White goes on attack, earns first KoM jersey in Utah

Salt Lake City, UT - It only took Brad White about 40 miles before he picked up where he left off in last year’s Tour of Utah. In 2008, his attacking style of riding earned him the Tour’s sprinter’s jersey. Today, it earned him the race’s first King of the Mountains jersey. White slipped off the front with Sam Bewley (Trek-Livestrong) about mid-way through the 85-mile stage, working to open a solid gap on the field. After taking two points on the first KoM earlier in the stage, he was keen to get top points on the day’s second climb up Big Mountain.

“Once we got away, my next objective was getting the points on the second KoM,” White said. “I was hoping we could stay away. I tried to be smart, but it just wasn’t going to happen today.” However, he did succeed in dropping Bewley on the climb and easily claimed the points to secure the jersey.

Once he knew the jersey was his, the next objective was to try and solo the final 25 km mostly downhill to the finish. But a solid headwind and rollers along the way started to take their toll.

On one of the short climbs heading to the finish, he was caught by the Rock Racing duo of Francesco Mancebo and Oscar Sevilla, who had attacked on the final climb, and had Moises Aldape (Team Type 1) in tow.

“I jumped on Aldape’s wheel, but then he got gapped,” White said. “I just didn’t have the legs left to close the gap to the Rock guys. When Mancebo and Sevilla came by, it was impressive. They were really suffering.”

White slid back to the main pack, which was now down to about 40 riders, including OUCH Presented by Maxxis teammates Floyd Landis, Chris Baldwin and Pat McCarty.

“All three of those guys looked great when they rolled up,” White said. “Chris and Floyd didn’t have to burn any matches today. Tomorrow’s a hard day with the long finishing climb up to Mt. Nebo, and Saturday’s just brutal. We’ll see how well Mancebo and Sevilla recover from today. They did a lot of work to get those 25 seconds they finished ahead of the pack. We’ll see what happens. But if today was any indication, I think it’s gonna be a good week. Everyone on the team showed up to race today. Everyone was really active. We’re all feeling pretty good about the week.”

At 124 km, Thursday’s stage is a bit shorter than today’s, but it starts with about 95 km of flats, before climbing the final nearly 35 km and 4,000 feet of elevation to Mt. Nebo.

Photo: Jonathan Devich/epicimages.us