1 stage left, Tour's still close

Nothing is settled in this wild and wacky Tour of Utah.

With one mountain stage to go, five riders are still within a minute of each other: two from Health Net (Jeff Louder and Scott Moninger), two Navigators (Glen Chadwick and Burke Swindlehurst) and a Toyota rider (Chris Wherry).

Hometown favorite Louder leads the top of the GC leader board and will be wearing the yellow jersey today. Moninger is two seconds behind, closely followed by Chadwick, Swindlehurst and Wherry.

Stage Five on Friday saw on-the-rivet sprinting as racers did 19 turns per lap, six laps of the 6.3-mile course, a steep climb from the valley floor to the Utah State Capitol, and a long finish.

At the end, a time trialist won the sprint. USPRO Time Trial Champion Toyota's Chris Baldwin won the circuit sprint in 1 hour, 17 minutes and 24 seconds. Jacob Erker of Symmetrics Cycling and Daniel Ramsey of Successfulliving.com took the second and third spots, respectively.

"We were going steady and discouraging attacks. Health Net charged. Wherry gave me the wink, and I went for it," Baldwin said.

Moninger retains the King of Mountains jersey with 15 points at end of a race which descended at the Delta Center in downtown Salt Lake City.

The course started from 400 West, near South Temple, and served killer climbing, fast descending, sharp cornering and elbow-to-elbow sprinting. It shredded the peloton. "It was a tricky climb; it was technical and challenging," Louder said. "There were sharp corners, and we had to go strong out. But it worked out well for us."

Toyota United, not having a jersey to defend, is in good position for the final assault today. "I want to help out Wherry and redeem myself. I was disappointed not having done much for him yesterday," said Baldwin.,

"(Today) will be real exciting. Navigators have climbers, and they are in the driver's seat," Baldwin said.

Navigators director Edward Beamon said, "We have four guys who can win the race for us. If there's an opportunity we will play Burke (Swindlehurst) up," Beamon said. "We will just stay in the field all day and be aggressive. Our goal is to isolate Chadwick and Louder, the sooner the better."