Levi Leipheimer wins Tour of Utah
Levi Leipheimer entered the Tour of Utah on Tuesday as a solo rider – no teammates to support him. When he won the second stage of the six-day race, which put him into the overall lead, he didn't think much of it. “I took the jersey,” he said, “whatever, I probably won’t hold onto it by the end of the race.”
He was wrong. On Sunday, he was the second man across the finish line of the final stage and the overall winner of the race.
"The fact that the whole week was a hard profile, hard course, took away a lot of tactics and played into my favour," Leipheimer explained. "Today I was able to control a little bit on the climbs and you're not really giving anyone a free ride."
In his first time competing at the Tour of Utah, and without any teammates, Leipheimer still managed to win ahead of the defending champion, Francisco Mancebo, and Ian Boswell in third. He dedicated his win to the late Terry McGinnis, who had been the executive director of the race.
"Terry and I had some fantastic rides together and every day this week I remember more and more how much it meant to me because that was a period of my life where I was just getting going in cycling," said Leipheimer. "That was a very decisive period in my career and to have a training partner like that really motivated me. I think the Tour of Utah and the riders owe a big thank you to Terry and I do as well. I think it is fair to say that this race is his legacy."
Leipheimer also finished second in the third stage, two seconds behind Taylor Phinney for Trek-Livestrong, who finished the 14.8 time-trial in 16:46. Jeff Louder, for BMC-Racing, won the fourth stage in a solo victory ahead of Jai Crawford and Mancebo. Crawford went on the win the final stage at a summit finish at the Snowbird Ski Resort, ahead of Leipheimer and Mancebo.
"This is actually my first win of the year and I'm headed back to Australia tomorrow," said Crawford. "Levi caught me with 500 metres to go and I got on his wheel. I was able to recover a little bit there. "We all know that Levi is an incredible bike rider and he won this tour without a team. I don't think he was super concerned about the stage. On the day, I did a good ride and crossed the line first. I'm really happy with that."
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