Lachlan Morton (Garmin-Sharp) made it clear why he has long been regarded as a big climbing talent when he took a big solo win in the difficult third stage of the Tour of Utah and took over the leader's jersey from Michael Matthews (Orica-GreenEdge). The Australian attacked on the Mount Nebo with less than 60km to go and not even the combined efforts of Radioshack and BMC were able to bring back the talented youngster.

Lachlan Morton has had a difficult first professional season as a Garmin-Sharp rider but if anyone had doubted whether he has the potential to battle it out with the best, those doubts may have been firm put to rest by his fantastic performance in today's Tour of Utah. The Australian made a bold solo move on the tough Mount Nebo climb and despite the best efforts from the mighty Radioshack and BMC teams, the race favourites never saw the Australian again.

Having crossed the line 33 second ahead of Greg Van Avermaet (BMC) who did an amazing job to stay with the favourites on the mountain, the Australian also takes over the overall lead from Michael Matthews who was dropped on the lower slopes of the day's main challenge and fell out of GC contention. As there is no time trial coming up, Morton now finds himself in a position where he can actually go on to win the race overall.

His jersey defence will kick off in tomorrow's short circuit race in Salt Like City. The course may contain some climbs but as most of the sprinters in the mountainous race are also solid climbers, it is expected to come down to a sprint. Morton will face his first difficult challenge as race leader on Saturday when the queen stage to Snowbird Resort is scheduled.

A big, strong group goes clear

The 192,3km stage from Richield to Payson was mostly flat but towards the end of the stage, the riders had to overcome the feared Mount Nebo who took them up to 2823m of altitude and had its summit located around 38km from the finish. With a fast and technical downhill run to the finish, the stage was expected to end either in a sprint from a small group or with a win from a brave breakaway rider while the GC was also expected to see a major shake-up.

The stage was off to an extremely aggressive start and when the elastic finally snapped, no less than 20 riders were up the road. Larry Warbasse (BMC), Rohan Dennis (Garmin-Sharp), Wesley Sulzberger (Orica-GreenEdge), Baden Cooke (Orica-GreenEdge), Benjamin King (Radioshack), Jonathan Clarke (UnitedHealthCare), Alex Diniz (Funvic), Magno Nazaret (Funvic), Otavio Bulgarelli (Funvic), Pat McCarty (Bissell), Carter Jones (Bissell), Eric Young (Optum), Michael Friedman (Optum), Lawson Craddock (Bontrager), Francisco Mancebo (5-Hour Energy), James Stemper (5-Hour Energy), Fred Rodriguez (Jelly Belly), Luis Davila (Jelly Belly), Andy Baker (Hincapie Sportswear) and Joey Rosskopf (Hinapie Sportswear) made up a very strong lead group and with riders like Dennis, Mancebo and Diniez all in there, the GC had also been brought into play.

The front group splits up

Champion System had missed the move and so the Chinese team did a huge effort to reduce the gap which was stable at around 1 minute for some time until the squad finally cracked. Instead, it was Jens Voigt (Radioshack) who took up the chase work and together with Jamis, he managed to stabilize the gap at around 3 minutes for most of the day.

As the peloton approached Mount Nebo, they brought the advantage down to just 1.40 while up ahead Bulgarelli was the first rider to fall off the pace. After a few kilometres of climbing, only Warbasse, Dennis, Sulzberger, Nazaret, Diniz, Jones, Craddock, Mancebo, Davila, Rosskopf and King were left in the front group.

Three American talents make up a new lead group

As King put down the hammer, Mancebo and Davila were put into difficulty and suddenly only two riders were able to stay in the wheel of the young American. Craddock and Jones made up his company in what was a very strong trio containing some of the brightest American talents.

Craddock lost contact a little later while behind Morton made his move with 52km to go. The Australian kept passing remnants of the break as the peloton was now also splintering to pieces, race leader Matthews one of the early riders to fall off the pace.

Hesjedal falls off the pace

The most prominent victim of the hard pace was former Giro champion Ryder Hesjedal (Garmin-Sharp) whose lacklustre season continued when he was left behind. In the peloton, it was BMC's Michael Schär who did the damage, the Swiss champion trying to set up a comfortable Van Avermaet for a sprint win.

Morton caught up with Jones and King and went directly to the front. King was the first to lose contact and with 40km to go, it was also over for Jones. The two dropped found together to form a chase duo but at the top, they were already one minute behind while the peloton was 45 seconds further adrift.

A small main group

Van Avermaet, Schär, Jakub Novak (all BMC), Tom Danielson, Dennis, Peter Stetina (all Garmin), Chris Horner, George Bennett, Matthew Busche, Tiago Machado (Radioshack), Lucas Euser, Philip Deignan, Ben Day (all UnitedHealthCare), Gregory Brenes, Chris Butler (Champion System), Tsgabu Grmay (MTN-Qhubeka), Michael Torckler (Bissell), Janier Acevedo (Jamis) and Matt Cooke (Jamis) were now the only riders left in the main bunch which caught King and Jones with 27km to go to leave just Morton as the only rider up the road. Radioshack now used their strength in numbers to combine forces with Schär and Novak of BMC to try and reel Morton back in.

Amazingly, the Australian managed to keep the gap above the 1-minute mark for most of the descent and he only started to lose time inside the final 5km. When he crossed the line, he still had a solid gap of more than 30 seconds and rode himself comfortably into the leader's jersey.

Schär led Van Avermaet out for the sprint and the Belgian took an easy win to pick up 6 bonus seconds while Lucas Euser stayed in his wheel to take 3rd and four bonus seconds. As Morton had started the stage 17 seconds behind Van Avermaet on GC, the Australian now leads his Belgian rival by 20 seconds as they head into tomorrow's circuit race in Salt Lake City.

Result:

1. Lachlan Morton 4.20.20

2. Greg Van Avermaet +0.33

3. Lucas Euser +0.34

4. Janier Acevedo

5. Gregory Brenes

General classification:

1. Lachlan Morton

More results to come