2011 tour of utah - stage 5

2011's Stage 5 was about the same as 2010's: a 161 km (100 mi.) ride from Park City, through Kamas and Midway, down Provo Canyon to Sundance, up and over Alpine Loop and descending through American Fork Canyon, then climbing up and over Traverse Ridge, through Draper and Sandy, and, finally, climbing Little Cottonwood Canyon to finish at Snowbird.  Dang.  That's a heckuva lot of mountain climbing:  11,000 vertical feet, including 3,500 feet over the final six miles.

Henao and Levi (in yellow) about to finish

We packed a cooler (ham and cheese sandwiches and PBRs) and headed up to Snowbird around noon, finding a shady spot near Little Cottonwood Creek to consume our repast.  A stroll through the expo showed Snowbird taking advantage and selling both food and beer (the latter up at the lodges but folks felt free to take their brews to go, so we did too).  They had a Jumbotron set up near the finish line so we hung out there for a while and watched the cyclists make their way up and up and up.  Then, when the riders were just a couple miles away, we found spots at the rail to watch as they crested the final climb before coasting downhill to the finish line.

Stage 5 podium: Henao (1), Levi (2) 

and Brajkovic (3)

It was Radio Shack vs. Gobernacion de Antioquia the whole day, with Leipheimer, Brajkovic, Henao and Sevilla playing cat-and-mouse with each other.  And once they hit LCC, it was just Levi and Henao.  They came over the final crest together and then Levi, in a classy move since he was about to win the Tour, never challenged so that Henao was able to win the stage.  Brajkovic took third behind his teammate Levi, and Tommy Danielson came in fourth.

Final general classification podium: Levi (1),

Henao (2) and Brajkovic (3)

The tough little Colombians won the best team competition - gleefully spraying each other with champagne - and it was wonderful to see the crowd cheer so loudly for them ... almost as loudly as they did for Levi, winning his second Tour of Utah in a row.  It was a great Tour, for us spectators as well as the riders, and Levi promised us that he'd be back again next year to attempt a three-peat.  Can't wait!