Samplonius takes final stage in Aspen

Anne Samplonius (Now-Novartis for MS) won the finale criterium at the Aspen Women's Pro Race. She outpaced a late-race breakaway that included Kristin Armstrong (Peanut Butter & Co Twenty12) in second. Lauren Hall (Colavita-Forno D'Asolo) won the bunch sprint for third place. Armstrong's teammate Kristin McGrath, who was also the breakaway, hung on for fourth place.

"It was awesome to get a win here because the crowds were great and hats off to Jessica Phillips for putting this race on," Samplonius said. "It was fantastic for women's racing and I hope next year it becomes bigger and better with more numbers on the line. It was a fantastic race."

Armstrong won the overall title at the inaugural three-day omnium event. She took over the leader's jersey following her stage two circuit race victory in Snowmass and maintain her lead through the final criterium in Aspen.

The final stage of the Aspen Women's Pro Race offered a technical 11-corner criterium that included a hill each lap. The race was held in downtown Aspen and finished prior to the Pro men's USA Pro Cycling Challenge on the same finish line.

Armstrong started the stage in the leader's jersey with a six-point lead ahead of runner up Janel Holcomb (Colavita-Forno D'Asolo) who was tied for points with stage one winner McGrath.

"Colavita was being aggressive," said Amanda Miller (HTC-Highroad). "It was an aggressive crit and the altitude was killing everybody and it was a tough course. The hill didn't look hard but it was. There were lots of attacks and a big split in the group with about 15 girls for a while."

"Our team didn't have such a good race yesterday because the altitude got to us and so we were trying to go for a stage win today," she said. "We were being aggressive and having fun. We were here to race our bikes, have fun, did lots of attacking."

During the closing laps, Colavita-Forno D'Asolo launched several attacks that were quickly followed by Armstrong and either Samplonius or her teammate and US National Road Champion Robin Farina.

"It was just me and Robin and we were out-numbered," Samplonius said. "The altitude was good for me because I live in Boulder but Robin struggled with it. We were conservative and picked our moments to go. We waited until the end because this course wears on you, uphill and finishing stretch was tough."

Armstrong attacked with two laps to go and Samplonius and McGrath bridged across. McGrath did much of the work to drive the breakaway. Samplonius sprinted around the pair of teammates through the final technical corners to take the stage win ahead of Armstrong.

Hall launched herself out of the field and passed McGrath at the line for third place. Colavita-Forno D'Asolo was pleased with its performance this week after placing one rider on the podium each day.

"With the crowds here today we wanted to put on a big show and make it a great race," said DS Rachel Heal. "All four were attacking right from the start of the race. Stuff would go for a short amount of time and get brought back. It was a tough race out here with the altitude and it being a small but strong bunch. We got three podiums in three days so we are happy with the race."

Kristin Sanders (Colavita-Forno D'Asolo) placed sixth ahead of Amanda Miller and Emilia Fahlin (HTC-Highroad), Erica Allar (Ride Clean p/b Patentit.com), Robin Farina (Now-Novartis for MS) and Tiffany Pezzulo (Primal-MapMyRide).

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