Henao Montoya wins final stage as Levi Leipheimer celebrates overall lead in Tour of Utah 2011
Gobernacion De Antioquia-Indeportes Antio team’s Sergio Luis Henao Montoya won the final stage of Tour of Utah 2011 on Sunday, August 14. Levi Leipheimer sealed the overall leader’s yellow jersey.
The race started in Park City and ended in Snowbird. In the final kilometres, Radioshack rider Leipheimer launched an attack to secure his second stage victory but 23-year-old Colombian cyclists showed a tremendous effort and took 4 hours, 20 minutes and
13 seconds to cover the distance of 160.8 kilometres.
After winning the stage Henao told the media, "We found a worthy opponent in Levi, I was in good shape and going well but Levi was just as strong. Levi was a worthy winner. It was a tough race but we just wanted to get to the top."
Leipheimer was runner-up with same timing as the Colombian while Janez Brajkovic (Team Radioshack) was in third place with the difference of 18 seconds.
The PureBlack racing team took control of the stage to take sprinter jersey which he loss in the fourth stage. Roman Van Uden managed to increase his pace and took the first sprint.
He continues his good effort and took second intermediate sprint ahead of two cyclists, Jay Robert Thomson and Timothy Gudsell.
Henao was the first rider who went to attack when the group came together in the front of the field while the Colombian took 30 seconds on the first climb. The four chasers working well together and brought him back.
Javier Alexis Acevedo Colle took the first KOM of the day. In the next climb, Gian Palo Chuela (Geox-TMC) attacked and managed to gain points and took the second climb of the stage. Gobernacion team controlled the situation and showed a brilliant effort
while in the final climb, the group managed to pull Acevedo back.
However, Henao increased his pace and with the help of his team he crossed the finish line ahead of the other cyclists.
Levi Leipheimer took the overall standing with the timing of 15 hours, 53 minutes and 12 seconds while stage winner Henao was runner-up with 23 seconds down.
Leipheimer said, "Sergio [Henao] put in a few stinging attacks and it was hard. There were a few times when I had to come back to him, but when he saw that I was good enough to follow him, fortunately he knew he could win the stage and let off a bit."
Janez Brajkovic was in third place with the difference of 45 seconds ahead of Oscar Selliva and Thomas Danielson.
Leipheimer took the overall King of Mountain title with 29 points ahead of Javier Alexis and Henao. Cristian Montoya took the title of Best Young Rider ahead of Christopher Butler.
Tags: