Amgen Women's Race: Kendall Ryan wins opener in Elk Grove

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Kendall Ryan (Team Tibco-Silicon Valley Bank) took her first-ever UCI Women's WorldTour victory in Elk Grove, California, by winning stage 1 of the Amgen Women's Race on Thursday.

The 25-year-old won the sprint ahead of Emma White (Rally Cycling) and Annette Edmondson (Wiggle High5), and also takes the overall lead in the three-stage event.

Starting and finishing in Elk Grove, the 124km stage wound its way through the flat Central Valley of California. Absolutely no climbs and only very little wind meant that a bunch sprint was all but guaranteed.

This did not stop riders from attacking, though. The first to get away was Liza Rachetto (Hagens Berman-Supermint) who was caught after a few kilometres. The duo of Ingrid Drexel (Team Tibco-Silicon Valley Bank) and Rachetto's teammate Starla Teddergreen were next, and got a gap of up to 30 seconds, but were also quickly reeled in.

In the following kilometres, the pace picked up, stretching the peloton out into single file. Lisa Morzenti (BePink) got away only a few kilometres before the half-way point, and was joined by Whitney Allison (Hagens Berman-Supermint). These two worked together well, and the peloton was seemingly happy to leave them out-front. Fifty kilometres from the finish, the front duo were 1:10 ahead as the sprinters' teams started to organise the chase behind.

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Morzenti won the intermediate sprint with 33km to go and then dropped back to the peloton, leaving Allison to continue by herself. The peloton was only 30 seconds behind at this point. Although the Hagens Berman Supermint rider would increase her advantage to 40 seconds with 25km to go, she stood no chance against the chasing pack and was caught with nine kilometres to go. Allison was, however, rewarded in the form of the blue 'most courageous rider' jersey.

Team Sunweb brought their sprinter Coryn Rivera into the finishing straight with one teammate still ahead of her. White opened up with a strong acceleration on the left side of the road, forcing Rivera to react. With the finish in sight, Ryan came out of White's slipstream, passed her with ease, and took the win. Edmondson slipped past Rivera on the right to take third.

Ryan leads the race going into Friday's stage 2, but the sprinter will find it difficult to defend her yellow jersey as the climbers come to the fore on the 108km route starting and finishing in South Lake Tahoe.

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