Acevedo Colle wins fourth stage as Levi Leipheimer takes overall lead in Tour of Utah 2011
Gobernacion De Antioquia-Indeportes Antiquia team’s Janier Alexis Acevedo Colle took a lead in the large breakaway cyclists in the fourth stage of Tour of Utah 2011. Levi Leipheimer took overall leader’s yellow jersey.
In the final kilometres, Colombian cyclists jumped clear and managed to get away from the Type 1-Sanofi team’s Javier Megias Leal and Rubens Bertogliati.
The Colombian took the total of 2 hours, 56 minutes and 18 seconds to cover the distance of 129 kilometres while Megias Leal was runner-up with 5 seconds and Bertogliati finished third with 6 seconds down to Colle.
After winning the stage, Acevedo told the media, "I'm very happy to get a stage win, It is always difficult to win a race, anywhere you go, and I am especially satisfied to take the victory in a race against some of the best riders in the world."
The first stage winner’s Jesse Anthony (Kelly Benefit Strategies/OptumHealth) did not take part in this stage due to illness and several other cyclists would abandon the stage including, Luis Crosby and Simon Lambert-Lemay.
In the start of the stage the Colombian was expected to be aggressive but Geox-TCM rider David Gutierrez launched first solo move and was quickly joined by Bissell, UnitedHealthcare and HTC-Highroad riders. In the end of the first lap the definitive move
took place while the group of 23 cyclists gained an advantage over the top in the second lap.
The three cyclists including, Christian Vande Velde, Javier Mergias and Gutierrez, making 26-cyclists breakaway and gain a few minutes in the end of third lap. The breaks built a gap of 2 minutes and 50 seconds while the Tejay Van Garderen of HTC-Highroad
managed to bring the gap down to 1 minute and 35 seconds and put pressure on the Radioshack team.
In the end of the eighth lap Frattini and Leal put pressure on Norris, Randell and Rabou and the break was down to 22 cyclists. Another attack came from Heano in the final lap of the stage. Colle managed to increase his pace and cross the finish line without
any difficulty.
Bertogliati said, "I jumped across on the second part of the climb, which suited me better. I'm very happy for Javier who has Type 1 diabetes and is the best diabetic rider in the world."
Levi Leipheimer took overall standing with the timing of 11 hours, 32 minutes and 59 seconds. Henao Montoya was in second spot with 23 seconds behind Levi.
Janez Brajkovic (Team RadioShack) was in third place with the difference of 27 seconds ahead of Sevilla Ribera and Vande Velde.
The next stage starts in Park City and end in Snowbird. All the cyclists will cover the distance of 160.8 kilometres.
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