Chris Horner (Radioshack) showed that he is back from his injuries by taking a big win on the queen stage to the top of the Snowbird climb in the Tour of Utah. Arriving at the finish with compatriot Tom Danielson (Garmin), the 41-year old American was the fastest and took the stage win and the overall lead away from young Lachland Morton (Garmin) who fell off the pace on the climb and lost more than 3 minutes.

It has been a tough year for Chris Horner whose knee injury forced him to miss most of the early season. Until now he has only finished one race the entire season, the Tirreno-Adriatico back in March, and when he took to the start line of the Tour of Utah on Tuesday, he lined up at his first race since the Volta a Catalunya 5 months ago.

However, that long break has not seen him slow down at all as he proved today by taking the win in the queen stage of the American stage race. Have made it back to Tom Danielson who had initially left him behind, he had enough left in the tank to beat him in the flat sprint on the top of the final climb to Snowbird Resort.

The win was enough to move him into the overall lead on a count back as previous leader Lachlan Morton struggled on the final climb and lost almost 4 minutes to the two veterans ahead. Horner's teammate George Bennett and Matthew Busche finished off a fantastic day for Radioshack by finishing 4th and 6th to move themselves into 4th and 5th on GC respectively.

Horner now faces the challenge of a tough jersey in tomorrow's short 125,8km final stage starting and finishing in Park City. The top of the Empire Pass is located just 8,2km from the finish and from there it is downhill all the way to the line, making it impossible for Horner to take anything for granted at this moment in time.

An aggressive start

The 182km queen stage had its usual finish at the top of the climb to Snowbird Resort and was expected to produce a major shake-up of the GC. Several teams tried to put the Garmin team of race leader Morton under pressure during the opening part of the race as attacks went off in both sides of the road.

Jens Voigt (Radioshack), Cannondale and Orica-GreenEdge were some of the most aggressive and Garmin had a hard time making sure that they kept the situation under control. The first move threatened to gain some serious ground consisted of Michel Koch (Cannondale) and Damian Howson (Orica-GreenEdge) but that move had the same ill-fated destiny as most other moves during the opening hour of the race.

10 riders go clear

Finally, the elastic snapped, making it possible for a 10-rider group to open up a significant gap. Voigt, Wesley Sulzberger (Orica-GreenEdge), Yannick Eijssen (BMC), Stephen Cummings (BMC), Michael Torckler (Bissell), Sergei Tvetchov (Jelly Belly), Jesse Anthony (Optum), Edward King (Cannondale), James Stemper (5-Hour) and Kiel Reijnen (UnitedHealthCare) were the riders that were allowed to go clear and they managed to build up a gap of more than 2 minutes.

Garmin-Sharp made sure to keep the gap under control and Rohan Dennis, Christian Vande Velde and David Zabriskie all did a huge job on the flat roads that led to the bottom of the first of the final big two climbs. As soon as the peloton hit the lower slopes, it started to splinter to pieces as numerous riders fell off the pace, one of them being 2nd-placed Greg Van Avermaet (BMC) who finally found the going a little bit too tough.

Cummings puts down the hammer

Up ahead, Cummings sacrificed himself for teammate Eijssen and his hard pace saw the group splinter to pieces. Anthony and Stemper were the first to fall off, later it was over for King and Reijnen and Sulzberger now also came into the difficulty. The last one to surrender was Voigt who dug deep to stay in contact but finally had to let the front quartet go.

As they neared the top, Cummings finished his job and fell off while Eijssen soloed off on his own. Having climbed on his own for some time, he decided to wait for Torckler who was not too far behind, and those two riders crested the summit together, Torckler taking maximum points to solidify his lead in the KOM competition.

Morton with limited support

The peloton had now been dramatically reduced and Danielson was now the only rider left to support Morton. The American led the peloton over the top and by now Torckler and Eijssen were the only riders that were still ahead of the yellow jersey group. Radioshack had the numbers as Horner, Bennett and Busche were all still present.

Danielson slowed down on the descent which allowed the gap to the front group to grow out to more than 2 minutes while more and more riders rejoined from behind. Peter Stetina made it across to make it three Garmin riders in the group while Tiago Machado, Voigt and Ben King also got back on and so Radioshack had 6 riders in a group that consisted of less than 30 riders.

Garmin set a fierce pace

As soon as the road started to point upwards, Torckler fell off the pace, his job of taking KOM points having been finished. Behind Stetina and later Danielson set a furious pace which allowed them to pick up Torckler and Jeffrey Louder (UnitedHealthCare) who had made a small dig off the front.

The group was now once again splitting to pieces under the hard pace set by Danielson and drama was created when Morton was suddenly unable to keep up with his teammate. Radioshack sensed the opportunity and immediately launched Busche off the front.

Danielson attacks

The American was brought back in and instead Danielson now decided to race for himself. The Garmin rider accelerated and only Bennett was able to keep up with the veteran American.

Janier Acevedo (Jamis) made it across to form a strong trio while behind Horner, Busche, Lucas Euser (UnitedHealthCare) and Philip Deignan (UnitedHealthCare) were chasing desperately. Danielson and Acevedo both made unsuccessful attacks while the trio edged closer and closer to Eijssen who still looked smooth.

Horner makes it across

Danielson made another attack which appeared to be the decisive as he left both of his companions behind. Surprisingly, Horner had by now found some hidden reserves and made it across to his compatriot while Busche, Bennett and Euser formed a chase trio behind.

With two teammates just behind, Horner decided not to do any work and left it to Danielson to set the pace all the way up the climb. With 3,9km to go, they caught Eijssen and the Belgian impressed by being able to stay in the wheels of the Americans.

Eijssen is left behind

Eijssen even had enough left in the tank to launch a late attack but Danielson was quick to bring him back and moments later, the BMC youngster fell off the pace. From then, it was Danielson setting the pace with Horner in his wheel all the way to the final 500m where the roads flattened out.

Having done all the work, Danielson didn't have enough power left to respond when Horner opened up his sprint, the American taking a clear win. Eijssen held on to take 3rd while Bennett beat Euser and Busche in the sprint to take 4th. Morton crossed the line with a time loss of more than 4 minutes but managed to save his lead in the young riders' competition.

Result:

1. Chris Horner 4.52.45

2. Tom Danielson

3. Yannick Eijssen +0.31

4. George Bennett +0.37

5. Lucas Euser

6. Matthew Busche

7. Philip Deignan +0.58

8. Janier Acevedo +1.08

9. Francisco Mancebo +1.14

10. Michael Schär +1.31

General classification:

1. Chris Horner 19.52.52

2. Tom Danielseon

3. Lucas Euser +0.33

4. Matthew Busche +0.37

6. Philip Deignan +0.58

7. Tiago Machado +1.41

8. Michael Schär +1.42

9. Janier Acevedo +1.43

10. Chris Butler +2.00

Points classification:

1. Greg Van Avermaet 46

2. Michael Matthews 43

3. Kiel Reijnen 27

4. Jasper Stuyven 24

5. Eric Young 18

Mountains classification:

1. Michael Torckler 40

2. Tom Danielson 21

3. Yannick Eijssen 17

4. Lachlan Morton 16

5. Chris Horner 14

Youth classification:

1. Lachlan Morton 19.56.14

2. Gavin Mannion +2.34

3. Tsgabu  Grmay +10.40

4. Luis Enrique Davila +16.37

5. Andzs Flaksis +21.56

Teams classification:

1. Radioshack 59.39.53

2. UnitedHealthCare +3.57

3. BMC +4.29

4. Garmin - Sharp +15.31

5. Jamis - Hagens Berman +18.12