It is called the race of truth for a reason. After 320 miles and over 30,000 feet of climbing over four days, “America’s Toughest Stage Race” came down to the final 7.5-mile flat time trial at the Tour of Utah. Trailing by seven seconds in the overall classification behind Blake Caldwell (Garmin-Chipotle), Utah native Jeff Louder (BMC) came in third and more importantly bested Caldwell’s time by sixteen seconds to be crowned the winner of the Tour of Utah.

Jeff Louder (BMC) gives it everything he’s got in the final meters to win the Tour of Utah

With his form back after breaking his collarbone at the Tour of the Gila back in May, time trial specialist Tom Zirbel (Bissell) stopped the clock at 13:50 to win the final stage. The only other man to break the fourteen-minute barrier, comeback kid Brent Bookwalter (BMC) was second, nine seconds back.

Tom Zirbel (Bissell) powers to stage win

Brent Bookwalter (BMC) who broke his femur last year is back in form and takes second place

The 84 riders remaining in the field of 112 riders only four short days ago rolled off the start ramp to face the 7.5-mile (12 km) time trial at the Miller Motorsports Park in Tooele, Utah. Riders had to deal with banked turns on the flat and technical course.

Blake Cadwell (Garmin-Chipotle) finished in second place overall.

Louder won the Tour of Utah with a 9-second advantage over Caldwell, with Glen Chadwick (Team Type 1) in third. The BMC team also won the overall team classification.

Final GC podium (l-r): third place Glen Chadwick (Team Type 1), first place Jeff Louder (BMC) and second placed Blake Caldwell (Garmin-Chipotle)

(l-to-r): Brad White (Successfull Living) wins sprint jersey; Glen Chadwick (Team Type 1) is the KOM

(l-to-r): Best Utah Rider Nate Page (Canyon Bicycles Utah All-Stars); Best Young Rider Peter Stetina (Garmin-Chipotle)

Jeff Louder (BMC), third on stage, winner of overall classification

About the time trial. Caldwell rode an amazing race, the whole thing, he’s on another level, that definitely made me very nervous and I really had to concentrate on remembering that I know how to do this, just use my form, the equipment. The BMC bike is just so fast, it’s really made a difference for me, as funny as that sounds, you’ve got to pedal the bike but the bike definitely moves you as well. This team is supplied with the best possible gear, the sponsors and everybody. That helped me a lot, just knowing that I had the best gear and good form from yesterday. I thought about the feeling on the podium last night when I was digging deep about 2K from here, starting to remember that, wanting to get that feeling back today, that definitely motivating me.

About winning the race. I’ve come very, very close to winning a few NRC races in the last two years, and this is sinking in. I’ve been second, I’ve been third, I’ve tied being second , to be able to outright win a race like this and then turn around have it be in my hometown. My dad was sitting in the car with Gavin today, my wife and my baby are here, you don’t get this opportunity very much and I’m really going to relish it.

Tom Zirbel (Bissell), stage winner

About the course. It was kind of cool. I liked the technical turns, you had to be attentive, you know we keep our heads down, trying to be the most aero and then, a turn sneaks up on you like it did, I missed one of these turns, I just about went off the road but all in all it was a clean run.

About focusing on the time trial. Priority one, was to help Burke [Swindlehurst] as much as I could, keeping him out of the wind before the big hills and even after some of the early climbs. I’m climbing well enough that I think I can be in a small group of 30 and be there for him, I was pretty disappointed in my ride on stage 2, I thought I should have been there for him later in the race but it didn’t work out. Yesterday I felt like I did a pretty good job helping him out, just kind of sat up at the base of the climb with today in mind. It was a goal from beginning of the week, it was plan B, it wasn’t the primary goal.

Brent Bookwalter (BMC), second on stage

About his performance. It’s sort of a comeback race in a sense for me, this whole year has been a comeback after the injury last year. I started to get some good form in Cascade, the team really started kicking and we have the same squad here, it’s a good week for us.

About the team’s results. It wasn’t one defining moment, I think we’ve just been revving it up all year long, we have arguably the best support, the best staff, the best team effort in the entire country, the later you get in the year, the more of a difference that makes and Gavin has been really careful not to over race us early on while some of the other teams are starting to die down, we get stronger and stronger.

Gavin Chilcott, BMC Directeur Sportif

About the overall win. We were optimistic that he could pull this off, it was really a great effort by the team all week that brought him to this day as fresh as he was. Obviously he had to put in a big effort yesterday, but that was the first time he had to put in, that really had to dig deep to take time. I think the race played out like we would have liked, we were two early so we didn’t want to have to defend the jersey if we didn’t have to, we played that way until the big Queen stage, we would have liked to have taken the jersey there since there is no extra work defending on the time trial day that we were confident we were close coming into today and I feel with the exception of Scott Nydam, we really had no bad luck this week. The guys raced well, they prepared well and I’m really pleased that it all worked out for them.

Photos copyright Lyne Lamoureux