BMC lays down the law

Defending champion Jeff Louder's BMC Racing Team put a resounding stamp on the first day of the Larry H. Miller Tour of Utah in Tuesday evening's prologue, placing four riders in the top ten with Brent Bookwalter taking the win beneath the Utah State Capitol Building. Bookwalter blazed through the foothills above Salt Lake City to win the 2.8-mile prologue with a time of 6:12. Garmin-Slipstream’s Dave Zabriskie stopped the clock two seconds off Bookwalter’s pace in 6:14. Ian McKissick (BMC) rounded out the podium less than half a second outside of Zabriskie’s time.

Heading out the door? Read this article on the new Outside+ app available now on iOS devices for members! Download the app.

Photos
Results

By Brian Holcombe

Tour of Utah 2009 – Prologue: Bookwalter nails it, with two seconds to spare.

Photo: Casey B. Gibson

Defending champion Jeff Louder’s BMC Racing Team put a resounding stamp on the first day of the Larry H. Miller Tour of Utah in Tuesday evening’s prologue, placing four riders in the top ten with Brent Bookwalter taking the win beneath the Utah State Capitol Building.

Bookwalter blazed through the foothills above Salt Lake City to win the 2.8-mile prologue with a time of 6:12. Garmin-Slipstream’s Dave Zabriskie stopped the clock two seconds off Bookwalter’s pace in 6:14. Ian McKissick (BMC) rounded out the podium less than half a second outside of Zabriskie’s time.

Bookwalter, a pre-race favorite to compliment Louder in the chase for the overall, donned the teamgive.org leader’s jersey ahead of one of the most difficult weeks to face the domestic peloton in 2009.

Tour of Utah 2009 – Prologue: Captain America blazes through, but finishes two seconds down.

Photo: Casey B. Gibson

“The short time trials, you never really know if you did a good time, you know, how it felt out there. They always really hurt,” Bookwalter said at the finish. “I felt really good today. I felt really smooth.”

BMC, led at Utah by first-year director Mike Sayers, also placed Chris Barton, who finished sixth on the stage, into the Vitamin Water best young rider’s jersey. Louder scored a solid result in fifth place, four seconds behind Bookwalter.

Bookwalter pointed to his team, which convened in Alta, Utah ahead of the race for a training camp, as a big reason for his win. “I think our team, we were all really confident in each other,” he said. “We’d been talking it over for the past couple days, looking at the course, really pulling together for each other and I think, honestly, that helped me out a lot today.”

Zabriskie was a heavy favorite for the prologue win after announcing his participation in his hometown race last week, but came up short in front of local fans.

“I could definitely feel some cobwebs today,” said Zabriskie. “Usually when that many thoughts are going through your head, it’s like, ‘Oh man, I’m getting spanked.’ I guess I forgot that it hurts everybody and it didn’t turn out as bad as I thought it was going to turn out.”

Tour of Utah 2009 – Prologue: The Wasatch Mountains provided a nice backdrop for the finish area.

Photo: Casey B. Gibson

Brushfire in the Utah Foothills
Tad Hamilton (Team Bobs-Bicycles.com) was the first rider to roll out at 6:00 p.m. under clear skies, light winds and temperatures hovering near 80 degrees F. Crowds began to build at the start/finish area two hours ahead of the race’s start and grew to more than one thousand fans by the time Louder left the start house at 7:24 p.m.

Floyd Landis (OUCH-Maxxis) rode to an early lead on the “gravity hill” course with a time of 6:36, but was quickly overtaken by Bissell’s Ben Jacques-Maynes, who held the lead for much of the day with a time of 6:15 and finished in fourth place.

Local riders Burke Swindlehurst (Bissell), Louder and Zabriskie drew the most raucous applause as they fired out of the start house and up the short climb away from the capitol.

Race promoters were creative in designing the course for the prologue, a new addition to the race for 2009. Riders climbed a short ramp from the start, exiting onto the gently ascending Bonneville Road via a sidewalk. The turnaround reversed the course at 1.4 miles and riders returned to the finish via a highly technical corner entering the finish area. Kelly Benefits’ Ryan Anderson overcooked the corner during his early run, crashing hard at the top of the finish descent, ultimately crossing the line 1:46 in arrears.

How the GC Men Fared
In a move reminiscent of Team Astana at the Tour-opening Monaco time trial, OUCH-Maxxis placed their two general classification riders, Chris Baldwin and Floyd Landis, on the course early. Baldwin came through the finish with the second-fastest time behind Jacques-Maynes in 6:26, good for 19th on the stage.

Tour of Utah 2009 – Prologue: Francisco Mancebo, seventh, at five seconds.

Photo: Casey B. Gibson

Rock Racing’s overall duo of Oscar Sevilla and Francisco Mancebo turned in strong results, both finishing within 10 seconds of Bookwalter. U.S. U23 time trial champion Peter Stetina (Felt-Holowesko Partners) finished 15 seconds behind Bookwalter. 2005 champion Andrew Bajadali (Kelly Benefit Strategies) lost 20 seconds to the stage winner, while Swindlehurst lost 25 seconds.

With minor time breaks separating the pre-race favorites following the prologue, the race will be wide open when the peloton enters the mountains in Wednesday’s stage 1.

Into the Hills
Stage 1 will take the riders from Ogden to Salt Lake City over 85 miles via two categorized climbs on Old Snowbasin Road and above East Canyon Dam. Riders will descend Emigration Canyon to the finish at the Salt Lake City Medical Research Park. The stage will offer contenders their first opportunity to put significant time into their rivals; however, the long descent to the finish will likely limit major time gains by any of the pre-race favorites.

Tour of Utah 2009 – Prologue: McKissick checks out DZ’s DZnuts kit.

Photo: Casey B. Gibson

Race Notes
Race officials reportedly fined Zabriskie $500 for a uniform violation following the prologue. He rode the stage in his Garmin-Slipstream national champion’s skinsuit, but took the podium in his DZ Nuts kit. Prior to his fine, Zabriskie discussed his podium attire and said, “Lucky for me, I have this company, similar to Lance having his company (Mellow Johnny’s Bike Shop). I can wear this attire, DZ Nuts.”