Crawford climbs to final stage victory

Jai Crawford (Fly V Australia) ended his Stateside season with his first victory of the year atop the Snowbird Ski Resort, the fifth and final stage of the Larry H Miller Tour of Utah. After a tactical battle up the climb, Levi Leipheimer (Mellow Johnny's) took second ahead of Francisco Mancebo (Canyon Bicycles), who rounded out the day's podium.

"This is actually my first win of the year and I'm headed back to Australia tomorrow," said Crawford. "Levi caught me with 500 metres to go and I got on his wheel. I was able to recover a little bit there.

"We all know that Levi is an incredible bike rider and he won this tour without a team. I don't think he was super concerned about the stage. On the day, I did a good ride and crossed the line first. I'm really happy with that."

Leipheimer captured the Tour of Utah title despite not having any teammates to support him during the six-stage event. He moved into the leader's jersey after stage two and maintained that lead through the fifth and final stage. His victory came ahead of last year's winner, Mancebo, who finished second and young Ian Boswell (Bissell) in third.

"The fact that the whole week was a hard profile, hard course, took away a lot of tactics and played into my favour," Leipheimer explained. "Today I was able to control a little bit on the climbs and you're not really giving anyone a free ride."

It was Leipheimer's first time participating in the Tour of Utah and he acknowledged that one main reason was the memory of his friend, the late Terry McGinnis. McGinnis, the former executive director, passed away after a two-year battle with colon cancer in October last year.

"Terry and I had some fantastic rides together and every day this week I remember more and more how much it meant to me because that was a period of my life where I was just getting going in cycling," said Leipheimer.

"That was a very decisive period in my career and to have a training partner like that really motivated me. I think the Tour of Utah and the riders owe a big thank you to Terry and I do as well. I think it is fair to say that this race is his legacy."

Crawford succeeds atop Little Cottonwood

A six-man move made it to the base of Little Cottonwood, the Tour of Utah's final ascent to the finish line on top of the Snowbird Ski Resort. Those men included Crawford and his teammate Darren Rolfe (Fly V Australia), Ben King (Trek-Livestrong), Chris Jones (Team Type 1), Marc De Maar (UnitedHealthcare p/b Maxxis) and Jeff Louder (BMC Racing).

Crawford put in a timely attack at the base of the climb and was quickly followed by De Maar. The pair of seasoned climbers stretched their legs by setting a fast pace for nearly two kilometres. Rolfe was the first to fall off the pace, followed by Jones, Louder and eventually King. Crawford opened up the door to a solo victory mid-climb when he increased his speed and dropped De Maar.

"We worked together when we were away but it was incredibly windy at the bottom of the last climb," Crawford explained. "We just shared turns and eventually I rode away from him. It was a really tough stage. I went my own pace and tried to ride a good tempo, knowing that Levi was coming.

"I thought perhaps I could get there but the time was steadily coming down and there was nothing I could do about it. I just had to keep riding as hard as I could and I was in a world of pain."

The peloton entered the base of the ascent two minutes behind the leaders on the road; a tactical battle between Leipheimer and Mancebo saw that gap close drastically in the last kilometre of the race, however.

"It was a really hard day," said Mancebo. "My team worked really well today and it was a little dangerous with some riders in the break. I worked a lot today and I'm just happy that I could get a podium. Leipheimer was very strong on the climb. I'm happy with second place because I did a ten-day race before this and I'm a bit tired."

Leipheimer kicked the pace up a notch and rode away from Mancebo to close the distance to Crawford with 500 metres to go but it was Crawford who crossed the line first, while Leipheimer cemented his overall race win.

"When it was just Paco [Mancebo] and I on the climb left, I thought well now I have to go," Leipheimer said. "He did all the work and I didn't want to accelerate on him because he pulled for like 20 kilometres... but at the same time, I didn't know exactly who was up the road or how many guys. There was no race radio and the gap was two minutes.

"I knew that Jai was three or so minutes back so I wanted to be safe," he added. "It's better to be safe than sorry. I went my pace to close the gap. When I caught him, I was safe, I was going to win the overall race; I had done a big effort to get there but there was no denying the fact that he earned the stage more than me. I think it would have been wrong to sprint him for the win."

Small field tackles big stage in the Wasatch Mountain Range

This year's overall winner would emerge from a fifth and final 'queen' stage, the longest and most challenging course of the week, with 164km of mountainous terrain that ended with a lengthy ascent to the top of Snowbird Ski Resort.

The diminished and tired peloton lined up at the New Park Resort after only 86 riders of the 120 who had begun the event, survived the stage four criterium held in Park City the previous day.

A large breakaway of 16 men set sail along the undulations of a wide open climb up to the Jordanelle Reservoir. Those riders included Mike Olheiser (Canyon (Bicycles), Peter Latham and Frank Pipp (Bissell), Jeff Louder (BMC Racing), Sidney Taberlay (California Giant), Ian Gray and 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)

Defending champion Mancebo put his Canyon Bicycle teammates on the front to manage the time gap. The local team received valuable help from Fly V Australia, which protected its highest placed GC contender, Lill, in third place.

Tanner increased his lead in the sprint competition by picking up points for first ahead of Phinney at the opening intermediate sprint. Behind the breakaway, the peloton ramped up the pace to reduce the margin from 1:20 minutes to 45 seconds.

The breakaway held a steady tempo over the highway-grade climb that wrapped around Deer Lake Reservoir and dropped down into the Midway Valley headed toward Tipanoga Mountain, the highest peak in the area.

Phinney took back some points toward the sprint jersey by winning the second intermediate sprint ahead of Tanner. However it was not enough to stop Tanner from consolidating his advantage in the best sprinter's jersey.

The break's ascendancy increased to two minutes as it passed the Provo Canyon and approached the significant mid-race climb of the day up the steep rugged roads of Alpine Loop. A mix of riders from teams Canyon Bicycles, Jamis-Sutter Home and Fly V Australia set pace at the front of field, protecting their GC riders in anticipation of the daunting ascent.

"I watched for Lill, Zajicek, Mancebo and none of them were in the break," said Leipheimer. "Eventually their team would have to ride to keep their places in the GC and they did."

Dowsett and Phinney started the climb up Alpine Loop followed by Louder and the rest of the breakaway. De Maar and Crawford leaped across to the breakaway when the peloton got close enough.

"My team and Mancebo's team had guys rolling through just to keep the gap manageable," Crawford explained. "Jamis-Sutter Home put a rider on the front on the climb. I could see the break so I jumped across to it.

"De Maar was going strong, it's always good to have him there. I had two teammates in the break with Rolfe and Tanner. Rolfe got on the front and rode like a madman, he was just awesome today."

The new members of the reshuffled breakaway crested the King of the Mountain ascent by the strongest climbers Rolfe, De Maar, Jones, King, Crawford and Louder. At the bottom of the Alpine Loop descent the breakaway held steady at 1:30 minutes ahead of the peloton.

The six men passed through the second KOM point located on a highway roller at 126km, just 16km from the base of the final climb. Crawford picked up more points towards the event's best climber jersey. The small group wound its way down the long descent back into Salt Lake City where they reached the base of the Little Cottonwood ascent intact and eager to test their legs to the finish line.

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