Tanner prevails in Salt Lake City

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David Tanner (Fly V Australia) is proving to be a success when it comes to winning high-profile races, after picking up his fifth season victory at the Tour of Utah’s Stage 1. The Australian outpaced breakaway companion Alex Dowsett (Trek-Livestrong) to claim the victory, while the Briton assumed the race lead. The dwindled peloton barreled down to the finish line where Javier Megias (Team Type 1) picked up third place on the day.

“I’ve been pretty happy with the year so far because my goal was to get six wins and I have five so far,” Tanner said. “I want to get another one before I leave.

“I knew I was going well,” he added. “This year I’ve been working with my new coach Ben Day and he is bringing the best out of me. I seem to be getting better and better. Today was the fruit of the work we’ve been putting in together.”

Dowsett surpassed teammate Taylor Phinney to claim the lead, after finishing second to the American on the previous day’s prologue. Dowsett also moved into the lead of the event’s King of the Mountain and Best Young Rider competitions.

“Taylor and myself just decided as long as the yellow jersey stays in the household, then we are happy. It doesn’t matter who has it,” Dowsett said. “I think Taylor had a rough day today with a bit of an injury left over from racing in Denmark.”

Tanner has claimed the event’s sprint competition lead while Jeff Louder (BMC Racing) leads the best Utah rider competition.

Two men conquer Big Mountain, again

Dowsett and Tanner played a key role in a lengthy breakaway of six riders, which included Ben Jacques-Maynes (Bissell), Davide Frattini (Team Type 1), Phil Gaimon (Kenda-Geargrinders) and Ben King (Trek-Livestrong). The riders muscled up most of the final ascent of the day together, until Dowsett set a pace that few could match.

The finale was reminiscent of last year when Rock Racing riders Francisco Mancebo and Oscar Sevilla attacked over the crest of the final climb and rode to the finish line in pursuit of the yellow jersey. This year it was Dowsett and Tanner and although they are not teammates, they similarly went over the top of the climb together and descended down to the finish line located in Salt Lake City.

“I’m really surprised with how I was able to ride the mountains today,” Dowsett said. “To be honest, I went up the road before both climbs just to give myself a gap and not get dropped.

“I fought as hard as I could up the last climb and in the end I was with Tanner, Davide Frattini and Phil Gaimon, but we ended up dropping both at the top of the climb. I did most of the work at the top of the climb and then when we were on the descent Tanner pushed hard and he just got me at the line. He’s got a better kick than I do.”

Rising heat, altitude and mountains in stage one

The Tour of Utah headed into the mountains for the 136.31km stage from Ogden to Salt Lake City. The 142 professional men’s peloton started the day down one rider after Nathan O’Neill (On The Rivet) broke his collarbone in the previous day’s prologue.

The riders started the day in animated fashion over the first ascent through Ogden Canyon, an appetizer for the challenging two mountain passes still ahead. There was no substitute for the beautiful backdrop as the peloton passed the Pinesview Reservoir and the Wasatch Mountain Range that hovered in the distance.

The peloton barreled through Huntsville in sight of the first sprint hotspot of the day. Yellow jersey holder Phinney captured full points at the line, followed by Anibal Borrajo (Jamis-Sutter Home) and Danny Summerhill (Holowesko Partners).

The peloton entered Old Snow Basin Road chasing a small breakaway of climbers and optimists in Jeremy Vennell (Bissell), Chad Beyer (BMC Racing), Brad White (UnitedHealthcare-Maxxis), Jay Thomson (Fly V Australia) and Andrei Krasilnikay (Holowesko Partners).

The front group reshuffled to include runner up in the overall classification Dowsett and his teammate Julian Kyer, Morgan Schmitt (UnitedHealthcare-Maxxis) and Robbie Squire (Holowesko Partners). The breakaway gained more than 30-seconds before the top of the first King of the Mountain, where Kyer took top points.

Another lead group formed on the descent that included Krasilnkay, Dowsett, King, Gaimon, Franttini, Thomson, Tanner, Jacques-Maynes, Rob Britton (Bissell), Tyler Wren (Jamis-Sutter Home), Sam Johnson (Hagens Berman), Chris Baldwin (UnitedHealthcare-Maxxis), Caleb Fairly (Holowesko Partners), Valery Kobzarenko (Team Type 1) and Ian Holt (Team Rio Grande).

As the breakaway approached the rollers around East Canyon Dam, three riders jumped ahead to include Jacques-Maynes, Frattini and Tanner. The trio worked well together and gained roughly one minute ahead of the shattered remnants of the original breakaway.

“I did a lot of coasting and tucking on the descent after the first climb and the group just on splitting,” Jacques-Maynes said. “Everyone wanted to sit on and no one wanted to work very hard. I attacked again we ended up with a small group. The three of us were rolling through pretty good.”

The break swelled back up to six when Gaimon, Dowsett and King bridged back across on the final climb up Big Mountain. One by one each rider started to fall off pace until only two remained on the descent to the finish line: Dowsett and Tanner.

BMC Racing and Canyon Bicycles did much of the work to try and reduce the time to the breakaway riders. “Initially we had Beyer in the break so we didn’t chase,” Louder said. “When he came back everyone took a breather before the last feed zone and when we hit the bottom of the Beyer rode the entire mountain from bottom to top, which was really good of him.

“We got to the top and figured that it wasn’t just us that should be working because we weren’t the only team to miss the break,” he added. “No one really wanted to go for it and we didn’t all put it together when it counted.”

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