Tour of the Gila: Marlies Mejias Garcia wins stage 2 as Stephens retains race lead

Marlies Mejias Garcia (Virginia's Blue Ridge Twenty24) scored a repeat victory on stage 2 of the Tour of the Gila, winning stage 2 to Fort Bayard much in the manner she did last year.

The Cuban rider out-paced Yanina Kuskova (Tashkent City) and race leader Lauren Stephens (Cynisca) in the reduced bunch sprint to retain the red jersey.

Earlier in the stage, Anet Barrera (DNA Pro Cycling) went on the attack, as did Céclie Lejeune (Steve Tilford Foundation), Kuskova and Emily Erlich (Virginia's Blue Ridge Twenty 24), but the race came back together after the first two climbs.

Elizabeth Dixon (Fount Cycling) staged a late attack before the final classified climb and built up a lead of almost two minutes before being caught with just 3km to go.

The action for elite women on stage 2 for the Inner Loop Road Race p/b Brian & Lynn Robinson/SW Bone & Joint Institute began at Fort Bayard, established in 1866 to protect settlers moving to southwest New Mexico. 

Using a clockwise loop that crossed the Continental Divide twice, the women's peloton traversed 74.1 miles (119.3km) across 6,103 feet (1,860 metres) of elevation gain, the uphill finish line for the women coming 2.1 miles before the end of the men’s race. The route provided three category 3 QOM’s - mile 11.6 mile (18.7km), mile 20.2 (32.5km) and mile 63.9 (102.8km) - plus two intermediate sprints, at mile 5.7 and then mile 41.5.

Results

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