Women's Tour of California: Guarnier wins hilltop finish at Heavenly Mountain Resort

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Boels Dolmans set up Megan Guarnier perfectly for the win on a steep uphill finish at the first stage of the Amgen Women's Tour of California. Guarnier followed teammate Evelyn Stevens into the final corner and sprinted ahead of Emma Johansson (Wiggle High5) and Kristin Armstrong (Twenty16-Bikerider ) for the win.

"Chantal [Blaak] and Karol Ann [Canuel] attacked from the bottom and then from there the pace was high," Guarnier said. "Evie attacked, and then I went over Evie."

Racing started with an early attack from Lindsay Bayer (Hagens Berman-Supermint) wh reeled which was reeled back before the first QOM atop Emerald Bay Summit. Sara Poidevin (Rally Cycling) narrowly beat out Mara Abbott (Wiggle High5) to the top of Emerald Bay Summit to take an early lead in the Lexus Queen of the Mountain competition.

"I was going to set myself up to fight for the jersey so I got to the front with 1 km to go," Poidevin said. "There were a few of us going for it and it was a good fight right to the line with Mara."

Sarah Storey (Podium Ambition) was originally targeting the QOM competition but found herself too far back to make a run at the points on offer at Emerald Bay. Storey, annoyed with herself for the lapse, decided to attack and formed the major breakaway of the day. It was deja vu for Storey who was involved in a similar breakaway in last years stage around Lake Tahoe.

Storey stayed away for over 80 km and drove the break up to over five minutes, but with 25 KM to go the peloton picked up the chase. Storey struggled as the wind picked up and the big European teams started to chase.

"I kept thinking if the 10 km per minute is going to work on this one," Storey said. "But obviously that headwind to the finish, down the descent where there are some kickers as well, really, really got me."

Wind and altitude played a large role in today's race with 40-60 kpm gusts blowing steadily throughout the day. As riders passed the north end of Lake Tahoe waves reached heights of over a meter, and surfers could be seen by cyclists as they passed the shore. Combined with the altitude the wind made for a stressful day out on the road.

"It was super windy out there," Hannah Barnes (Canyon-SRAM) said. "I just swells, there's not a clear direction where it's coming from, it's just everywhere. It made it a pretty hard race and at times dangerous because it was just so strong."

The peloton started back south towards the finish and Boels Dolmans took control, quickly eating up Storey's lead. The effort used up more bullets than the top WorldTour team would liked.

"We didn't purposefully give her a lot of a lead," Guarnier said. "She was super strong and it was a really great ride by her, but it did put a lot of pressure on us at the end of the day. The girls sacrificed a lot to bring that back."

The peloton caught Storey with about 10 km to the finish. Boels-Dolmans took a breather allowing TIBCO-SVB and Rally Cycling an opportunity to take control of the front in support of their GC hopefuls. Boels-Dolmans took control in the final kilometers showing why they have won five of the last seven Women's WorldTour races.

Guarnier sprinted up the final climb to beat Emma Johansson by four seconds. Kristin Armstrong showed excellent road racing form with a third place finish 10 seconds behind Guarnier.

"Being in the good position I was is a credit to my team," Armstrong said. "Once we got to the climb the job was mine and I had to be really patient. I kept hearing 'patience' in the radio and it's not my forte to be patient. Typically I'm the first one off and the first one dropped.

"So today I learned something new. It's funny because people might think I'm experienced enough not to learn anything new but every time I race I learn something new. Today it was patience."

Guarnier lives in Northern California during her off season and goes into Friday's team time trial with a strong local following, the yellow jersey, and one of the world's strongest teams behind her. The Boels Dolmans team has thrown down the gauntlet and will be fighting hard in the coming day for their sixth WorldTour win of the year.

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