Eric Young (Optum) benefited from the withdrawal of Moreno Hofland (Belkin) from the Tour of Utah to take the biggest win of his career when he emerged as the strongest in today’s fifth stage. In the bunch sprint, he held off fellow domestic sprinter Jure Kocjan (Smartstop) and Kiel Reijnen (Unitedhealthcare) while Tom Danielson (Garmin-Sharp) retained the overall lead.

Moreno Hofland has been the dominant sprinter in the Tour of Utah and going into today’s stage 5 of the American race, all eyes were on the young Dutchman to take a third victory. However, the Belkin rider abandoned the race in the early kilometres and this opened the door for the domestique sprinters to sprint for the win.

Eric Young made the most of the opportunity when he beat Jure Kocjan and Kiel Reijnen in the bunch kick to take the biggest win of his career. Having been perfectly led out by Alex Candelario, he times the high-speed sprint to perfection to finish off strong teamwork from his Optum team that had been the main force in bringing back the early break.

After yesterday’s first mountains stage, the sprinters were expected to get one final chance in stage 5 which brought them oer 163.1km from Evanston to Kamas. The first half of the stage was one long gradual uphill to the top of Bald Mountain, the highest point ever visited by the race, before a long descent brought them back to the finish in Kamas. The race ended with a lap of a flat 39km circuit that included a gravel section inside the final 15km.

The race got off to a very fast and hectic start as lots of riders wanted to be part of the early break. Things were not made any easier by a pretty strong crosswind that made the race very nervous.

A UnitedHealthCare rider attacked straight from the gun and was joined by Jens Voigt (Trek) who was very keen to be part of the action. However, the move was brought back and Belkin set a fast pace in a quest to control the race for Moreno Hofland.

UnitedHealthCar, Smartstop, Hincapie and even Ivan Basso (Cannondale) were among the next riders to attack but it was Voigt who was the most active. However, the German was absent when a group took off.

Jacob Rathe, Brent Bookwalter, Harry Carpenter, Jure Kocjan, Ben Jacques-Maynes, Hayden Roulston, Jetse Bol, Daniel Summerhill and Daniel Eaton made up the group but it didn’t stay away for long as the fast riding continued in the crosswind. New attacks were launched but now several riders were getting dropped in the windy conditions, Ivan Basso being one of the riders to lose contact.

At this point, Moreno Hofland abandoned the race, meaning that the big favourite was now out of the race. This dramatically changed the dynamics of the race as Belkin were now no longer expected to control the stage.

Bookwalter, Voigt, Jeffry Louder (UnitedHealthCare), Alex Candelario (Optum), Sergei Tvetchov (Jelly Belly), Joseph Rosskopf (Hincapie), Oscar Clark (Hincapie) and Maarten Tjallingii (Belkin) got clear and opened a 45-second advantage. However, Smartstop had missed the move and they started to chase hard.

As the peloton started to get closer, the escapees started to attack each other in the wind. Bookwalter, Clark and Louder got clear while Candelario fell back to the peloton.

Smartstop continued to work hard as they wanted Jure Kocjan to win the intermediate sprint and swallowed up the chasers. With a 1.10 gap, however, they realized that they would not be able to make it in time and so they gave up their effort.

While Thomas Dekker and Ben King started to set a steady pace for Garmin, the front trio opened an advantage of 3.10. The American team remained in control as they started to climb up towards the top of Bald Mountain.

Voigt refused to give up and made an attack as soon as the road got a bit steeper. He was joined by Kirk Carlsen (Jelly Belly) and the pair made the junction with 96km to go. KOM leader Harry Carpenter (Hincapie) saw a similar opportunity and he bridged across too.

Tanner Putt (Bissell) was the next rider to try that move but as Carpenter led Voigt, Carlsen, Clark and Bookwalter over the top, he was still 1.10 behind. At that point, the leaders had extended their advantage over the peloton to 4.10.

Putt made use of his best descending skills to try to join the leaders but with 70km to go, he was 3.40 behind. At that point, the peloton was 5 minutes behind and no one had shown any interest in initiating a chase.

Putt dropped back to the peloton in which Optum and Smartstop finally went to work. Flavio De Luna, Michael Friedmann, Thomas Soladay and Jesse Anthony were among the riders who worked hard in a quest to set up their sprinters Jure Kocjan and Eric Young respectively.

The gap was now coming down and with 50km to go, the escapees were only 4 minutes ahead. As Carpenter led Clark and Bookwalter over the finish line for the first time – winning the second intermediate sprint in the process the gap was 2.20.

With 25km to go, it was 1.30 and the battle for position for the gravel section had now started. Ben Hermans (BMC) got a scare when he was involved in a crash and had to chase hard to rejoin the peloton but managed to do so in time for the action to start.

With 16km to go, the gap was 35 seconds and the riders had now hit the gravel section. Belkin and BMC hit the front to keep their leaders protected while the escapees started to attack each other.

Clark launched a strong attack and after a little while Carlsen bridged the gap. While Louder fell off the pace, Carpenter, Voigt and Bookwalter also made the junction but the cohesion had now been broken.

The escapees were dangling just 30 seconds ahead of the peloton but they continued to attack each other. Carlsen launched one of the best accelerations that briefly put Carpenter into difficulty.

With Louder back in the peloton, UnitedHealthCare were now chasing hard but the escapees did still not cooperate. Carpenter fell off the pace for good while Voigt launched a strong attack with 5km to go.

That spelled the end for Carlsen but the peloton was now breathing down the neck of Bookwalter, Voigt and Clark. With 3km to go, they were brought back by Unitedhealthcare that continued to lead the peloton.

With 2km to go, BMC hit the front with Cadel Evans and Michael Schär and their fast pace caused the peloton to split on the crosswinds. Evans led the peloton under the flamme rouge but was passed by a very strong Candelario who accelerated with Young on his wheel.

The Optum pair got a small gap but when Candelario swung off, Young found himself in the wind too early. He was saved by Jacob Rathe (Jelly Belly) who made a late surge to set up Tvetchov for the sprint and when he swung off, Young made his irresistible sprint that gave him the biggest win of his career.

Tom Danielson avoided the danger of the crosswinds and so retained the overall lead. He takes his 57-second advantage over Chris Horner (Lampre) into tomorrow’s big mountain stage that includes a summit finish on the well-known climb to the Snowbird Ski Resort. After an undulating start, the riders will tackle the Guardsmans Pass before descending to the bottom of the final climb that was the scene of a victory for Horner 12 months ago,