Abbott, Mancebo prevail on windy Mogollon stage

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US National Champion Mara Abbott (Diadora-Pasta Zara) won the finishing ascent up Mogollon for the second consecutive season at the SRAM Tour of the Gila. She won the opening stage ahead of Pactimo Cycling Team duo, Flavia Oliviera (Pactimo Racing) and multiple Olympic medallist from Canada, Clara Hughes.

"My team lined it up perfectly and all did their jobs perfectly and it was gorgeous," Abbott said of her teammates who led her into the base of the final climb. "I was in awe of them even before I knew how the race finished up. Climbing, you just have to wait for the moment and it is sort of an instinct. When I attacked it was the right moment. My teammate attacked first and I followed her and countered and Flavia came with me."

Abbott is the defending overall champion of the Tour of the Gila, and is currently leading both the Queen of the Mountain (QOM) competition and the overall race heading into the second stage. The women will take on a 125km road race from Fort Bayard to Fort Bayard on Thursday.

"This race is a cool race and I remember last year with all the winds on the Inner Loop - it was the most epic adventure so I don't think that you can ever be too sure at Gila," Abbott said. "But, the way they rode today was awe inspiring and I'm looking forward to getting to do more of that this week."

The Pro-Cat 1 and 2 women's field embarked on a 117km opening stage of the SRAM Tour of the Gila. The field rolled through the town of Silver City before venturing across the Continental Divide and onto the undulating terrain of highway 180 for approximately 100km before reaching the 10km finishing ascent on Mogollon. Full teams looking for a stage win included Tibco-To the Top, Peanut Butter & Co Twenty12, Colavita Forno D'Asolo, Diadora-Pasta Zara, Missing Link Coaching Systems, Primal-MapMyRide, Pactimo Cycling and Juvederm.

The day started with several attacks heading into the first intermediate sprint located just passed the town of Mangas Springs, 32km into the stage. Modesta Vzesniauskaite (Colavita Forno D'Asolo) took full points in the first sprint ahead of her teammate Heather Logan-Spregner in second and Olivia Dillon (Peanut Butter & Co Twenty12) in third.

The field veered off of highway 180 for a short duration to take a lap over the Gila River, and through the small town of Cliff. Kristin Sanders (Colavita Forno D'Asolo) rode off the front in an effort to form a larger breakaway. Unfortunately, no other riders joined her and she was committed to a solo breakaway for the next 50km.

"It seemed to be like the right time to go and I took off from the middle of the peloton and I had some speed, gained a gap and just kept going," Sanders said. "We had to sort out as we went what we were going to do with it. I would have loved to have had a couple of companions but in the end five Colavita girls got a chill day and if I could do that for them, I am more than happy."

Sanders took full points in the second intermediate in Buckhorn. Her teammate Vzesniauskaite took second place points from the bunch sprint and moved into the lead of the event's best sprinter competition.

Abbott's Diadora-Pasta Zara teammates drove the pace into the bottom of the climb, where a group of approximately 12 climbers emerged. "The right-hand turn is a critical point of the race and my teammates rode beautifully," Abbott said.

Abbott attacked, taking Oliveira with her, and the pair gained a sizable lead on their nearest competitors Hughes, Andrea Dvorak, Janel Holcomb and Cath Cheatley (Colavita Forno D'Asolo), Nicole Evans (Primal-MayMyRide) and several others.

"I just met Flavia two days ago and I call her 'half Clara' because she is about the size of one of my legs," Hughes laughed. "We are a composite team and this is my first road race, basically, since 2003. This was kind of a funny stage with the climb at the end."

"Mara had her teammates drove it and one of her teammates attack," she added. "I told Flavia to follow her and not to put her nose in the wind unless it was the finish line. She did a good job."

Mancebo takes Mogollon and Gila race lead

Francisco Mancebo (RealCyclist.com) climbed into victory atop the brutally hard Mogollon ascent at the end of the first stage of the SRAM Tour of the Gila on Wednesday. The Spaniard rode to the top of the 10-kilometre climb ahead of Tyler Wren (Jamis-Sutter Home) in second and Joseph Dombrowski (Trek-Livestrong) in third.

"It was a tight climb and it was hard to see because we were about a kilometre behind," said RealCyclist.com Directeur Sportif Gord Fraser. "We knew that he was in the lead with about a kilometres to go. We were pretty sure that once he got some daylight in between that it would be pretty hard for anyone to close that."

Mancebo took the overall race lead and the King of the Mountain (KOM) jersey heading into the second stage, 125km from Fort Bayard and back to Fort Bayard. Wren is sitting in second and Dombrowski in third.

The Pro-Cat 1 men's peloton contested a challenging 151km opening road race at the SRAM Tour of the Gila. The riders climbed out of Silver City and crossed the Continental Divide before descending down HWY 180 for the long haul to finishing ascent on Mogollon.

Danny Summerhill (Chipotle Development Team) took the top points in the first sprint, and in the early part of the race small breakaways formed but none were able to establish a significant gap.

In the second bonus sprint near km 100, Roman Van Uden (Pure Black Racing) took the sprint ahead of Summerhill, who accumulated enough points to take the lead in the sprint competition.

"First and foremost we want to work for our climbers and then there is a second group that are designated for breakaways," Summerhill said. "That is where I decided to go for the jersey. I wanted to get into a break to accomplish getting a jersey. Nothing seemed to stick today. Things would go but then there was one wrong guy and the field wouldn't let it go. "

Following the sprint, Van Uden entered into a breakaway with Reid Mumford (Kelly Benefit Strategies-OptumHealth). The pair were off the front for nearly 30 kilometres until a group of 18 riders bridged across. The large group did gain any additional time and was later reabsorbed into the field.

"I tried to be aggressive and get into a break but nothing was sticking," Van Uden said. "I got into a couple of moves and one with the Kelly Benefits rider. We got off at the end of the second circuit and stayed out for a while. The racing kind of brought it all back together. The field seemed keen to keep it all together."

The riders made a right-hand turn onto the first section of the finishing climb, approximately two kilometres of steep switchbacks before cresting onto a windy mesa. The race heated up as the field veered left onto the second and steepest section of the climb to Mogollon.

Mancebo attacked near the base of the climb but did not get far before a chase group of roughly ten riders reeled him back in. He attacked for a second time with roughly two kilometres to go that resulted in small separations amongst the top group of climbers.

Mancebo's nearest competitor was Wren followed by Dombrowski, Alex Howes and Lachlan Morton (Chipotle Development Team), Chris Baldwin (Bissell), George Bennett (Trek-Livestrong), Ben Day (Kenda/5-hour Energy), Cesar Grajales (RealCyclist.com), Luis Amaran (Jamis-Sutter Home) and Nathaniel English (Yahoo! Cycling Team), along with several others.

"Paco is a real competitor, I can tell he loves to suffer and race aggressively and I respect that. No one could follow when he attacked, he deserved that victory," Wren said. "My Jamis-Sutter Home teammates graciously sacrificed themselves for Luis and me today, a true sign of good teamwork and a big sign of things to come this week from the Jamis crew." 

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