Defending champ Leipheimer takes Gila opener

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Levi Leipheimer (Mellow Johnny’s) hasn’t lost any form over the last year, which he proved as he took a second consecutive and equally convincing victory atop the steep Mogollon ascent. The three-time Amgen Tour of California winner set his own uphill pace to outpace Tom Danielson (DZ Nuts) and Cesar Grajales (Ouch-Bahati Foundation) to the finish.

“It was a little harder today and I had to suffer more,” Leipheimer said. “I haven’t been at altitude much this year and it was hurting a little right through here. The wind picked up, I don’t think we had 50 mile an hour gusts but it made it hard in the last half of the race. I say it is a tougher field this year.”

More than 185 men wound their way up the Snake Rd neutral start, passing flocks of school children out to watch the bike race. As the riders crossed the Continental Divide, the neutral start ended and the race began along HWY 180 North.

An early break set out including Jonathan Garcia (Rio Grande), Alex Dowsett and Ben King (Trek-Livestrong), Carson Miller, Victor Riquelme (TriSports Cycling/Eclipse), Walker Savidge (Holowesko Partners), Cody O’Reilly (Bissell), Andrew Dahlheim (Metro VW), Darren Rolfe (Fly V Australia) and Marsh Cooper (Rubicon-Orbea).

The group worked well together and gained nearly nine and half minutes on the peloton before entering the two short circuits through the small town of Cliffs. The breakaway exited the second and final short lap back onto HWY 180 North with a diminished lead of approximately seven minutes.

Dowsett picked up the first intermediate sprint and placed second in the next to earn the best sprinter’s jersey along the way. The gap decreased slowly with each passing kilometre, before the breakaway began to splinter due to the strong crosswinds over the large rollers.

Dowsett broke away from the lead group as it neared the ascent, but he was quickly reeled back in. Miller was the next to make a move over the distinct White Water Mesa, a flat section of terrain before the steep climb, but was caught half way up the climb.

“I took my dig over the mesa because it was flat and that was probably the only chance I had to go,” Miller said. “I had some good momentum across that section. We were all super tired. I think they ended their misery sooner than I did. My gap was bigger than I expected and I held on until three kilometres to go and that was the end of that.”

A group of approximately 20 riders rode out of the main peloton at the base of the eight-kilometre finishing climb, in pursuit of the remaining riders from the breakaway. Miller was the last rider to succumb to the quick tempo back in the field from teams setting up their strong climbers.

Dave Zabriskie (DZ Nuts) put forth a strong effort that shed half of the riders in the front group and only 10 of the strongest climbers remained in contention for the stage win. Luis Amaran (Jamis-Sutter Home) was the next to make a move, gaining nearly 10-seconds with one and half kilometres to go. The Cuban all-rounder miss-judged the distance to the finish and began to fade over the next several hundred metres. His effort succeeded in drawing out the three strongest climbers in Grajales, Danielson and Leipheimer.

Grajales did much of the pace setting until he was alone with Leipheimer and Danielson trailed close behind. Leipheimer moved to the front and set his own tempo that caused Grajales to fall off the back, before going solo over the last 800-metres to claim victory.

“I feel more comfortable riding at the front and I wanted to see who was going to be able to stay,” Grajales said. “There were a couple of attacks that I followed and Levi was really strong. Danielson caught me close to the finish line and passed me. I’ve never done this climb and didn’t have too much information on it. I wish I knew it better, to know what to expect. I’m really happy that I am in good form.”

Danielson caught and passed Grajales for second place with 100-metres to the line, while Grajales hung on for third place. Last year’s fifth and final stage winner Phil Zajicek (Fly V Australia) placed fourth.

“On the climb we raced pretty conservatively because everybody is trying to feel everybody out,” Danielson said. “We are here, a little bit, to prepare for the Tour of California and everyone is a little bit timid. Danny Summerhill and Alex Howes did a good job and Dave Zabriskie put in an attack and drove the pace pretty good and then I put in an attack.

“Luis [Amaran] was ahead a little bit and then me, Levi and Cesar,” he added. “I felt that at altitude it was better for me to ride a little bit behind him. Eventually he dropped Cesar and I just kept riding the same pace. He was definitely the strongest guy but I feel like I’m not too far behind.”

Andrew Talansky (California Giant Berry Farms) proved to be the best climber amongst the youngsters and will wear the event’s best young rider’s jersey. Breakaway rider Dowsett picked up enough points in the stage’s intermediate sprint zones to take the early lead in the sprinter’s competition.

Abbott opens Gila with a monster lead

Mara Abbott (Peanut Butter & Co. TWENTY12) showed off her mountain skills by outpacing the peloton with a commanding lead to the top the Mogollon, the SRAM Tour of the Gila’s opening stage finish climb. The Boulder-native finished two and half minutes ahead of her nearest competitor Cath Cheatley (Colavita-Baci) and Katheryn Mattis (Webcor-Builders) in third.

“It was a really fun climb,” Abbott said. “Going into the climb, my girls worked really hard to bring down the gap to Anne Samplonius. As we started the climb we started to bunch up a little bit. Alisha got on the front and rode hard; she strung it out and was so responsive when I told her to go. We got a bit of a gap and I used that to get more of a gap,” she added. “It was windy and I knew that if I could get a gap there it would be hard for people to organise a chase and it would give me more time to get as big of a gap as I could.

“Everyone on the team had a job and everyone did their job perfectly today,” Abbott added. “When you finish a race like that, it is just so exciting because there is nobody feeling badly about their performance because everyone rode astonishingly. It was pretty fun.”

Some 75 elite women lined up for the 115-kilometre race that ended on the notoriously steep climb up to Mogollon. Anne Samplonius (Vera Bradley Foundation) did what only the brave would by attacking at kilometre six and launching herself into a lengthy solo breakaway.

Samplonius’ efforts garnered a seven-minute advantage ahead of a relatively complacent field. Vera Bradley Foundation’s directeur sportif Lisa Hunt was surprised by the margin her rider was able to draw out.

“We were hoping that others would go with her and we wanted to animate the race to get a break off,” said Hunt. “When Anne attacked people just thought it was too early and she won’t get far. I was really surprised that no one went with her. The motivation was to get the other teams chasing and we knew the strongest climber was Mara. We wanted to make Peanut Butter work and all the other teams too. It would have been great to have a couple of other people with Anne because maybe she wouldn’t have gotten caught where she did, maybe further up the climb.

“It was a long day and Anne is tired,” she added. “She did an awesome job, I know how strong she is and she is a great aggressive rider and that is one of the reasons I picked her up for this race. She is aggressive, smart and willing to take chances.”

Peanut Butter & Co. TWENTY12 recognised that in having the strongest climber in the peloton, the responsibility was on it to reduce the gap before the climb. Its riders took the initiative with Lauren Tamayo, Olivia Dillon and Kristin McGrath rotating at the front of the field to keep the time margin from increasing.

“This is my first time at Gila so I don’t know all the courses that well but I’ve gotten a lot of information from a lot of people who have done it,” Tamayo said. “I knew it was a long day out there and with a 10K climb at the finish, you can’t go from out there, it’s just way too long. We knew the winds were going to pick up so I was comfortable with giving Anne about seven minutes.

“At one point there were other teams that tried to put in one rider each and in five kilometres we brought the time gap down by 30 or so seconds,” she added. “So I thought that at 40K to go, we should start throwing our girls up there. We kept the pace nice and steady and brought her back exactly when we needed in order to set Mara up for the climb.”

Despite Samplonius’ valiant effort, Peanut Butter & Co. TWENTY12 successfully reeled the day’s solo breakaway rider back in at the base of the eight-kilometre climb to the top of Mogollon. Abbott’s team-mate Alisha Welsh took over the lead-out into the base of the climb and the peloton fell to pieces over the White Water Mesa, located before the steep lower portion of the final ascent.

Abbott took advantage of her lead out and launched her winning attack with approximately five kilometres to the top. She was followed at a distance by Welsh, Cheatley and Alison Powers (Vera Bradley Foundation). Further back, Mattis climbed at her own tempo keeping the leaders in close proximity.

“Cath’s not been racing very much yet this year and this is her first race, apart from the Road Runner Classic last weekend,” said the squad’s directeur sportif Rachel Heal. “Her form is unknown right now. Unfortunately, Carmen [Small] crashed at the bottom of the climb. Cath was our leading rider and her aim was to keep Mara contained as much as possible. She knew that going with Mara’s initial attack would blow her so she kept her own pace. Keeping Mara in sight was good.

“She had two riders with her and then Katheryn Mattis behind,” she added. “As they hit the steeper parts of the climb, Cath kept the pace on and managed to go clear of the two others on her own for second place. She was very close to the overall last year and we have a strong team here so we are definitely hope to support her in keeping a podium place.”

Abbott finished the climb with some two and half-minute margin ahead of Cheatley. As the climb steepened, Mattis picked up her pace and caught Welsh and Powers to take third place.

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