Snowbird, UT - After more than 14 hours and nearly 700 kilometers of racing, the Larry H. Miller Tour of Utah came down to the final three kilometers of the climb up to the Snowbird ski station at 8,200 feet of elevation.

Coming into the final, epic 90-mile stage, covering three massive climbs in the last 46 half of the route, Jeff Louder of the Health Net Pro Cycling Team Presented by Maxxis held a two-second lead over his teammate, Scott Moninger, and 23 seconds over third-place Glen Chadwick (Navigators).

With the battle for the stage win being fought out from the remnants of an early - and by the time the stage finish approached, non-threatening - break, Louder, Moninger and Chadwick were riding together up toward the finish.

Approaching 3 km to go, Chadwick made his move, with Moninger marking him. Louder, perhaps a bit fatigued from the effort to get the leader's jersey on his shoulders after Stage 4, couldn't match the pace.

But Moninger, the ageless climber from Boulder, had hung with Chadwick, then pipped him at the line to take 6th on the stage, which was won by Blake Caldwell (TIAA-CREF). Louder rode a solid tempo to the finish, coming in a minute later to take 10th on the stage. But the gap was more than enough for Moninger to assume the overall lead, 0:21 ahead of Chadwick. Louder was able to hold onto the final spot on the podium in 3rd place, 0:59 behind Moninger.

Though disappointed to lose the lead in his home-state tour, Louder was consoled by the fact that the jersey fell onto the shoulders of his teammate.

Taking shape with one-two punch from Health Net Presented by Maxxis

The first two, mostly flat stages did little to give a clue as to how the final overall standings would look. Sergey Lagutin, the strong all-around rider from Navigators won the sprint to take Stage 1, and the overall lead, with Louder finishing a solid 5th on the stage.

The second stage finished in a three-up sprint among Lagutin, Louder and Chris Wherry (Toyota-United), with Wherry taking the win, but Lagutin holding onto 1st overall by four seconds over Wherry, and eight seconds over Louder, who finished second on the stage.

The final standings started to come more into focus during the Stage 3 13.6 km individual time trial. Wherry once again came out on top, showing his form by finishing ahead of his teammate and national time trial champion, Chris Baldwin. Despite finishing third in the TT, Lagutin lost the overall lead to Wherry, while Louder's 5th place finish on the stage dropped him to 4th overall, as Baldwin used his strong ride to move up to 3rd.

But the real fireworks didn't start until the Tour's first climbing stage. The route on Stage 4 ended with an epic, 24-mile slog that covered 4,500 feet of elevation gain up Mt. Nebo. And by the end of the stage, the top three riders, if not the final three positions, of the Tour of Utah would be determined.

"The climb just kept going," was how Louder described the epic finish up to the top of Mt. Nebo. But the effort was more than worth it. By the time he crossed the line, Louder owned the race lead in his home state tour after finishing second on the stage to teammate Scott Moninger, who moved up to 2nd overall, just two second behind Louder.

The stage itself held few surprises until the closing kilometers, as a break that included Mike Sayers of Health Net Presented by Maxxis went up the road early, and was still off the front when they reached the base of the climb, just 40 miles into the stage.

Toyota-United monitored the front of the peloton protecting race leader Wherry. But once the road turned upward, the expected fireworks started. Phil Zajicek (Navigators) was one of the first to go, attacking out of the remnants of the break. Behind, TIAA-CREF lined up what amounted to a lead-out train to try and launch Blake Caldwell, despite still having Michael Creed up the road in the break.

Caldwell opened a gap of 20 seconds before Burke Swindlehurst (Navigators) another local favorite and frequent training partner of Louder's, made the first serious move. Moninger was the first to react, grabbing Swindlehurst's wheel.

Glen Chadwick (Navigators) was the next to have a go. Behind, Louder was sticking close to race leader Wherry, waiting for the right time to attack in chase of Chadwick. When he went, the first surprise came when neither Wherry, Baldwin or Lagutin could respond, and Louder was off on his own.

"After I went off, I actually spent quite a long time riding on my own chasing Chadwick," Louder said. Once he caught Chadwick, they started to close in on their respective teammates, with Moninger sitting on Swindlehurst to put an anchor on the navigators rider's efforts, conserve his energy and give Louder a better chance of catching on.

Louder and Chadwick made contact with 3 km to go, and no sooner had they got to what was now a trio of riders, as Zajicek had come back to help Swindlehurst, Moninger took off.

"I was pretty gassed when we got up there, and I actually wanted Scott to go before I made contact," Louder explained. Regardless, the move worked to perfection, with Moninger opening a gap that ended up at 0:19 by the finish.

Chadwick tried to follow, but Swindlehurst couldn't, instead fading a bit in the final kilometers. Louder stuck to Chadwick's wheel and approaching the line, came around the Navigators rider to give Health Net Presented by Maxxis the one-two finish, as well as gain an additional six seconds in time bonus. Chadwick earned four seconds as well.

Swindlehurst hung on to come in at 0:32 behind Moninger. Wherry ended up losing 1:40 to Moninger and fell to 5th overall behind Swindlehurst and Chadwick. Perhaps the biggest loser on the day was Sergey Lagutin (Navigators), who came into the stage 2nd overall, but lost 2:35 to the stage winner, falling to 7th overall. But Navigators were still sitting in good position, occupying the 3rd, 4th, 6th and 7th spots overall.

But before Louder could get to Saturday's decisive Stage 6 in the yellow jersey, he had to make sure he was still wearing it in front of the home-town crowd after the potentially decisive Stage 5, a short but hilly circuit race in Salt Lake City.

"I expect the lead group to only have maybe 20 riders in it by the end," Louder said before the stage. "Whoever survives that will fight it out in the mountainous final stage Saturday."

The stage went according to plan, with a non-threatening break getting - and staying - away around the difficult three-mile circuit. Baldwin came back from his sufferfest on the climb up to Mt. Nebo to win the stage out of a group of seven riders, 0:55 ahead of larger-than-expected main peloton, which was led in by Lagutin in 9th. Louder finished next, with Moninger tucked safely in the main bunch to preserve his 2nd place overall position, as well as the lead in the KOM competition he earned en route to winning the stage on Mt. Nebo.

This set the stage for the race to be determined in the closing kilometers of Stage 6.

Official Results