Tour of Utah: Levi Leiphemer prevails in rugged stage race

SNOWBIRD — It's called the toughest stage race in America for a reason.

Of the nearly 150 professional and elite cyclists who started the rugged six-day race, only 71 finished.

And Levi Leipheimer — riding without the benefit of teammates over the 300-plus miles and 30,000 feet of climbing — proved he was the toughest one out there.

"This stage is truly a queen stage," Leipheimer said after yet another dominating display of power and climbing. "It was unbelievably tough out there today."

The 102-mile ride and final stage of the Larry H. Miller Tour of Utah from Park City to Snowbird included three tough mountain passes as well as numerous shorter but still challenging climbs and capped off an epic week of racing across the Wasatch Front.

Fly V Australia's Jai Crawford won the day's stage, crossing the finish line with Leipheimer in his shadow after the grueling climb up Little Cottonwood Canyon.

"Today was tough," an exhausted Crawford said after the race. "That was an incredibly hard stage and it came on the last day and that made it even harder."

Leipheimer carefully played his cards well over the first 90 miles of the race — spotting the biggest threats to his overall lead early and keeping them within distance at all times.

A breakaway group of nearly 20 riders — including Utah's Jeff Louder, the winner of Saturday's nasty criterium race in downtown Park City — took off almost as soon as the race began but never built a significant advantage, instead content to work for the sprint points available in Kamas and Midway.

But by the time the break had crossed the Alpine Loop and climbed over Suncrest, the climbing had taken its toll on the riders. Only six remained in the break when they bolted into Draper and Sandy before heading toward the finish line at Snowbird.

Crawford and Louder were among those six, but the hard work put in the day before left Louder unable to match the acceleration as the climb began.

Soon, Crawford found himself alone in the front and he slowly mounted his assault on the canyon as riders fell off the pace.

Leipheimer, who was about 2 minutes and 30 seconds behind when he hit the canyon, was not one of those falling off his drive.

Instead, as the other contenders for the overall title began to put little attacks to see how Leipheimer would react, the former Utahn calmly matched each one and then launched one of his own.

"I just wanted to be safe, better safe than sorry," Leipheimer said. "I watched Lill, and I watched Paco (Mancebo) and (Phil) Zajicek. When I saw they were not in the break, I just stayed safe."