Van Garderen Wins Time Trial at Tour of Utah, Leipheimer Moves into Lead
8/12/11 – American Tejay Van Garderen of HTC-Highroad turned 23 years old today and turned in the best time of 17:33 in the Individual Time Trial today at the 2011 Larry H. Miller Tour of Utah. With a second place finish at Miller Motorsports Park in the ITT with a time of 17:39, Levi Leipheimer (USA) of Team Radioshack vaults to the overall lead in the general classification and will wear the Larry H. Miller Dealerships Leader’s jersey on Saturday. German Patrick Gretsch was 10 seconds behind his HTC-Highroad teammate to round out the podium for today’s 9.7-mile (15.6-kilometer) Stage Three presented by United Healthcare.
Finishing 56 seconds off the lead in the ITT, Sergio Henao (COL) of Gobernacion Indeportes Antioquia moves to fourth on the general classification (G.C.). Leipheimer, who won the 2010 Larry H. Miller Tour of Utah, now leads teammate Janez Brajkovic (SLO) by 27 seconds on the G.C. Oscar Sevilla (ESP) moves from second to third on G.C., 29 seconds behind the American.
“You have to capitalize on the time trial. I know that’s what I had to do today and cut as much time as I could into Oscar (Sevilla) and (Sergio) Henao, because those two, and their team (Gobernacion Indeportes Antioquia), will be very aggressive and they’ll be hard to control. I need every second that I can get these next two days,” said Leipheimer, who won the Tour de Suisse earlier this summer.
Gretsch was awarded the Vivint Most Aggressive Rider jersey. Four athletes retained award jerseys: Roman Van Uden (NZL) of PureBlack Racing, retains the copper-colored XO Communications Sprint classification jersey, Ruben Bertogliati (SUI) of Team Type 1-SANOFI stays in the snowflake-covered Ski Utah King of the Mountain classification jersey, Van Garderen keeps the the Subaru Best Young Rider jersey and Salt Lake City resident Jeff Louder of BMC Racing Team continues for a second day in the Miller Lite Best Utah Rider jersey.
“I had more motivation today for sure. It’s my birthday, and my fiancé was in the car. It’s something I wanted for a long time (a stage win). With HTC-Highroad over at the end of the year, I really wanted to repay them with a victory,” Van Garderen said about his victory today. “I knew how to take the corners. The course was a little windy and I knew where the wind was coming from. I was taking advice from Allan Peiper (directeur sportif of HTC-Highroad) in the team car as well. He told me to start hard and find your pace.”
With only two stages remaining, tomorrow the Larry H. Miller Tour of Utah continues with Stage 4 presented by University of Utah Health Care along a new course expected to draw huge crowds in downtown Salt Lake City. Saturday will be a high-intensity 81.4-mile (132-km) race with a total of 7,246 feet of climbing. The circuit is 7.4 miles in length, which the professional cyclists will ride 11 laps. The Health and Wellness Expo presented by United Healthcare will be located near the start/finish on Capitol Hill and there is a Reservoir Park Community Viewing Festival (1300 East between South Temple and 100 South). The race begins at 1 p.m. and is expected to finish 4-4:30 p.m.
