Levi Leipheimer wins stage, takes over lead at Tour of Utah

MOUNT NEBO — When Levi Leipheimer crossed the finish line after Tuesday's prologue for the Larry H. Miller Tour of Utah, he claimed he didn't have a realistic chance of winning the overall title after six days of racing across some of Utah's toughest terrain.

He was, after winning the rugged Leadville Trail 100 mountain bike race just two days earlier, too tired and didn't have a team to ride with.

You can forget all that now.

Leipheimer, the former Utahn who graduated from Rowland Hall and now rides as Lance Armstrong's right-hand man on the Radio Shack cycling team, made a bold attack on the first few miles of the nasty climb up the south side of Mount Nebo and pulled away from the field for a decisive attack that not only gave him a win Thursday afternoon, but left him wearing the overall leader's yellow jersey by a large chunk of time.

"That was for you Terry," Leipheimer announced on his twitter account, dedicating the victory to his former riding partner and the former Tour of Utah executive director Terry McGinnis, who passed away from cancer a few months ago.

Leipheimer's time of 3 hours, 11 minutes and 43 seconds was easily better than that of second-place and defending race champion Francesco Mancebo (Canyon Bicycles), who was 51 seconds behind. Bissell Pro Cycling's Ian Boswell was third on Thursday, just 52 second back of Leipheimer.

"I just tried to not go too far over my limit and keep it steady. I knew those behind were hurting and they weren't working together well," Leipheimer said. "I came here to win a stage, and I saw the opportunity, so I took it."

The stage win gives Leipheimer a 56 second advantage over Mancebo in the overall standings with Salt Lake resident Darren Lill, last year's runner-up, and Boswell just 1:16 behind the new leader.

Because he was not riding with a team, Leipheimer played it safe for the first 60 miles or so of the race, hiding in the pack and avoiding the nasty wind that whipped the racers around the road on the west side of Utah Lake.

But once the race slipped past Mona and Nephi and headed toward the south side of Mount Nebo, Leipheimer — readily acknowledged as one of the top climbers in the world — moved to the front and pulled away for the solo victory.