealthcare-Maxxis) who fell ill two days ago.

Burke Swindlehurst made a powerful attack during the closing laps of the race. However, with the exception of Louder, all chase groups were brought back into the field from a tempo set by overall contenders Mancebo and Lill along with riders on the hunt for a podium placing.

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