Allison rules women's category for second year at Belgian Waffle Ride Utah

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Whitney Allison (Bike Sports) duplicated her solo victory in Cedar City last year and won a second title at Belgian Waffle Ride Utah on Saturday. She had a flat tyre on a single track section of the course that gave her a scare, but she secured another solo effort in 6 hours, 57 minutes and 36 seconds. 

Cecily Decker (Montana State Cycling), riding her first season with elite fields in gravel races, finished more than 16 minutes later in second. She started her gravel campaign as a pro, after having raced with the US ski team, with a third place finish in the GC at Rebecca's Private Idaho off-road stage race. 

Nadia Gontova (Red Truck Racing p/b Mosaic Homes) rolled across the line 20 minutes later in third, holding off Flavia Oliveira Parks (Excel Sports p/b Groove) who was another two minutes back in fourth.

“Last year I ended up alone for almost 70 miles which is very lonely. I feel like the bike race is already hard enough. So having some other people to suffer with is really nice,” Allison said at the finish.

The Queen of the Mountain title went to Allison for a second time in two years, as well as Queen of the Dirt and Queen of the Sprint titles, amassing  best times at a trio of intermediate points in each classification. Decker was second in the Mountain and Dirt classifications, while Gontova was second in the Sprint.

Allison raced professionally on the road from 2013 to 2019 for Colavita Pro Cycling Team and Hagens Berman Supermint Pro Cycling Team and has focused on gravel the past two years. Last year she had top fives at Unbound Gravel 200 and SBT GRVL, then took the solo win at Belgian Waffle Ride Utah more than seven minutes ahead of Lindsay Goldman. 

This year she knew how to handle the course. All the men started in waves a few minutes prior to the women on the Waffle route, ,followed by the women and then all the Wafer riders (79 mile route). The Wafer riders followed the Waffle course for the first 58 miles, so there was lots of dust on a dry day.

Rolling north from Cedar City, the first 13 miles covered undulating roads past LIttle Salt Lake to the first QOM and KOM point, that covered three miles of deep ruts and rocky surface with tricky spots. The top three were already established, Allison 15 seconds ahead of Decker to take the top time and Gontova was third.

Once the course turned west and then south, passing through single track of the Three Peaks MTB park with an interlude of groomed berms and bridges, the Waffle riders headed to the midway point and a second QOM/KOM, Allison getting more time on her chasers.

From the feed zone at mile 106, it was three miles up the “Muur van Kanarraberg”, a hellacious climb and final QOM/KOM with 13-14% gradients on washboard path on Kanarra Mountain, the sand not allowing for firm traction. By this section Allison was well on her way to a repeat victory.