Philadelphia World Cup: Armitstead wins ahead of Longo Borghini

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Elizabeth Armitstead (Boels Dolmans Cycling Team) took over the UCI World Cup lead Sunday with a win at the Philadelphia International Cycling Classic. The British rider sprinted up Manayunk Wall ahead of Elisa Longo Borghini (Wiggle Honda) and Alena Amialiusik (Velocio-SRAM).

The victory came as a bit of a surprise for Armitstead, who said the team's goal was to work for two-time winner Evelyn Stevens, but the American got lost in the shuffle for position in the three quick turns into the base of the Manayunk Wall.

"Evie got lost in that mess at the bottom. It's really difficult to get it right," Armitstead said. "I was trying to find her, and couldn't see her. She got lost in the chicane. Then [the responsibility] came back to me."

Armitstead was impressed with the aggressive nature of the race and the willingness of the other teams to make the racing hard throughout the whole 115km.

"In Europe, often times we are heavily marked, but I was really impressed with the peloton," Armitstead said. "Everyone was aggressive. They were taking on the race themselves, it was a good race."

Boels Dolmans came in with the defending champion, but with only four riders rather than the maximum six, they were outnumbered by the other teams and had to be smart with their efforts. Stevens, Armitstead, Chrstine Majerus and American champion Megan Guarnier stayed attentive near the front, and together with Velocio-SRAM, UnitedHealthcare, Wiggle Honda and Ale Cipollini ensured that no breakaway gained much of an advantage.

"With only four girls, it's harder. I think we did a good job with the number of girls we had today," Armitstead said.

Jasmin Glaesser (Optum p/b Kelly Benefit Strategies) was away during laps two and three, but was chased down after Lemon Hill. Emilie Moberg (Hitec Products) was the next rider to get away, and her moved lasted half a lap.

It wasn't until the final lap that a dangerous move from Moberg's teammate Charlotte Becker looked like it might stick, but Boels Dolmans got on the gas and brought her back. Ale Cipollini's Dalia Muccioli countered when Becker was caught, but the Twenty 16-Sho Air team nailed that move back.

Velocio-SRAM's Loren Rowney led a group of only 30 or so riders on the high-speed sprint to the base of the Manayunk Wall, but the quick right-right-left succession of turns with a section of cobblestones proved to be the undoing of a number of riders, including Stevens. Katie Hall (Unitedhealthcare) launched a vicious attack on the base of the climb to set up teammate Coryn Rivera, but faded after the steepest part of the ascent.

Amialiuski, who was fresh off her victory in the Winston-Salem UCI 1.2-ranked race last weekend, powered past Rivera and Shelley Olds (Bigla) to claim the final podium spot, but she couldn't match Armitstead or Longo Borghini's finishing kick.

"It was a good job from my team," Amaliusik said. “I'm so happy and I want to say thank you to my teammates. We fly home tonight and we had some great results here. We won Tour of California, last weekend and podium today. It was an amazing two months."

Hitec Products came away with the sprint classification with Moberg and the most aggressive rider's prize for Becker, and both were pleased to get some podium time.

"The strategy was for us to go in the breakaway because the finish doesn't suit any of us very well," Moberg said. “We're all better with the flat sprints. The tactic was to get in a breakaway and to do the sprint competition for me.”

Becker credited her entire team for the Hitec duo’s ability to come away with the jerseys.

"We were all very active, and Emilie got the sprint prize,” she said. “Unfortunately there was never a good break going. I tried a lot of times, and finally I was alone in the last lap out of about 20 riders. I thought if I try now I'll definitely get nothing in the finish if they catch me, but if I don't try, maybe I can get 15th place. So I tried, and it hurt a lot. I had no power left for the last climb."

Results

Sprint Overall

QOM Overall