Tour of Utah - Stage 4
Young Gun, Alex Howes Wins Solo at Snow Bird
Summit Finish to jump to 4th on G.C. Rock's Mancebo defends jersey with
hard drive to the summit making up 4 minutes.
USA U23 Road Champion Alex Howes of the Felt/Holowesko crew attacked on the
climb to the Snow Bird Ski Resort riding away from some of the best climbers in
the NRC schedule to take his finest pro win outpacing Salt Lake city veteran
Burke Swindlehurst (Bissell) followed at 37 seconds. Race leader Francisco
Mancebo (Rock Racing) 4 minutes behind at the start of the climb rode a rocket
to the top to finish 1:27 to fill out the podium and save his race lead.
The day's break was established early with 9 riders rolling off the front of the
peloton at mile 12, prior to the day’s first Hot Spot sprint in Kamas. The
sprint points were taken by Andrew Guptill (Colavita Olive Oil/Sutter Home)
followed by Ian MacGregor (Team Type 1) and Ben King (Fly V Australia). The
other riders in the group were Burke Swindlehurst (Bissell), Ben Jacques-Maynes
(Bissell), Jeremey Vennell (Bissell), Alex Howes (Felt-Holowesko-Garmin), Glen
Chadwick (Rock Racing), and Dan Bowman (Kelly Benefit Strategies).
These riders opened a gap upwards of 4 minutes by the time they reached the
town of Midway. As they skirted the eastern shore of Deer Creek reservoir the
break continued to gain time. The opening slopes of the Alpine Loop saw Jeremy
Vennell (Bissell) slip off the pace, but the remainder of the break stayed
intact. A small panic was created when Burke Swindlehurst (Bissell) flatted on
the descent, but he was able to quickly rejoin the break. Another near
catastrophe was averted when the yellow jersey group was accidentally routed
around a construction zone and then returned to the proper race course.
The breakaway held their gap over the Suncrest climb all the way to the base
of Little Cottonwood canyon. That’s where the fireworks began. Eventual stage
winner, Alex Howes (Felt-Holowesko-Garmin) launched his attack after accepting a
hot dog from some spectators and then opened a gap; seeing no one following he
upped his effort. Veteran Burke Swindlehurst (Bissell), gave chase but unable to
close the gap to Howes.
The remaining riders from the day long break were overhauled by race
leader Francisco Mancebo (Rock Racing) and second placed Darren Lill (Team Type
1) who finished third and fourth respectively. Glen Chadwick called back to
support Mancebo fineshed one second back to fill out the top 5 for the day.
Mancebo held on to his leaders jersey with Lill second and Jeff Louder third.
Howes for his effort moved up to 4 with Phillip Zajicek tpped to 5th with only
the Sunday criterium to run, we should see the same riders on the top of the
G.C..
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