Leipheimer leaps into Utah lead

Aug 13th, 11. Defending champion Levi Leipheimer (RadioShack) took the lead in the Tour of Utah after finishing 2nd in the Stage 3 time trial to Tejay Van Garderen (HTC-Highroad) today.

Yesterday was the Kiwis' day to shine, but today they let the Americans take centre stage with both the stage and GC victor.

Previous race leader, Columbian Sergio Luis Henao (Gobernacion Indeportes Antioquia), dropped 1m15s seconds and lost his yellow jersey to Leipheimer who now leads the General Classification with 27sec on his teammate Jani Brajkovic in 2nd place. 

Leipheimer, 37, rolled out of the start gate second-to-last and immediately set to task to try and win the stage and take the  race lead.

"You have to capitalise on the time trial," said Leipheimer. "I knew 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."

Sevilla is now 3rd on GC +29s, and Henao 4th +56s.

Racing on the flat 14.5km asphalt road course, the riders raced over 23 turns of the motor track used for car, motorcycle and kart racing.

"It's always nice to pull on the yellow jersey. I wanted to win today but this is even better and I'm happy about that," Leipheimer said after finishing 6sec behind Van Garderen - who was celebrating his 23rd birthday today.

"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.

"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."

The fastest Kiwi today was Bauer (Endura), who continued his great Tour of Utah finishing 12th +38sec.  2009 NZ TT Champion Jeremy Vennell (Bissell Pro Cycling) finished just 1sec slower with the 14th fastest time.

Four riders retained jerseys today: Roman Van Uden of PureBlack Racing, retains the copper-colored XO Communications Sprint classification jersey, Ruben Bertogliati 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.

"The next two days are going to be very difficult," said Leipheimer. "I think tomorrow will be especially hard for our team to control but we'll do our best and I think it will be a great race."

Tomorrow is an 11 lap circuit race, with one climb each circuit which will no doubt get harder and harder as the race progresses.  The 132km course has a total of 2,000m of climbing.

The final stage is the queen stage with the finish at the ski resort of Snowbird.

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