Two-in-a-row for Amanda Miller

Amanda Miller (Hudz-Subaru) soloed to her second consecutive victory in front of her hometown fans at the UCI Carousel Volkswagen Jingle Cross Rock 3 on Sunday. The Iowa native out-dueled Meredith Miller (Cal Giant-Specialized) on the last lap to take the win. Amanda Miller's teammate Nicole Duke round out the podium in third place.

"My friends and family were out all weekend and I know a lot of the local people because I grew up close to here," Amanda Miller said. "It was really cool to come back and race and hear your name all over the course. It was nice to win two races for them but I wasn't expecting that at all because there was some tough competition here. It was really great racing and having the crowd here gave me a little more motivation."

The Carousel Volkswagen Jingle Cross weekend wrapped up with a hard-fought Elite women's race. Former downhill and slalom racer Nicole Duke opened the race with a significant lead barreling into the first challenging section of the circuit, a series of figure eights and down a version of the gnarly descent that caused havoc in the first round on Friday night.

"It was a similar descent but rerouted a little bit," Miller said. "Nicole had a big gap on Meredith and I. But since she is my teammate I let Meredith do most of the work to pull."

Amanda Miller rode in second position trying to make it across to her teammate. Not too far behind rode the powerful Meredith Miller and the previous day's podium finisher Devon Haskell (Bike Station Aptos).

Meredith Miller's fast-paced chase was enough to rid Haskell. She successfully made contact with Amanda Miller who proved to be a winning contender the previous day. The pair caught and passed Duke over the steep pitches of the unforgiving Mt. Krumpit and gained an almost immediate 25-second margin.

"There were a couple of sections that were more powerful and less technical, especially because it was pretty windy here," Miller said. "I was able to let her pull back Nicole and when she did I attacked into a technical section and opened up a small gap. The climb was the same as Friday, not as hard as yesterday's. I'm known as a climber on the road so that helped me establish my gap."

Much like the previous day's attack, Amanda Miller picked up the pace over the ascent and through the technical sections gaining several seconds on each lap. Her efforts forced Meredith Miller to burn matches chasing to catch back up.

"Meredith crashed right before one lap to go," Miller said. "There were a couple of technical sections where I opened up gaps and she was able to close them down on the powerful sections. But unfortunately on her last crash the course tape blew into her."

Meredith Miller's crash on the last lap resulted in a 15-second deficit. Amanda Miller did not take her lead for granted and pushed hard all the way to the line for her second solo victory of the weekend.