BMC Racing Team's Brent Bookwalter finished seventh on Friday's uphill finish to move into second overall with two days remaining at the Larry H. Miller Tour of Utah.

Bookwalter said he did not go into the base of the one-kilometer climb to the finish in the best of positions.

"But Taylor Phinney and Michael Schär did a good job fighting for me," Bookwalter said. "Some of the Colombians kamikaze'd me off their wheel. I was really fighting them for it, but they made it clear they were willing to go down if it meant keeping their wheel."

Michael Woods won a second straight stage for the Optum presented by Kelly Benefit Strategies team. Bookwalter arrived four seconds later and moved from third to second overall, four seconds behind Woods, who became the new race leader.

"It was a short, explosive climb at altitude so I sort of felt like I had to ride it at my own pace," Bookwalter said. "You saw guys fading really hard in the last 200 meters. Michael Woods showed he was clearly above the rest of us, with a big time gap and now the lead. But looking at the results, I am pretty proud of how I recovered on the climb. I did a good last 200 meters to put some time into the other GC (general classification) guys."

Saturday's race is 177 kilometers over three mountain passes, culminating with a mountain-top finish at the Snowbird Ski & Summer Resort. Sunday's final stage is 125.5 kilometers on a circuit that starts and finishes in Park City.
 

Taylor Phinney earned the American First Credit Union "Fan Favorite" jersey for winning an online poll for the "most inspiring comeback" among six riders at the race. Teammate Peter Stetina, who joined Phinney in making a comeback at the race, finished third in the voting.

Phinney was not able to be recognized on the podium due to a severe thunderstorm that pushed over the finish line tress during the awards ceremony. At least one person was seriously injured by the falling structure and the ceremony and post-race press conference were canceled.