Henao Wins Queen Stage; Leipheimer Takes Overall at 2011 Tour of Utah

By Jared Eborn

SNOWBIRD — Levi Leipheimer is your Larry H. Miller Tour of Utah champion — again.

But this time the Radio Shack star had a challenge he didn’t expect and one he hard a hard time overcoming.

With a surprisingly strong Gobernacion de Antioquia team out of Colombia, Leipheimer needed almost every second possible to withstand the challenge by Sergio Henao — who won Stage 5, crossing the line just a wheel in front of Leipheimer.

Leipheimer finished with a scant 23 second advantage over Henao while Radio Shack rider Janez Brajkovic finished third, 43 seconds back.

Henao had six teammates with him when he began the second of three categorized climbs during Stage 5 but was not able to pull away from Leipheimer who marked his closest foe and, with the help of Brajkovic, stayed under control until the climb up Little Cottonwood Canyon began. From there, the former Utahn took advantage of his position and forced Henao to do all the work up the canyon and carefully matched each attack made by the Colombian on the deciding climb.

The win, especially considering the increased competition this year after spending the last few years on the NRC calendar, was appreciated by Leipheimer.

“I am very proud to win the race, especially this year,” Leipheimer said. “It has grown up a lot. It has become a UCI race. I think that today is worthy of what we call a Grand Tour stage in the mountains, like what you see in the Alps, Pyrenees, or Dolomites.”

The challenge from Gobernacion didn’t go unnoticed and Leipheimer was happy to allow Henao the stage win.

“The way the Gobernacion team rode, they were aggressive, they were strong,” Leipheimer said, “and Sergio deserved it more than I did.”

The drama of the race was exceptional. “If we would have scripted this (race) from the outset, with the way it played out – with the stages that were won, the winners of the jerseys, Tejay van Garderen winning the Subaru Best Young Rider jersey, with the leader’s jersey falling into Gobernacion Indeportes Antioquia’s hands early, and Team RadioShack having to fight for it – and handed that script to a screenwriter, I think they would have torn it up and said ‘why don’t you write something realistic’,” said Steve Miller, president of the Tour of Utah at the wrap-up press conference today about the six days of racing at the sixth edition of the Larry H. Miller Tour of Utah this week. “(The week) was beyond our wildest dreams. We’re very happy with it.”

The Tour of Utah will be back in 2012.

Stage 5 Results:

Final General Classification:

Best Utah Rider: