Bauer surprises sprinters in Provo

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Jack Bauer of the British Endura Racing Team claimed victory on stage 2 of the Tour of Utah, topping Liquigas-Cannondale's Italian sprint sensation Elia Viviani and young speedster Jake Keough (UnitedHealthCare) in Provo.

The 26-year-old former New Zealand road champion jumped inside the final kilometre and opened up enough of a gap to hold off the chasing sprinters. UnitedHealthcare had two riders leading out Keough, but he was unable to fend off Viviani in a photo-finish bike throw to the line.

"It wasn't really a sprint," Bauer said. "We had Scott Thwaites as our designated sprinter and we tried to set him up but in the final corner, before the last kilometre, myself and Alex Wetterhall opened a big gap off the front and I went with a kilometre to go. The wind was right, I took the corner fast, and had a clean run to the end."

Keough was disappointed not to take the stage win after his UnitedHealthcare team did much of the work to control the race for a bunch sprint. "The team did a good job today and it was our goal to make it a bunch sprint. We ended up chasing the first break back a little earlier than we thought, chased [the second one] back again and caught it with five kilometers to go."

However, things didn't go as planned coming into the final kilometer as two crashes disrupted the lead-out trains; one with 7km to go and another with 4km remaining, taking out one of the team's main motors. "Then someone let a gap open in the last two corners and Förster had to go really early," Keough said.

Race leader Sergio Henao (Gobernacion de Antioquia) held onto the yellow jersey, despite a late-race scare when he was caught behind a crash outside the 3km protected zone.

"I'm very happy to stay in the yellow jersey, because I feel like the team has worked hard for me and I feel the responsibility to carry the yellow jersey," Henao said.

He knows he has his work cut out in the 14.5km time trial tomorrow, where he will face a strong challenge from both Levi Leipheimer and his RadioShack teammate Janez Brajkovic, but he hopes to limit his losses on the flat, technical course.

"I know tomorrow is a hard day for me, because Leipheimer is a very good time trialer, but the race doesn't finish tomorrow, it finishes Sunday on a hard stage. So I will try to keep it close in the time trial."

The day was not without incident for his Colombian team, as the field split in the feed zone and he found himself on the wrong end of the gap and then in the final 10km he was caught up in a crash.

"I had picked up my feed bag and we looked up and saw the bunch had split into three groups. There was a little bit of a panic, but the team got together and worked hard to bring me back, so it didn't end up being a problem.

"Coming into the finish I went down in the crash and I was a bit nervous because I thought it was so close to the finish, I might not make it back in, but I got up fast and got back to the group with 3km to the finish."

One rider who was not so lucky was the morning's Utah Rider classification leader, Tyler Wren (Jamis-Sutter Home), who lost the dark blue jersey to BMC's Jeff Louder after getting caught in one of the tangles.

On the only truly flat stage of the six day race, the real competition was for the sprinter's jersey, with Roman Van Uden hoping to add to his tally of 10 points gained on the first stage breakaway.

The PureBlack rider slipped into the early breakaway and succeeded in gaining five points at the first sprint bonus, but when his move was reeled in before the second intermediate sprint, he was tied with stage 1 winner Jesse Anthony (Kelly Benefit Strategies-OptumHealth) on points.

However, the young Kiwi managed to sprint into the top 10 and gain enough points in the finish to move into the lead in the sprint classification.

"We had a good time gap at 50k, but we had a good headwind and started getting reeled in," Van Uden said. "I picked up the first sprint, but some teams started riding pretty solid at the front and they caught us ... I was pretty disappointed to come to the bunch and not get to contest the second sprint, but the second part of the stage thinned out the bunch enough I was able to get the jersey."

How it unfolded

It was another scorcher at the Tour of Utah as the 116 riders remaining in the race set out for a quick 159.6km dash from Lehi to Provo, on a largely flat, wind-swept stage around Utah Lake.

With the sprint jersey up for grabs, the pace was hot from the start as the sprinters and the teams who have lost ground on the overall classification fought for the remaining scraps.

The first rider to attack was Jay Thomson (Bissell), yesterday's most aggressive rider, who put in his bid from the first kilometer. He was quickly reeled in, and while more groups tried to get clear, including Jeremy Vennell (Bissell), Luis Crosby (PureBlack) and Will Dugan (Team Type 1-Sanofi), the day's breakaway was not let go until 20km into the stage.

Seven riders made the move, including Philip Deingan (RadioShack), Danny Pate (HTC-Highroad), Dugan, Francois Parisien (Spidertech-C10), Roman Van Uden (PureBlack) and Javier Acevedo (Gobernacion de Antioquia), who gained a maximum lead of 3:20 on the field.

The composition served two purposes: for Van Uden it was an opportunity to gain important points toward the sprinter's jersey after he scored 10 points from the stage 1 breakaway. Secondly, the presence of Acevdeo took pressure off the team of the overall race leader Henao to work to control the move.

Van Uden claimed the first intermediate sprint bonus and the Colombian team was able to sit on as the Liquigas, Jamis-Sutter Home and UnitedHealthcare teams controlled the race for the bunch sprint, however the gap began to fall after the first sprint point, and was down to 1:30 at the line.

"It was a surprise they didn't let us get more of a gap," Deignan said. "We were going hard and only got a lead of two or three minutes. Normally on a stage like this they'll wait to catch you until 5 or 10km to go."

The breakaway's chances were finally doomed when Realcyclist's contender Francisco Mancebo pushed the pace through the feed zone and succeeded in shutting down the breakaway with still 85km left to race, and split the field with the attack which was launched as the peloton was collecting its lunch.

As the course twisted and turned through the crosswinds, the field was put under more pressure by a counter-attack from Chad Beyer (BMC), who gained 15 seconds on the field, with the race leader, Henao, still chasing behind.

Another rider who was caught out in the split was Leipheimer, according to Deignan, who helped to close down the gaps to the groups ahead.

An important attack of four riders followed, with Oscar Sevilla (Gobernacion) included along with Albert Torres (Geox-TMC), Rob Britton (Bissell) and Timothy Gudsell (PureBlack) tagging along.

The presence of the second placed rider on GC up the road spurred a furious chase. and as the race turned into a tailwind section the peloton at last came back together for a brief respite before the second intermediate sprint.

Before the sprint, a three-rider group escaped with Mike Creed (Kelly Benefit Strategies), John Anderson (Endura) and Gudsell (PureBlack) able to fight for the time bonuses and points on offer

Anderson took the maximum points ahead of Creed and Gudsell, and the trio started to pull out an advantage of 1:45, but then the lead stalled and slowly began to fall.

"In hindsight it wasn't the best move," Creed said. "We thought it would be a tailwind when we got around the lake because it had been a headwind earlier. When we went, it was at the bottom of a climb and then over the top we had a fast descent and a tailwind, and we got pretty excited - we got up to two minutes so quickly that we thought we had a chance.

"But then it seemed like the entire last 50km were a one per cent uphill and headwind. You have to try, though. The move was as silly as Jesse's yesterday, and he ended up winning the stage."

The last chance trio wasn't quite as lucky, as first Gudsell went back to the peloton and then Anderson attacked in the final 10km in an attempt to steal the most aggressive rider's award.

"I thought if I could get over that climb with 6km to go I could win the stage or most aggressive jersey," Anderson said. He didn't get the stage, but he did win the most combative award.

Just as Anderson came back, some confusion over the course direction caused a large pile-up with 7km to go, and then 3km later another tangle took down several riders. The crashes caused the race leader as well as other general classification contenders to have to chase.

As riders struggled to get back on, HTC-Highroad's Tejay van Garderen launched a solo attack in a bid to take the stage victory, but he too was brought back in just outside the final kilometer.

While he did not get the stage win he desired, he did keep the best young rider's jersey for another day. "Best young rider is a good result but I've been there before. I haven't gotten a win yet and I'm not going to be happy until I do that," Van Garderen said.

"I thought I had a chance when I went. There was a little bit of a riser and people were going backwards. It looked like everyone was suffering and I had a little bit left in the tank. Once the guys get organized there is not much you can do. But, I was hoping things would get a little disorganized."

The UnitedHealthcare and Liquigas teams pulled themselves together to deliver their sprinters to the line, but instead it was the Endura riders who wound up on the front at just the right moment.

"All day Liquigas and UnitedHealthcare were pulling because they had to two best guys in the bunch," Bauer said. "That worked to our advantage because they seemed pretty tired at the end. With a kilometre and half to go we got our boys on the front and opened it up pretty easy. The group caught Tejay just before the final corner."

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