Baldwin, McCarty make selection on Nebo. Both riders climb up the top 10

Mt. Nebo, UT - The first shakeout of the 2009 Tour of Utah took place on the slopes of Mt. Nebo today, and both Chris Baldwin and Pat McCarty showed they were up to the task. Both riders finished in a select group of seven chasing stage winner Darren Lill (Team Type 1), who escaped solo up the mountain with 25km remaining to take the stage win by a 0:26 over race leader Francesco Mancebo (Rock Racing), Jeff Louder (BMC) and McCarty. McCarty moved up from 21st overall to 5th at 1:02 behind Mancebo, while Baldwin finished 7th on the stage and moved up two places to 7th overall at 1:10.

The selection was created when OUCH Presented by Maxxis took over the front of the race - which had been controlled by Rock Racing as they kept an eight-rider break in check - at the base of the climb to Mt. Nebo.

“We had a plan for the day and the entire team executed it really well,” said team directeur sportif Mike Tamayo. “We wanted to isolate Rock and create a selection. It was a great job all around.”

Within minutes of taking over the front of the bunch, the peloton blew to pieces under the pressure put on by OUCH Presented by Maxxis.

“It was awesome to see the team control the front of the race and put everyone in the hurt box early,” Baldwin said. “We hit it on the rolling hills on the first part of the climb and had everyone in the drops and pretty much at their limit before the main part of the climb even began. It was an awesome thing to be part of.”

By the time Brad White, sporting the KoM jersey he earned in Stage 1, pulled off the front after taking a pull that Baldwin said lasted at least two kilometers, the front group was down to maybe 20 riders. That quickly shrunk to a select group of 12 riders, including Baldwin and McCarty. And as the 35 km drag up to the finish progressed, the group got progressively smaller.

“Lill was definitely the strongest guy today, but Chris and I were doing most of the damage in the front group,” McCarty said. “We were racing and attacking and most of the other guys were trying to hang on.”

When Lill went, Oscar Sevilla (Rock Racing) covered the move, but dropped back to the reduced chase group to help Mancebo, who was dangling off the back of the small group at times.

“Lill had an amazing ride today,” Baldwin said. “I haven’t seen too many rides like that in my career. We’ll see how tomorrow goes, but the way Pat and I are climbing, I think we can do some damage on Saturday.”

Friday takes the peloton to the Miller Motorsports Park for a 14.5km time trial run on the raceway.