AUGUST 18, 2010

Salt Lake City, UT – The first road stage of the Larry H. Miller Tour of Utah was one that UnitedHealthcare Pro Cycling Team Presented by Maxxis Directeur Sportif Gord Fraser called “underrated.”

“It has two good climbs, and with the heat today, it proved to be a hard one,” he said.

In the end, a comfortable looking Rory Sutherland of UnitedHealthcare Presented by Maxxis took 6th on the stage to maintain his 4th overall position, with the duo of Alex Dowsett (Trek-Livestrong) and David Tanner (V AustralIa) slipping off the front on the second climb of the day and holding a gap to the line to battle for the stage win.

“Both of those guys had a prize waiting for them on the line so once they got the gap, the didn’t play any games,” Fraser said.

For Tanner, the prize was the stage win. For Dowsett, it was the race lead after taking 2nd to teammate Taylor Phinney in yesterday’s prologue.

“It turned out to be an interesting, tactical stage,” Fraser noted.

In fact, things got interesting fairly quickly, on the first main climb of the day. The heat and the pace took its toll, helping to create a split of 20 riders that got off the front on the ascent. Chris Baldwin and Max Jenkins of UnitedHealthcare Presented by Maxxis both made the split, putting the Team in a good position.

“We wanted to try and get Chris or Marc (de Maar) in a move like that with Max or Morgan (Schmitt) or Tim (Johnson),” Fraser said. “But I think the break was too big. There were too many passengers and not enough commitment amongst the guys, so they didn’t work well together. I think if that group had committed to work for 20 or 30 minutes, that might have been the race right there.”

Instead, the Canyon Bicycles team of last year’s Utah winner Francesco Mancebo put in a strong effort to bring back that move, and once the main bunch hit the slopes of the second climb the group was back, but another move went on that ascent.

This time, it was Tanner along with Davide Frattini (Team Type 1) and Ben Jacques-Maynes (Bissell) going off, with Dowsett bridging up with teammate Ben King.

Only Dowsett and Tanner survived at the front over the top, taking a 1:10 gap into the descent toward the finish. UnitedHealthcare Presented by Maxxis put Jenkins and Schmitt on the front to chase along with riders from BMC and Holowesko Partners. The gap came down, but with the duo up front committed to getting to the line, they were able to hold a 0:26 gap to the front group, which numbered 49 by the end. Sutherland, de Maar, Schmitt and Jenkins were all safely ensconced in that group.

“The guys rode a very good race today under tough conditions,” Fraser said. “The heat was definitely a factor. We ran out of bottles in the car mid-stage and had to stop to re-stock the cooler at the second feed zone. The conditions tomorrow should be just as challenging. But we have Rory looking good, and Marc will keep getting better as the week goes along. And Max and Morgan are both showing good form. Tomorrow’s finishing climb up to Mt. Nebo should eliminate some more guys and make the GC picture a bit clearer.”

That finishing climb, at 15 miles and over 4,000 feet of vertical gain topping off at around 9,300 feet of elevation, is arguably the longest, and certainly one of the hardest finishing climbs of any race in the NRC series. It comes at the end of an otherwise flat 78-mile stage.

Photo: Jonathan Devich, Epic Images

Print | posted on Wednesday, August 18, 2010 12:00 AM