Manuel Senni wins Colorado Classic

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BMC's Manuel Senni wrapped up the overall title at the Colorado Classic on Sunday, finishing safely as the pack sprinted across the stage 4 finish line in Denver with Mihkel Räim (Israel Cycling Academy) nabbing the stage.

Raim's stage win survived a protest from Nippo - Vini Fantini's Marco Canola, who complained after the finish that Raim had deviated to his right in the sprint and boxed the Italian in. The race jury reviewed the video of the finale and upheld Raim's result. UnitedHealthcare's Travis McCabe earned runner-up honours on the day with Alfredo Rodríguez (Elevate-KHS Pro Cycling) taking third and Canola in fourth.

"I've tried many times in Europe and here in the states and been so close. I'm very happy it's finally come," Raim said, before addressing Canola's protest. "I stayed on the straight line, I didn't move from that path. Marco tried to come on the right but there was no space.

"For me, this is for sure the biggest victory in my career, and for the team also. We are very happy. This helps us to have more sponsors and people know our team more. We aren't just a cycling team, we are something else. It's an Israeli team, but we have so many different nationalities in the team and we're like a big family. It doesn't matter where you're from."

For BMC, the order of the day was simply keeping the race under control and keeping Senni upright within the peloton. With the race finishing in a sprint and Senni safe in the pack, it was mission accomplished for the American team and Italian rider, who eked out a top 10 result in the final kick for good measure.

"The team rode for me all day and I was still in the front in the last kilometer to stay out of trouble and take no risk, so I could even do the sprint," Senni said. "I finished tenth, which was enough to keep the jersey. It was perfect.

"It's really great, to win here with so many people on the roads and so friendly, it's something special.

"For me this is an important victory that gives me a lot of morale for the rest of the season and next year. It is important for a rider to win a race, because after it changes something in your mind and gives you the morale."

McCabe wrapped up the sprint classification, having finished on the stage podiums a frustrating three times without netting a victory. "I'm definitely happy winning the sprint jersey. It shows the consistency I have, and I feel like I rode great all week long," McCabe said. "The form was great coming off Utah. But I am disappointed to not come away with a win. Two seconds and a third is great, but when you don't win it's a little bittersweet."

How it unfolded

The final stage of the Colorado Classic in downtown Denver – just 10 laps of an 11-kilometre circuit – was quite a bit more controlled and predictable than the previous two stages. The breakaway went clear on the first lap of the bumpy, technical loop, with Antonio Molina (Caja Rural), Fabio Calabria (Novo Nordisk) and Ruben Companioni (Holowesko-Citadel) being joined by Christopher Blevins (Axeon Hagens Berman).

The quartet came together and quickly gained time as they sped through City Park, ending the first lap with almost a minute. With UnitedHealthcare's Gavin Mannion almost single handedly controlling the gap, the leaders gained 1:45 as their maximum gap on the third lap, at the end of which Blevins took the intermediate sprint bonus.

The gap had come down to 1:30 at the second sprint, as Trek-Segafredo and BMC started contributing to the chase. Campanioni led the breakaway across the line for the second sprint, but even with the time bonus, the Cuban – best placed in the breakaway at 15:59 – was no threat to Senni's overall lead.

With three laps to go, Jelly Belly began to help out, bringing the gap back down to 1:15, and the increased manpower in the peloton continued to help steadily decrease the leader's advantage over the next laps.

Molina took the sprint bonus with two laps to go over Campanioni while in the peloton behind Cannondale-Drapac lost Will Clarke to a crash in a turn, but there was no time to wait as the pursuit of the breakaway was in full flight with 22 kilometres remaining.

When the gap had come down to 40 seconds, Campanioni launched his move, leaving his companions behind with a 21-kilometre individual pursuit ahead of him. Molina waited a moment but then made his own attack to go across to the Holowesko rider, and succeeded before they reached the feed zone, where Campanioni picked up an ice sock to help cool him in the sweltering conditions.

Calabria and Blevins rapidly lost ground and then were picked up by the peloton with 18.2 kilometers to go. Campanioni and Molina pressed on with a 30 second advantage, but they too were swept up as Trek-Segafredo began to ramp up the pace for Reijnen.

By the time Campanioni led across the line for one lap to go, the peloton had the pair in their sights, sweeping them up in short order to set up the final kick.

Trek-Segafredo, Israel Cycling Academy and UnitedHealthcare battled for position coming onto the final straight with UnitedHealthcare the last team with a lead-out man at the front. McCabe was the first of the contenders to launch but Raim came around quickly and surged to the front.

Canola tried to pull past on Raim's right but ran out of room, immediately throwing up his arms in protest. Raim held on for the win.

"I was faster than [Raim] but I was on the right side and I couldn't go on the left. At the start of the sprint I was on the right side but [whoever] was in front did not take the straight line. I had to stop and did the last 80 metres without pedaling," Canola said. "It was frustrating for me because I knew today was a good chance."

The jury deemed Raim's sprint legal, solidifying the result, with Canola settling for fourth.

"The final was really hectic because there were two corners and a long finishing straight," Raim said. "I lost my lead-out guys at some point. It wasn't good to lose them because I can always count on them. I think tactically I made a good choice - I let Travis McCabe's lead out pass me, and I knew Travis was also coming from behind. I just stuck on his wheel and when he launched the sprint I was waiting two or three seconds then started my sprint. That's how Canola started to come on the right a little bit. I closed the door on the right side like every sprinter has to do. It was just pure legs."

Senni rolled home 10th to wrap up the overall title.

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