SALT LAKE CITY — Winning Stage 2 in the Larry H. Miller Tour of Utah wasn't terribly important to Alex Dowsett.
The youngster from the Trek-Livestrong cycling team had a much bigger goal in mind as he gently rolled into the finish line two seconds behind Fly V Australia's David Tanner.
"I was more concerned about the yellow," Dowsett said. "Yellow was much more of a priority."
As the second-place finisher in Tuesday's prologue, Dowsett's second straight runner up finish was more than enough to lift him to the top step of the podium for the general classification.
That means the Tour of Utah leader's jersey is no longer on the shoulders of Taylor Phinney, but stays comfortably in possession of the Trek-Livestrong team.
Dowsett now holds an 11-second advantage over Tanner in the overall chase.
BMC Pro Cycling's Brent Bookwalter remains third overall, 40 seconds back, while United Healthcare's Rory Southerland is 41 seconds behind and BMC's Jeff Louder and George Hincapie are 44 and 45 second back, respectively.
Utah's Burke Swindlehurst said Wednesday's race was a nonstop battle from the moment the field finished its loop around Pineview Reservoir and began the climb to Snowbasin.
"It was a pretty brutal stage out there," Swindlehurst, riding for the KFAN/Team Give squad, said. "We covered 90 miles in about three hours and 20 minutes. It was pretty much on the throttle all day long."
The Tour of Utah continues in the morning when the racers gather at Thanksgiving Point in Lehi and race around the west side of Utah Lake and south to Nephi before turning sharply uphill as the racers will probably hit the Mount Nebo climb as a large pack, only to shatter moments later as the climbers take control of the race.
"If I can limit my losses," Dowsett said, "I think I'll be all right. We'll see what happens."
Louder, hoping to ride his way back into podium contention, sees Stage 2 as critical and expressed a little disappointment in not being able to pull the chase group fast enough to catch the two-man break of Tanner and Dowsett after the crested the Little Mountain Summit in Emigration Canyon.
"They were in sight over Little Mountain," Louder said. "But once we got around the turns they were gone and we couldn't see them again."
Trimming the 44 seconds he needs to get into first place won't be easy, but because the Utah native knows that climb well, Louder sees an opportunity he would like to seize.
"Tomorrow is going to take a big effort just to get up that hill," Louder said. "We'll see what happens."
Former Utahn Levi Leipheimer also stayed in contention for the overall lead and is in seventh place overall, just 47 off the pace set by Dowsett.
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