Haedo, Barnes win Tour of the Gila criteriums

Lucas Sebastian Haedo (Jamis-Hagens Berman) scored an emphatic victory in the Tour of the Gila men's criterium, denying Drapac's Wouter Wippert the stage in a close-fought sprint. Eric Young (Optum), the race's points leader, was third.

Rafael Montiel (Orgullo Antioqueno) finished 13th on the stage to hold onto the race lead after his team controlled much of the 90-minute race, putting two seconds into Team SmartStop's Rob Britton, who is now at 24 seconds. The third place position on the overall changed hands, with Daniel Jaramillo (Jamis-Hagens Berman) grabbing a total of eight seconds worth of time bonuses to move over Optum's Phil Gaimon. He's now 54 seconds in arrears of Montiel.

It was Haedo's fourth win of the year after two stages of the Redlands Classic. The Argentinean, once a prolific winner in the states, was happy to quadruple the number of victories he's had over the past five seasons racing with Saxo Bank, Cannondale and last year SkyDive Dubai.

"I'm really happy to win again, and to have good legs this week. In the end I had a good wheel behind the Optum riders. Then two Unitedhealthcare riders went, and I was third coming into the last corner and jumped a little early, but I had good speed."

The race stayed largely together, with heat, altitude and wind conspiring to make life difficult and the race leader's Orgullo Antiqueno squad keeping most of the breakaways in check.

Hincapie's Robin Carpenter was awarded the most aggressive rider's jersey for his multiple, albeit futile, attacks, but said it was just too windy for anything to stick.

"The team plan was to get in a breakaway, preferably with two of us, but it proved to be difficult. The Colombians learned how to race crits really quickly. They got pretty good by the end.

There was a promising move with about 17 laps to go with a number of criterium specialists, including Bjorn Selander (Optum), Johnny Clarke (Unitedhealthcare), Jordan Kerby (Drapac), Kristofer Dahl (Smartstop), Walter Gaston (Jamis) and Chad Beyer (Superissimo), and Carpenter bridged across to it, but it didn't work.

Tom Zirbel (Optum) and Kerby, the top two riders in the time trial, launched a dangerous move with 7 laps to go, and stayed clear for several laps but when Jamis' Ben Jacques-Maynes came to the front to shut it down for Haedo, they quickly yielded. It was then up to the Argentinean to deliver, and he did, diving into the last corner and then leaving Wippert to fight for scraps.

The Dutch rider was very disappointed to miss out on his last probably chance for success here. "[Haedo] came under three guys in the last corner, with way more speed than we had. When I came out of the last corner I knew it was over and out," Wippert told Cyclingnews.

"The guy in front of me almost lost his bike, and I had to break a bit. I lost too much speed to get back for the win. I tried."

Wippert stunned the pro peloton when he took out a stage victory in the Tour Down Under in January, but the 24-year-old has been a consistent winner in Asia and Australia since joining Drapac in 2014. He admitted that following up that achievement has been challenging.

"When you start your year like that, the expectations are really high. The pressure is almost always a bit more then, but every race is separate from the other. It's always the goal to win. We try to do the best, and we will try to get the winning mood back in [Tour of] California."

Barnes tops crit as Abbott comes under attack

The UnitedHealthcare team pulled off its first victory of the Tour of the Gila in the women's race, with Great Britain's Hannah Barnes taking out the bunch sprint over Canadian champion Leah Kirchmann (Optum Pro Cycling). Alison Jackson (Twenty 16) was third, narrowly denying overall contender Lauren Stephens (Tibco-SVB) a time bonus which would move her closer to race leader Mara Abbott.

"It was a really hard crit, four days into an altitude stage race," Barnes said. "One-day crits are pretty straightforward for us, we've got those pretty dialled in, but stage race crits are more difficult. It was good to get a result - we haven't had a stage win this week yet, so it's good to finally get one."

Abbott's lead shrunk despite the hard work from her Amy D Foundation team. Stephens was able to claim an intermediate time bonus, taking third in the sprint to pull one second closer to dethroning the four-time Tour of the Gila winner. Stephens will go into the final stage just 8 seconds behind Abbott.

Meredith Miller, the Amy D team director said the team worked hard to keep Stephens from gaining time in the intermediate sprints. "Amanda [Miller - no relation -ed.] did an awesome job to keep Lauren from winning the intermediate sprint, even winning it herself, but we don't have a sprinter here for the finish, and Lauren is a good finisher, so we were just counting on the other teams to be eager for the stage win.

"Mara and the whole team will have to be on their toes tomorrow and put Mara into a position to do what she does best."

With her third place on the stage, Jackson claimed the green points jersey over Annie Ewart (Optum), while the mountains and young rider classifications remained the same, with Abbott and Glaesser leading, respectively.

With warm weather, a stiff headwind on the uphill section of the course and three hard days of racing behind them, neither race could get a breakaway clear. UnitedHealthcare's Scotti Wilborne had the longest breakaway in the women's race, staying clear for two laps inside the final 10km, but Stephens' Tibco squad were keen to put her into a position to get in the time bonuses, and Optum was after the stage win. UnitedHealthcare's Linda Villumsen countered her move, and had a solid gap but mistook the bell lap for the finish and sat up to celebrate at the line.

Optum's Brianne Walle attacked and nearly pulled off the stage win, forcing Unitedhealthcare to burn up their riders with Barnes having to put in the final effort to catch her.

"Bree went with a lap to go, which put a stick in the works," Barnes explained. "Then Lauren took a really good turn for me into the second to last corner, but she wasn't bringing it back. She swung off and I had to do the last bit. I couldn't breathe, and then Leah came past me and I managed to jump on her wheel and just get past her at the finish."

Kirchmann admitted that she jumped too early, and was disappointed to have missed such a strong opportunity for a win. "Bree was off the front until the final turn, forcing UHC to chase, and as we caught her I launched my sprint. I went too early, but that's how it goes sometimes. We were looking for the stage win, we've been trying to animate the race all week, but we have a good crit squad and I'm the sprinter, so this stage was a target."

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