Jack Bauer wins at the Tour of Utah

Bauer on the podium for his win ©Lyne Lamoureux

"It's great for me personally, it's great for the team - everybody loves to win don't they!" Bauer said on the podium.

The 26 year old Kiwi, racing for Endura, launched an attack on the second to last corner and his powerful surge gapped the field stacked with pro-tour fastmen.

When he crossed the finish line 500m later, he was still ahead of the next riders, Elia Viviani (Liquigas Cannondale) and Jacob Keogh (United Healthcare).

Bauer said his plan had been to set up teammate Scott Thwaites for the sprint finish, but when he realised he had a gap after the big sweeping left hand turn, he decided to see if he could hold it.

Today's 161km stage saw some of the fastest speeds in the history of the Tour of Utah as breakaways went free, were chased down, and countered with new attacks.

"It felt pretty quick," said Bauer.

This is Bauer's first event in the US, and his first race at altitude!  Before the tour started he told RoadCycling.co.nz his focus for the week was to build towards his goal tour, next month's Tour of Britain.  

He felt he was coming back to speed after a big mid-season break. Today Bauer showed his speed is up there with the best of the pro-riders.

"For all of us as a team, it's been bit of an experiment to see how we form up in the mountains and high altitude," he said. 

Obviously a stage win was a goal, so to do it so early in the tour and on a sprint stage is awesome. I've never raced at altitude before and especially yesterday's stage and the prologue, that was a whole new thing for me."

"Obviously a win was a goal, but to get one so early in the tour – especially on a sprint day – was exciting."

With the 10sec bonus for winning, Bauer should now be sitting 6th on the General Classification  - but he was penalised 20sec for "sheltering behind a vehicle for some time". He is 15th overall.

Tomorrow's 15.6km time trial around a twisty motor-sport circuit gives him another chance to shine. Bauer had a stunner of a time trial at the World Championships last year in what was only his second time trial ever. His Top 10 placing on this tour's Day 1 prologue proved it was not a one off and that he is force to reckoned with against the clock.

Despite being caught behind a late crash, Yellow jersey leader Sergio Henao (Gobernación de Antioquia-Indeportes Antioquia) kept his place at the top of the General Classification.

Roman Van Uden - Sprint jersey

In a day of Kiwi successes - a second Kiwi was on the presentation podium at the Tour of Utah. PureBlack Racing's Roman Van Uden was presented with the Sprint Jersey.

As he did yesterday, Van Uden joined a break group and hunted the points on offer at the first sprint point. He took maximum points before his group was reeled back in by the peloton.

Those points brought him up to first equal in the Sprint Classification.

Van Uden then worked hard to place in the first ten riders across the finish line - he got 10th. The one point bonus earned him the orange jersey lead.

Crashes in final kilometres - Kiwi update

Two crashes in the final 5km took down a handful of riders and unfortunately Kiwis were amongst them. Two PureBlack riders and Hayden Roulston (HTC Highroad) were affected.

PureBlack Racing told RoadCycling.co.nz all their riders are ok, and the NZ Road Champion said while he is a little sore - he was the 2nd rider down and ended up with about 20 others on top of him - he will be back fighting in tomorrow's time trial.

Patrick Bevin (Bissell)  and George Bennett (RadioShack) both managed to stay out of trouble.

Bennett said he had a good day working hard at the front all day to keep his team leaders safe.  Bevin was targetting this race, but got caught out in the run to the line. He was satisfied with a Top 20 placing in a field of this class.

Tour of Utah

• Full Tour of Utah results
• Kiwi is Tour of Utah Sprint Champion
• Up and down day for Kiwis at the Tour of Utah
• Leipheimer leaps into Utah lead
• Van Uden and his battle for the orange jersey
• Images of Jack Bauer's Utah success
• Jack Bauer wins at the Tour of Utah
• PureBlack leader on tough opening road stage
• Bennett thrives on first day as RadioShack stagiare
• Roman Van Uden out front in Utah
• Bobsled challenge for Roman Van Uden
• Youngest Kiwi at Utah keen for action
• Jack Bauer flies in tough uphill prologue
• Back to basics for Pure Black Racing