Tour of the Gila: Fischer wins downtown criterium

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Heather Fischer (Rally Cycling) sped to the stage win in the Tour of the Gila criterium, smashing her way through the peloton to top world time trial champion Linda Villumsen (UnitedHealthcare) and Emily Collins (Tibco-Silicon Valley Bank).

"It feels great to get the stage win," Fischer said. "It's my first UCI win, my first Tour of the Gila stage win, so it's a big deal. We've put a lot of teamwork into this week, and it's good to get two stage wins at the Tour of the Gila."

Fischer also moved back into the green jersey of best sprinter, and hopes to keep it to the end now. But it wasn't the top ambition of the day.

"The main goal today was for the stage win, I was allowed to go for the points if I was in the right position and didn't have to do too much work. We hope to defend the jersey tomorrow," she said.

On a cool, sunny day in downtown Silver City, the women set off for their 25-lap criterium, looking out for the three important intermediate time bonuses along the way. GC leader Mara Abbott (Amy D Foundation) and second placed Kristin Armstrong (Twenty 16-RideBiker) stayed near the front and out of trouble, letting the rest of the contenders fight for the final podium spot.

It was Brianna Walle (Tibco-Silicon Valley Bank) who was most aggressive, taking out time in the intermediate sprints to extend her overnight margin of six seconds on Rally's Jasmin Glaesser for third place in the overall classification.

"Our primarly goal is to secure the podium spot, and we definitely captured that today," Walle said. "I feel very confident. Tomorrow is going to be one of the hardest stages, but we have some great tricks in the bag, and we hope to secure the podium and go for the win."

The high pace, fuelled by a strong tailwind on the finishing straight, kept the peloton together at the front, although the week of racing at altitude took its toll at the back, with a number of riders dropping off the pace.

Tibco's Kiwi Joanne Kiesanowski led out the sprint for Collins, but Fischer refused to give ground. Despite a protest of irregular sprinting from the TIbco camp, Fischer was awarded Rally's second stage win of the week.

Abbott and Armstrong finished safely in the peloton to keep their positions at the top of the leaderboard, Armstrong at 2:12, while Walle brought her gap to Abbott down to 2:55 thanks to her time bonuses.

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