The contenders duked it out in the final climb of the Queen stage at the Tour of Utah. Before the stage, 13 riders were separated by 38 seconds in the general classification but after slogging it over 14,778 feet (4,504 m) of climbing over a 98-mile (159 km) road race, the race now comes down to 2 pretenders to the title.

Utah native Jeff Louder (BMC) was triumphant in front of a home crowd and crossed the line first, pointing in pride at his jersey. Yellow jersey Blake Caldwell (Garmin-Chipotle) crossed the line in second place, 13 seconds back. With time bonuses on the line, Caldwell now has a 7-second buffer over Louder going into the final stage, a relatively flat 12-mile (19.3 km) out and back time trial that starts and finishes at the Miller Motorsports Park in Tooele.

Jeff Louder (BMC) points to his BMC jersey when crossing the line in front of an enthusiastic crowd

A break of 7 riders went off in the first 10 miles of the race, and got almost a five minute advantage before being caught on the HC climb up Alpine Loop at around the 55-mile marker. One participant in the break was green jersey Brad White (Successful Living), on his third break of the race, who nailed down the Sprint jersey as no one contended the sprints.

The lone survivor of the break, Mike Creed (Rock Racing) grabbed the KOM points before re-integrating the chasing dwindling field.

By the time the lead group made it to the bottom of the final climb to Snowbird, the numbers were down to about 25 riders with all the contenders present and ready for action. Oscar Sevilla (Rock Racing) was the first one to launch a move which caused ripples in the group. Garmin-Chipotle duo including Caldwell started to chase him down which caused the BMC duo of Louder and Darren Lill to react and chase the argyle pair. Meanwhile, KOM Glen Chadwick (Team Type 1) flew away, passed Sevilla and got a 20 seconds gap to the chasers, but Caldwell went after him and passed the Kiwi.

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From the beginning, the Successful Living team has penciled in stage 3, the twilight criterium at the Tour of Utah for their fast man, Argentinean Ricardo Escuela, and ‘Tricki Ricky’ delivered the goods.

After yesterday’s stage, teammate and green jersey Brad White repeated the message ‘tomorrow is more about winning the stage with Ricardo.”

After 60-minute plus 3 laps around a four-corner course, the criterium in downtown Salt Lake City finished in a bunch sprint. Escuela crossed the line first followed by Fast Freddie Rodriguez (Rock Racing). Australian Jonnie Clarke (Toyota-United) was third. Yellow jersey Blake Caldwell (Garmin-Chipotle) crossed in fourth with his shadow Oscar Sevilla (Rock Racing) on his wheel.

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Two in a row for the Garmin-Chipotle team. This time is was Blake Caldwell who emerged from a break to win the stage and take over the yellow jersey from his teammate’s shoulders. After 85 miles (137 km) and 10,585 feet (3.226 m) of climbing, Caldwell outsprinted his two-man breakaway companion Darren Lill (BMC) to win stage 2 at the Tour of Utah. Bringing the chase group, 18 seconds behind for third place was BMC’s Jeff Louder.

Caldwell is now the new leader in the overall classification, with Lill in second place at 4 seconds back, and Jason Donald (Garmin-Chipotle) drops down from first to third.

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The first stage of the 2008 Larry H Miller Tour of Utah is in the books. Under blue skies with temperatures reaching the low 90s, Garmin-Chipotle’s Jason Donald won the 3-way sprint against his breakaway companions Sheldon Deeny (Fan Sports Network) and Brad White (Successful Living).

The field crossed the line 19 seconds after the winner, with Ricardo Escuela (Successful Living) winning the sprint.

An ecstatic Donald also grabbed the yellow leader’s jersey with added time bonus of 10 seconds. White won enough points in the three HotSpot Sprint lines to win the green sprint leader’s jersey.

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Canadian Andrew Pinfold (Symmetrics) outsprinted his breakaway companions to win the final stage, the Hood River Criterium, of the Mt Hood Cycling Classic. World B Champion Ivan Stevic (Toyota-United) was second and Italian Alessandro Bazzana (Successful Living) came in third.

Andrew Pinfold (Symmetrics) wins the sprint ahead of Ivan Stevic (Toyota-United) and Alessandro Bazzana (Successful Living)

“I was on [Chris] Wherry’s wheel and he sat up, I knew that he’s not going to deliver me to the line, I was just waiting for that, and I was able to get on, I think it was Bazzana’s or Stevic’s wheel, and I came around him at the end. I came around the corner in third wheel.” said Pinfold.

Australian Rory Sutherland protected by his Health Net-Maxxis teammates came in safely across the line to win the overall general classification, shadowed at the line by second place Darren Lill (BMC) and third place Ben Jacques-Maynes (Bissell).

“I think it was a learning experience for a lot of the guys, a lot of the boys hadn’t done that kind of stuff before. Look at the start list, look at the teams that are here, this is probably one of the. I’d say, one of the best field ever put together on the domestic scene, this and Redlands of course, so it was by no means an easy feat that’s for sure. The guys seemed to get better every day, and really rode above and beyond today, to be honest they don’t get paid enough to do that kind of stuff because they just killed themselves for somebody else and that’s a pretty amazing thing.” said Sutherland about his team.

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Defending team, the Successful Living p/b Parkpre team stacked the deck by putting three man in an four-man breakaway. Their designated sprinter for that day, JR Grabinger won the the Sea Otter NRC Circuit Race, his teammate Brian Jensen took second and Rock Racing’s David Clinger survived the 3-on-1 sprint to take third place.

Grabinger takes the sprint ahead of Jensen and Clinger; Photos c. Lyne Lamoureux

The four men in the breakaway, the three Successful Living riders, Grabinger, Jensen and Brad White worked well with solo Clinger to create an unsurmountable gap and lap the field.

“We were worried about him, he was riding really strong today, we had talked a few scenarios over and Steve was talking to us on the radio, I guess when it came down to it we had the confidence to do a leadout at the end and pull out a win, that’s what we did.” said Grabinger.

“I’ve been in the situation a lot of times with 3 or 4 guys and you’re the only one from your team. Basically all I could have done is follow then if they start attacking but they were so confident that they were going to win the sprint, they could box me in, put me in the barriers, they just set tempo to the line. I told them that I wasn’t going be too aggressive, if they kept if to the line, I was going to sprint it out with them.” said Clinger.
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Embarking on its third year, the Successful Living presented by Parkpre team, after a training camp lined up at their first team race in 2008, the Sequoia Cycling Classic race.

Buoyed by the 3-year extension with their title sponsor Successful Living, and an increased budget, the team has set an aggressive long term goal, to be number one in the National Race Calendar (NRC) Team Classifications in three year.

“I think that realistically, I’d really like to see a top 3 NRC team by the end of the season, that’s pretty realistic goal with a lot of work, that will be very difficult to do but the horsepower is here, that’s what we’d like to do this season,” said Team Directeur and Olympic medalist Steve Hegg.

Successful Living leadout train at Visalia Crit

The team also wants to be invited to the big American races such as Tour de Georgia, Tour of Missouri and especially Tour of California as their home-state race. One way to get invited is to win more races and start climbing the ranks of the NRC overall.

“I think on paper we’re not as strong as a Toyota-United or a Health Net-Maxxis but I think that camaraderie and everything, we spent the past couple of weeks working on that and I think the guys get along really well and I think they’re going to win a lot of races this year.” said Rider Manager Ryan Yee.
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Argentinean Lucas Sebastian Haedo (Colavita/Sutter Home) won the bunch sprint in the fast and furious 50-mile Visalia Criterium ahead of Cody O’Reilly (Successful Living) and his leadout man Alejandro Borrajo (Colavita/Sutter Home).

Lucas Sebastian Haedo (Colavita/Sutter Home) wins the sprint

“We came out the last lap in perfect position, the train was perfect. The last lap, (the team) led out Borrajo and I and (we) came out first and second wheel and we finished first and third.” said a happy Haedo as graciously translated by his teammate Davide Frattini.

“I went as hard as I could, I couldn’t have gone any faster.” said a happy O’Reilly.

The pro men gathered on Sunday for the second day of the Sequoia Cycling Classic to tackle the flat and fast Visalia Criterium. Right from the get go, the race was aggressive as team after team tried to launch a rider on the 0.7-mile, 6-turn course in downtown Visalia.

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