The banner year for 20-year-old Ella Sabo (Virginia’s Blue Ridge TWENTY28) kept on rolling Sunday with a surprising podium finish at the Philadelphia Cycling Classic p/b AmeriGas. She exhibited her maturity and "multi-faceted" racing skills to be part of a chasing group which caught a late breakaway and saved enough in the tank across three hilly circuits of Lemon Hill to sprint for third.
While two Women's WorldTour riders reached the finish line at Ben Franklin Parkway just a bike length sooner - Chiara Consonni (Canyon-SRAM) winning and Alexandra Volstad (EF Education-Oatly) going second - Sabo secured her best finish at a UCI one-day race. From the bunch sprint, she outpaced compatriot Kristen Faulkner (EF Education-Oatly) and three other WorldTour riders.
Her Continental team was one of four squads with only four riders at the race, and they had to start minus Marlies Mejías due to sickness. So Sabo had only Olivia Cummins, Sofía Arreola, and Kenna Pfeiffer for support, while other teams brought six riders each.
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"Coming into this week, we had to kind of shift gears pretty last minute with Marlies not feeling well, unfortunately, and so a bit of a last-minute change, and so it was a little stressful, I'll be honest, going into the race," Sabo told media, including Cyclingnews, at the finish.
"I mean, it's unreal. I feel like I'm still trying to soak it all in. I'm pinching myself."
The California native came into the restored Philly Classic, which had not been contested for the past 10 years, without personal knowledge of the tricky course, which included multiple passes of the 17% gradient of the Manayunk Wall. However, she had weapons based on experience from team staff - Shelley Olds, who was twice on the podium when the race was the Liberty Classic, and Giana Chilcott (nee Roberge), who directed the Saturn team to wins at the race. Also, Arreola most recently raced at the 2016 edition.
"She was like, it'll be a hard race, these girls want it," Sabo said about advice from Arreola. "They've been racing a different style of race that we're used to here in the U.S. We knew it was going to be aggressive, and we knew we were just going to have to be smart with what moves we followed."
Arreola had also told her teammates about the tough climb in the Manayunk neighbourhood, on the far side of the Philadelphia circuit with the tough pitch from the Schuylkill river.
"I had been working in training, doing like two and a half minute efforts, specifically for that climb. So going into it, knowing I had put in the work in preparation to get myself up and over it, and hopefully contest a sprint. It was really cool to [see it] pay off.
"Having a squad of four versus some of these squads of six, it was going to be a challenge. So she [Arreola] made sure that we all soaked it in - just take in the atmosphere that is the Philly Cycling Classic, enjoy the environment.
"That 'Wall', so many people cheering. It was so insane, so cool."
Last year, Sabo won the USPro U23 national championship in the road race and this year she took the stars-and-stripes jersey in the U23 criterium national championship. And just prior to racing in Philadelphia, she came away from her first USA Cycling Elite Track Championships event with three gold medals - two in U23 individual races and one in the elite Women's Team Pursuit.
The stakes were bigger for Sunday's international contest. A podium may have been a surprise to many people, but not to Nicola Cranmer, her team's executive director.
"In Philadelphia, Ella raced with tremendous patience. We only had four riders, and they did everything they could to keep her safe and in position until the final lap. From there, she was able to trust her instincts and race to the finish. She has a powerful sprint, and when the opportunity came, she really stepped up," Cranmer told Cyclingnews.
"Ella joined our team as a junior, and development takes patience. We’ve watched her make steady progress over the past few years, but this season she really came into her own with another level of confidence and maturity.
"Ella will remain with the team next year, and we’re really excited to see what she can do with even more opportunities."
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