Horner wins stage 5 of Tour of Utah

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Chris Horner (Radioshack-Leopard) won the Queen stage Saturday at the Larry H. Miller Tour of Utah in front of Garmin-Sharp's Tom Danielson and took over the race lead from Danielson's teammate Lachlan Morton.

Horner and Danielson escaped a select group on the lower slopes of the final climb to Snowbird Ski Area and finished together. Both are now tied on overall time, with Horner's stage win boosting him into yellow. BMC's Yannick Eijssen finished third on the stage after hanging on from an escape of 10 riders that broke away from the field 34 miles into the 113.5-mile stage.

Morton finished more than three minutes down, losing yellow but hanging onto the jersey for best young rider. The 21-year-old Australian said he realized early on he might not have the legs to make it to the finale and gave Danielson the green light to ride form himself.

"I said after the middle climb that he was the strongest guy in the group by far," Morton said. "He rode most of the second-to-last climb, and there were only five of us at the top, so I said that he was the strongest and we were better just to wait so he didn't have to work. That way if I ran into trouble he could take over. And that's basically what happened. I was in trouble and Tommy took over."

For Horner, battling his friend and former teammate Danielson after a dynamic day of racing was a great way to announce his return to top form.

"Hats off," Horner said during the post-race press conference. "[Danielson] was amazing today, and Garmin was amazing today, and Radioshack was amazing today. I hope we put on a good show, and I hope the fans at home really enjoyed what they watched because that was about some of the best bike racing I've seen all year – two really strong teams battling all the way to the finish."

The stage started at the Snowbasin ski area with a fast descent into the Morgan County valley for a long, flat ride to the first KOM in Brown's canyon. Attacks were many and frequent, but the Garmin-led peloton was feeling stingy and wouldn't let anything go until Eijssen joined nine other riders that broke away on a relatively small bump just over an hour into the race.

Also in the group were Eijssen's BMC teammate Stephen Cummings, Wesley Sulzberger (Orica-GreenEdge), Jens Voigt (Radioshack), Ted King (Cannondale), Kiel Reijnen (UnitedHealthcare), Mike Torckler (Bissell Pro Cycling), Jesse Anthony (Optum-Kelly Benefit Strategies), James Stemper (5-hour Energy/Kenda) and Serghei Tvetcov (Jelly Belly).

Despite the powerful composition of the group, Garmin's efforts on the front of the field limited the escapees' biggest advantage to 2:45. Torckler, the mountains leader, took maximum points on the day's first KOM as the break did not contest the points, focusing more on the daunting Guardsman Pass category 1 climb that started outside of Park City about 77 miles into the race.

The initial slopes of the pass blew the breakaway apart, leaving just Eijssen, Cummings, Torckler and Tvetcov alone at the front. Cummings cracked next and dropped out of the group, followed by Tvetcov. Eijssen continued to hammer, eventually putting a gap between himself and Torckler as the two riders approached the day's second KOM at the top of the climb.

Bissell team director Omer Kem immediately struck a deal with BMC director Jackson Stewart, and Eijssen waited for Torckler so that the Bissell rider could collect maximum KOM points and seal his hold on the overall KOM jersey. In exchange, Torckler provided an all-out effort for Eijssen on the descent and into the valley leading to the final climb.

"I felt I was good that I could go alone in Park City on the first big climb," Eijssen said. "But it was better to have one with me because it was a long time before we were at the base of Snowbird climb. We decided to ride together on the climb and also the descent together, and then when I started to climb again I decided to go full gas until the top here. I just felt good."

Behind the leaders, the field began to disintegrate as the climbers and GC riders began to sweep up the remnants of the breakaway. Danielson set a blistering pace, splitting the field before Radioshack's Tiago Machado jumped away from a select group of 20 riders and linked up with Voigt, who was still soldiering on up the road.

The group behind included Michael Schaer of BMC; Danielson, Morton and Peter Stetina of Garmin; Damian Howson of Orica; Horner, George Bennett and Matthew Busche of Radioshack; Lucas Euser, Phillip Deignan and Ben Day of UnitedHealthcare; Greg Obando Brenes and Chris Butler of Champion System; Prado Nazaret of Funvic; Carter Jones and Chris Baldwin of Bissell; Janier Acevedo of Jamis-Hagens Berman; Gavin Mannion of Bontrager; Francisco Mancebo of 5-hour Energy; and Tevtcov.

Several other riders joined the chase group on the descent off Guardsman Pass for the run into Cottonwood Pass and the finale at Snowbird, but the upward tilt of the finale climb soon blew that group apart. Stetina cracked early on the climb, leaving Danielson alone to ride for Morton and his yellow jersey. But Morton soon cracked as well, and Danielson picked up the Garmin banner in earnest.

"I thought, well, I'll just make a hard pace for Lachlan," Danielson said of his tempo at the bottom of the final climb. "And then I looked back and there were five guys there and not Lachlan. So I thought, uh oh, I guess I'm going to have to do the race now. Then we all know the rest."

Eijssen carried a 1:15 gap over Machado with just 10km to go, with the select field hanging at 2:15. But the gap started to come down quickly as Danielson launched an attack that brought Bennett and Acevedo with him. The trio had a slight gap over Horner, Busche, Euser and Deignan, but that, too, was short-lived. Horner jumped away and bridged to the lead group, which soon disposed of Acevedo and the two Unitedhealthcare riders, leaving Danielson and Horner to battle it out for the stage win.

"Tommy D went, and he went hard and got rid of Acevedo," Horner said. "So I was sitting back there thinking, oh, this one's going to hurt because I'm going to have to do 400-450 watts at 9,000 feet. So when I got to him I was a little bit cross-eyed, and I knew I'd have to get through those first few kilometers right there before I could recover."

Horner had Bennett, Busche and Machado not far behind, while Danielson's teammates were well out of contention, so the veteran Radioshack rider sat on Danielson's wheel and jumped past him at the line for the stage win and the overall lead.

"I've got three guys behind, and I know they're sitting on," Horner said of the tactics in the finale. "So if they catch us they're going to counter. So tactically I know I'm in a good spot to be able to sit on. It's my right to sit on. It feels bad to do it because Tommy is a friend of mine, but you gotta do what you gotta do at times."

The 2013 Tour of Utah concludes Sunday with a loop that starts and finishes in Park City. The 78-mile route climbs through the private Wolf Creek Ranch and crosses the Heber Valley before winding its way to the base of Empire Pass, the day's main obstacle and the last chance for the GC hopefuls to put time on their rivals. The 16km climb ascends more than 1,000 meters through Aspen forests to 2,750 meters of elevation. After the climb, riders will descend down the 11 percent road they climbed on Saturday into downtown Park City and the overall finish.

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