Alex Dowsett takes lead in Tour of Utah

Briton Alex Dowsett took over the lead of the Tour of Utah yesterday when he took second on stage one to David Tanner of the Fly V Australia team.

The pair sprinted for the win 26 seconds ahead of the splintered peloton after they attacked the break away group they had been in.

Tanner took the uphill sprint at the end of the 85 mile stage fairly comfortably, but Dowsett would have known that he would take the leader's yellow jersey after finishing second in the 2.8 mile prologue to his Trek-Livestrong team mate Taylor Phinney the previous day.

Dowsett, the European under-23 time trial champion, also leads the young rider and King of the Mountains classifications in the six day race.

He and his young team mates - Trek-Livestrong is a development team - will now have to defend the lead against Fly V Australia, a strong looking BMC team that includes George Hincapie and Brent Bookwalter, and Levi Leipheimer who is flying solo for Mellow Johnny's.

Today's stage is the latest impressive result for Dowsett who is in discussions with Team Sky for 2011. Dowsett was part of British Cycling's Olympic Academy before signing for Trek-Livestrong this year and basing himself in Boulder, Colorado.

A broken Scapula, sustained in May, is the only blight on an otherwise stellar year for the 21-year-old.

RESULTS

Tour of Utah stage one, Ogden - Salt Lake City 85.2miles

1. David Tanner (Aus) Fly V Austraila 3:22:15

2. Alex Dowsett (GBr) Trek/LIVESTRONG at same time

3. Javier Megias Leal (Esp) Team Type 1 at 26 seconds

4. Caleb Fairly (USA) Team Holowesko Partners

5. K. Frank Pipp (USA) BISSELL Pro Cycling all at same time

RELATED LINKS

Dowsett wins gold at under-23 European championships

EXTERNAL LINKS

Tour of Utah official site