Tooele, UT - Jeff Louder of the Health Net Pro Cycling Team Presented by Maxxis finished second in Stage 2 of the Larry H. Miller Tour of Utah Tuesday, moving up to 3rd overall behind Stage 1 winner Sergey Lagutin (Navigators) and Stage 2 winner Chris Wherry (Toyota-United).

Despite a 5th place finish in the opening stage, Louder came into the stage sitting 9th overall, due to time bonuses earned by other riders out on the course. However, Louder got the benefit of a six-second time bonus at the finish today, as well as a five-second gap that the lead trio opened to the rest of the field, to move up into a strong position in his home-state tour.

The peloton stayed together for the mostly flat, hot stage, with only a couple small breaks going away, including one with Mike Sayers of Health Net Presented by Maxxis and Ryan Yee (Successful Living) late in the stage. The duo opened up a gap of around a minute, which they held until reaching the 3.2 km finishing circuits on the Miller Motorsports track in tiny Tooele.

Sayers was hoping that the fact he isn't a strong climber or time trialist would help convince Navigators, which had the yellow jersey on Lagutin's back, to give he and Yee a bit more leash. But Navigators opted to bring things back rather than potentially put Sayers in the race lead.

Still, with the plan to make Navigators burn some matches ahead of the first climbing stage on Thursday, things went well. And when Wherry attacked with two kilometers to go, Louder had no trouble sitting on his wheel to take second place on the stage.

The Tour of Utah continues today with a 13 km time trial. Louder was in a similar position at the Cascade Classic in July, and used the short time trial there to vault ahead of Wherry into the race lead. He will look to do the same today, as he only sits eight seconds behind Lagutin, and four behind Wherry.

General Classification after Stage 2

Official Results